I’m all packed and ready to go! Tomorrow we fly out and head off on our holiday to Cairns for the week!! I’m very excited as this will probably be our last holiday for a little while.

It’s actually quite funny, I’ve never really been to Cairns as such… the last time I was in Cairns I was actually in my mum’s belly when she was pregnant with me!! So we are following the same tradition taking Addison to Cairns in the same way hehe .

So now all I have to do is try and get a good nights rest, which might be a little hard since I’m so excited. So my posts will be quiet of course for next week, however I will catch up and back date my posts letting you know everything that goes on while I’m away on holidays, once I’m back.

Last night we had our second antenatal class. This weeks class was focused on pain relief, both natural and the various forms offered by the hospital, including epidural. The midwife also discussed birthing positions and continued on from last weeks discussions on what to expect during labour.

We watched the end of the birthing video which showed the birth of a baby. Charles was fine with the video but I don’t think he enjoyed it . They also passed around a couple of the medical items used for pain relief, such as the way the “happy gas” or “laughing gas” (Nitrous Oxide) is delivered to the patient and the needles used for an epidural and local anesthetic.

Comfort in labour was also discussed and we were shown different techniques and some of the items available to us at the hospital to help us be as comfortable as possible. We were shown techniques for using items such as the birthing ball and birthing stool. There are also heat bags and massaging tools available when in labour.

After everything discussed we have decided to try and avoid having an epidural. I understand that not everything goes according to plan in labour however it is always suggested to have some sort of birthing plan.

I always thought it was silly to have a birthing plan but at the end of the day everyone has different opinions on what they do and don’t want for the birth of their baby, which basically equals a birthing plan! I guess I always just thought a birthing plan was for those that wanted to do things a little different and not give birth in a hospital. But being full informed and researching all aspects of labour you soon find out how many choices you actually have to make. 

After hearing all the options for pain relief I’ve decided to do this the natural way and simply use the happy gas where needed. I don’t like a lot of the risks involved with some of the other pain relief and want to do what is best for Addison. I will also use heat packs and massage to help, plus hot water and showers. At least now I have a better idea of what I want for labour, we will just see how everything goes on the day!

From now on I’m not going to be posting my measurements as that will make it far too easy for those that are attending my baby shower to guess the size of my baby belly for one of the games we will be playing!

I will of course however continue to post the photo each week, so here you have it, my baby belly photo for 29 weeks of pregnancy.

Baby Belly Photo for 29 Weeks Pregnant

I had to giggle this morning when I received an email from my friend Bec (also due 28th October with her baby girl Ruby)… she had sent me a picture of her tummy and the subject line was “Bec’s Huge Belly!” – it just goes to show that everyone is different and all develop differently. Where Bec is larger than I am, my friend Belinda who is 32 weeks pregnant (4 weeks ahead of us) only has 1 cm larger in tummy size to me!! I can safely say she is all baby!

As my OB said the other day at our appointment, he would never try to guess how far along a pregnant woman was just book eyeballing them. You can never tell! I’m proud of my belly and can’t wait for our pregnancy photo shoot that we are having in the first week of October. These sure will be very special photos I will treasure forever.

The weeks just seem to be flying by now. Next week I will be 30 weeks and that means the count down is on! but remember I will be away on holiday next week so my posts may be a little delayed… I do however promise to catch up when I am back.

The last couple of nights have been a little rough, I don’t know exactly why but my sleep has been very restless and so has Addi’s. I have noticed a lot of movement from the cheeky little monkey which makes it very difficult for me to rest. I have been managing to catch up on some missed sleep during the morning, but unfortunately that puts me behind on all the other things that I try to accomplish during the day!

I’m hoping for a good couple of nights rest before we go to Cairns. Since we are flying I won’t be able to take my body pillow, so I really hope that I will manage to get some rest without it. I’m going to have to just use regular pillows to support my tummy, and hope that it is enough to get a good nights sleep.

Yet again, I’ve been feeling a little sick in the mornings (today especially) which is making me more and more nervous for the plane trip to Cairns! Fingers crossed I’ll be fine and make it there without being sick on the plane, that sure will be a new experience for me!

We have our second antenatal class tonight which I’m looking forward to. Unfortunately we will miss next weeks but will get all the reading information so we can catch up on anything important that we need to know. We are watching the remainder of the birthing video tonight, hopefully Charlie will be ok .

Today I have a busy day ahead of working on more things for the baby shower, focusing on the finishing touches for the thank you favours (my guests certainly will be spoilt at this baby shower). I’m attempting to get everything organised this week so that when we come back from holidays we can focus on painting the remainder of our house before the shower! Wish us luck, it’s a big job but I think between the two of us we can get it done. And before you all start on me, yes I will take it easy and go at a steady pace and not over do myself!! Plus never fear, I get all the easy jobs such as sitting on my bottom doing the skirting boards hehe.

I received an email today from my mother in-law which in her words “thought it might help you to prepare for the big day to know what to expect!”

It was too funny not to share with you all, so here it is!

The ‘Middle Wife’ by an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher

I’ve been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself,but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second grade classroom a few years back.

When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell
is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they’re welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater.
She holds up a snapshot of an infant. ‘This is Luke, my baby brother, and I’m going to tell you about his birthday.’

‘First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom’s stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella
cord.’

She’s standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I’m trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.

‘Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, ‘Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!’ Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. ‘She walked around the house for, like an hour, ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ (Now this kid is doing a  hysterical duck walk and groaning.) ‘ My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn’t have a sign on the car like the Domino’s man. They got my Mom to lie down in bed like this.’ (Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.)

‘And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!’
(This kid has her legs spread with her little hands mimicking water flowing away. It was too much!)

‘Then the middle wife starts saying ‘push, push,’ and ‘breathe, breathe. They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom’s play-center, (placenta) so there must be a lot of toys inside there. When he got out, the middle wife spanked him for crawling up in there.’

Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I’m sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it’s show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another ‘ Middle Wife’ comes along.

If you loved my last birdie door hanger, I  know you are going to just adore my latest creation. Inspired from the same person as the birdie door hanger, over the last few days I have been working on my own version and replica of a name door hanger including flowers, leaves, birds and owls. I’ve finally finished the hanger and have put it up on the cupboard door in Addison’s bedroom.

Bird and Owl Name Door Hanger

 This is probably one of the most complicated felt creations I have made. I added my own little touches to this project by including Lissylane felt and button flowers, mixing it up with leaves so that it wasn’t too girly. I used both a bird and owl to match in with the bedroom theme, and just love the little lady beetle!

Instead of putting his full name like I did for his bedroom door hanger, I have put his little nickname instead. I have also tried to keep the colours more boy friendly and think that I have succeeded. As you can see all the little birds, flowers and leaves are attached to a tree branch, and have been hung using matching brown ribbon.

Now, before you ask, yes I do have a pattern that I used to make the bird, owl and branch however I’m yet to scan and put it together as a pdf for download. I will of course get to this soon enough and will endeavour to put up a page on My First Baby where everyone can easily access all of the patterns I’ve used to make all of the arts and crafts you may have seen feature on the blog over the last few months.

In addition to the door hanger I made a matching little bird to hang on the door knob of the cupboard door.

Bird with Love Letter

This little blue bird is carrying a love letter and has a cute little heart in his beak. I thought this birdie was perfect to match the door hanger. Once again I will put the pdf pattern for this bird up at the same time as the door hanger. This bird is very similar to the birds made for the bedroom door hanger, just a mini version.

I hope you like my latest felt creations, I certainly had a good time making them!

We have been waiting for 3 weeks for our carpet to be installed, needless to say I was getting seriously sick of the piles of furniture all over my house. But last Thursday our carpet was finally installed in the two bedrooms and it is just so soft and squishy. We love it!! It looks great and is so refreshing to have the rooms looking like new. The old carpet had some serious stains and for there to be brand new carpet in the rooms, makes such a difference.

The rooms have finally been put back together, and all the furniture back in place. The spare bedroom is organised with a new bookshelf which helped to clean out all of the books that were still in the cupboards for Addison’s room. This has made way for all his toys and things.

Spare Bedroom / Lissy's Space with New Carpet!

We have also put his free standing cupboard and drawers into the room, sorting and moving all of his clothes into the drawers. It is all very organised. (I’ll put a photo up of this soon once I get the room looking a little more tidy).

We are slowly working out the positioning of furniture for his room, but we still have a little way to go before it is ready. All in good time. The main thing is, the cot is back in one piece and the space is there for any additional pieces of furniture we need. The pram is folded up in his cupboard and the nappy stacker is full and ready for his arrival.

Little Snapshot of Addi's Bedroom with New Carpet

We still have the problem of where to put all of his soft toys however I think I have come across the perfect piece of furniture to solve this problem. We had initially thought about putting shelves up in the corner of the room, although realised this was not going to be suitable. I found a dark chocolate brown set of book shelves that also have a toy/blanket box down the bottom, as soon as we can we will buy one of these and fill it up with lots of fun things for Addi.

Today Belinda had her baby shower and it sure was a great day! I went along with my mum, we played lots of games and had some very tasty food. Belinda received many wonderful gifts for her baby ‘Tiger,’ plus we got to have a little look in the baby’s room too.

I actually won the first game that we played which was baby bingo. No one actually got bingo but I was the only one that was one short of winning so was awarded a prize! There was a bag of wrapped gifts to choose from and appropriately I picked out this little one: a Cute as a Button soap.

Cute as a Button Soap

When there was only a handful of people left we decided to play one little game that we ran out of time for during the baby shower that involved guessing the baby food. Belinda still had lots of little prizes left over and gave us one each. My second little gift was this adorable lily bookmark, very handy to use in my breastfeeding naturally book.

Lily Bookmark

 We both had lots of fun and are really looking forward to my baby shower that isn’t too far away!

Tomorrow my mum and I are attending my friend Belinda’s baby shower!! So today I thought I would spruce myself up a little and had my hair cut and coloured. I’m looking a little less drab now and have a brand new do for the party.

Belinda must be getting very excited now as she is finishing up work soon and will be packing her hospital bag in preparation for the arrival of her baby. She is keeping the gender of her baby (Tiger – since bub will be born in the Chinese year of the Tiger – very clever nickname I think) a surprise until the birth. I’m sure she can’t wait to find out if they will be welcoming a little boy or girl to the family.

Belinda's Baby Shower Gift

Belinda and her husband Ross have just bought a new house as well, which is where the baby shower will be held, so I can’t wait to see their new home too. I’m sure it will be a fun filled day, I just hope that she will be ok to come to my own shower; after all she will be 37 weeks pregnant by that stage!

My doctor confirmed that I was in the all clear today at my appointment for my second glucose tolerance test. So needless to say I’m very happy that the test results are negative for gestational diabetes. I guess the three blood tests in 2 hours were worth it after all!!

Addison was again head down, which is good and Dr Bopp was happy with his progress. From now on we will see the him every two weeks except of course the next appointment as we will be in Cairns on our holiday!!!

We also had our first antenatal class at the hospital last night which was a bit of fun but very informative as well. The midwife Charlene talked to us mostly about labour, the signs and what to do when contractions start. She also ran through when to call the hospital and how to approach different situations that may arise.

There were quite a few couples at the class, all at varying stages of pregnancy. We were actually only one of three couples that are at 28 weeks, and at a guess I think we might be the youngest couple there.

Everyone was very friendly and we had a great time with the ice-breaker games. It was very interesting when we split into two groups, all the men and all the women. Both groups then wrote down what we thought the positives, negatives and interesting things were about pregnancy… let’s just say the boys and girls lists were very different!

I’m looking forward to next week, however I’m not sure how Charles will go as we are watching a birthing video at the beginning of the class!!