What say?

Anakin was lying on the bedroom floor practising his handwriting yesterday arve and I was lounging on the bed doing a crossword when I said to him hopefully "Your little brother might decide to come out one day soon". The next clue I had was 18 down: Late. Answer: Overdue. And then directly after that 23 across: Greatly. Answer: Very. Grrhh!! I can't stand the thought!

On the contrary I had regular crampy period-pain contractions that kept me up most of the night last night. Greg took the morning off to look after Anakin so I could go to another anti-natal appointment. Saw the midwife briefly. I'm still 63 kilo's - the same as 2 weeks ago. I guess Babyboy is sucking up all that butter I ate while hosting another of my morning teas for the girls yesterday. And all the dairy whip and maple syrup I eat on my pancakes on a regular bases. She didn't mention my blood pressure so I guess it was good. Then they sent me on to the doctor, news I met with a slight rolling of the eyes and a "I'm sure that's going to be really productive". Way to get everyone off side! He saw me for a total of about 2 minutes. I asked about my blood test results which he said were "all good". (Same very insightful report he gave me for my ultrasound scan.) I hopped up on to the examination table and instantly had a big BH tightening, giving my belly a angular warp, then he took a measurement of Bubby's head and told me it corresponded with a baby of 39 weeks and that he wouldn't be surprised if he came anyday now. That news would make me really hopeful, if I could actually trust the guy knew what he was talking about.

After my appointment I went and shouted myself some new bras, a maternity singlet and a new pair of jarmie pants - all heavily reduced I might add. Don't know why I'm such a die hard op-shopper at times?? It's so hard for me to track down a decent bra (in my opinion that means no underwire and no synthetic fabric, so... pretty limiting). But a couple days ago on the way up to Mum's to pick up some fruit, I'd warned Greg that I'd need to spent some money on new bras next time I was out, soon as I arrived Mum was like "I wanted to show you these." and pulled out these perfect cotton sports bra's! So she'd already done the sourcing and I new exactly where to go for them. We've been in tune like that lately.

Anakin won't let me out of his sight these days. He watched a tiny bit of The Grinch a week or so ago and it's totally messed with his mind. He won't go outside on his own, or even play in a different room of the house. We've tried so hard to undo the damage. We showed him pictures of Jim Carrey on the internet so he could see the dude that plays the character. Looked at other Dr Zeuss stories and explained him as the author of the book, the movie originated from. Explained to him that even if it was real, The Grinch is a Hoo and Hooville is a tiny speck on a clover on Mt Newl. Etc, etc. But now he's become paranoid about a whole plethora of other stuff. We take him to the toilet at night and he makes me check first that there's no giant guinea pigs popping their heads up at the window, then he worries he's going to fall in the loo with his poo! I tried to teach him to say "An irrational phobia" but it was a bit too much for him to wrap his tongue around.

Come on down!

Spent the day out visiting my cloistered-rainforest-dwelling father, so as a result Greg's crashed out on the couch after too many home-brews and Anakin's fast asleep after a day in the bush. I should be getting an early night too. Last night was a shocker! Total insomnia set in once again, at least I've had a few really restful nights lately after claiming Anakin's bed all to myself - the best ever mattress in the world!

I had a moment of clarity last night and decided, at the risk I've really crushing my mum-in-laws feelings, all I actually want is to stay home leading up to this birth. Greg doesn't finish up work until my actual due date and I don't want to be away from him at all! I don't want to risk not being able to get hold of him at work when it could take him up to 2 - 3 hours to get up there anyway! He could quite possibly miss everything! I don't want to be without him in the afternoons, when my back is usually at it's worst and I need his help with Anakin. I don't want to have to pack up all the stuff Anakin and I are going to need for an extended stay, the Bubby's gear, hospital bags... The stupid staircases I'll need to climb 50 times a day with my even more stupid, pelvic joints... I can never sleep properly when I'm up there and that's enough of a problem here! I don't mind if I end up in the local hospital, it's just 15 minutes away and it's where I was born - can't be that bad! It's not like I'm high risk and need a bigger facility, I just chose Cairns Base because that's where Greg's family wants me to be! Plus I'd rather Baby's first car ride a short drive straight home! If Greg starts his holidays and I'm still preggas (please God, No!) then we can re-evaluate things from there. But otherwise the oldies can stay here with us or Nick has said they're welcome at her place. I just need Greg to break the news coz I'm too scared. (The bastard's like "Don't worry, I'll manufacture any lies you want me to"!! As if I don't feel bad enough!)

Up until a few weeks ago I was getting slightly hysterical whenever I thought about giving birth to another of Greg's huge boys. But now my perspective has shifted - this pregnancy is punishing, my body's debilitated (this f*cking computer chair doesn't help matters) and I cry myself to sleep feeling totally flogged out, all I'm going to be is full of elation when I finally hear that odd cracking sound as my waters break. I'm going to be singing-out Bring It On!! I want my baby safe and sound and I want my body back to normal!

Belly-belly

These were taken a couple of weeks ago at my IL's.

This one was taken this arvie. One day I'm complaining I need hospitilization and a wheelchair the next I'm mowing the lawn - no wonder I don't get taken seriously.

At first a little TMI

Well either I've been loosing my cervical plug the last few days or it's just coz I can't stop givin' it up to my man lately. 37 weeks pregnant, crippled, but still such a hornbag. I've never noticed a show in either of my other two pregnancies so I'm not too sure what to think. Either way I'm still not going to go too far from home without my maternity bags thrown into the back of the car just in case. Well that's once I've finished packing them of course. I've got all Baby's things ready to go - a big pocket full of tiny little nappies, the cutest little mix n match ensembles, wraps, microfibre washers... For me all I've packed so far is a big bunch of maternity pads >.< some paw-paw ointment and little spritzer with a mild mix of lavender oil and water for my girlie bits.

A few days into December my in-laws are planning on calling through to collect me and Anakin (abducting us) on their way home to Cairns from the opal mines, where we'll stay (maybe) until the big birthday!! If this one is anything like Anakin's late arrival, I'll go stir crazy and make a getaway home midway through my incarceration! Anyway, I anticipate a bit of down-time to shop around for some of the things I might need that I can't seem to pinpoint at the moment.

I finally got into action and ordered Anakin a booster seat, (a long deliberation). His Safe n Sound "Explorer" should be here any day now. It's a convertible booster seat that can be used with a harness belt from 8 to 26 kilo's A thread on Essential Baby (man, I hadn't logged onto that website for so long!) turned me onto a great site where it happened to be on sale so I ended up paying $300 + $25 for freight. And even though the little baby might be getting around in Anakin's dodgy old stroller (mmmm.... for now), at least they'll both be super-safe in the car.

Well Coconuts ended up being an excellent little holiday for us, but we ended up booking into a little cabin rather than taking the Tab. I made some enquires and it was only going to cost me around $50 extra for a cabin, which I would have spent on diesel anyway towing the caravan there and back! They quoted me this bargain (maybe even wrong?) price over the phone, which they had to honour and then when Greg came to join us, they told him at the reception it would be "no extra charge" so I was well happy with that arrangement. Nick and Chris were staying for the weekend in one of the Villas so all the cousins got to hang out. Izzy had his scooter to cruise about on and with all the brawling the boys did on the jumping balloons, I only got to see him when he came back to the cabin for a feed, and just before flopping into bed with exhaustion each night. I took so much fruit along - mangoes, watermelon, pineapples, lychees and banana's we were practically fruitarians the whole weekend. Save the big feed Rene and Tiff came to share with us and the big Macca's breakfast I can't seem to go without at least once whenever I'm up! Oh and the Domino's pizza on the way out of town... We swam and played mini golf and did cross-words, I even had a bit of a bounce on the jumping pillows myself!

More and more people are reacting with disbelief when I tell them I've still got three weeks to go. I must look like such a big belly! Their faces changing from shock to horror to pity. The little preppies at school keep looking at me with suspicious sideways glances, like that baby might just fall out at any given moment. I even give myself a shock when I catch a glimpse of my reflection side-on! It doesn't seem that dramatic from the top!!

It was my last day at work today - the kids are so keen on me bringing in the baby for a visit but they might be on school holidays by then. They like to pester me on the sex and if I've thought of a name yet. One of the boys gets really emotional about it, he gets big tears in his eyes and carries on "Oh! Miss! I just KNOW he's going to be SO CUTE!" (Same boy who doesn't want to discuss dressing up like jungle animals and cavemen for their end-of-year concert item - because he only wants to be a "princess wearing high-heels in a tower"! A beautiful Drama Queen he is.)

I wanna write more but it's getting way late. Maybe be back tomorrow.

Addressing the slackness

Averaging 3 posts a month lately - totally slack alright. I'm sure a time will come when I just end up cutting and pasting my much more frequent status updates from Facebook to fulfil my need to communicate with the world and keep my blog alive.

Wow I can't believe the ticker is down to twenty-something days oh-my! I finally got myself back to anti-natal this morning after 16 weeks of non-attendance. I saw two midwives at once and they were surprisingly thorough. The first thing one of them told me was "We have to give you a needle today". I replied "No. I don't do that." She went from asking me "Are you joking?" and looking at me like I was a complete lunatic, to telling me it was completely my choice once I explained that (correct me if I'm wrong) I didn't see any reason behind giving routine Anti D injections when it's effectiveness for mopping up antigens is within a 72 hour window of an actual bleed, which I hadn't had.

I did a depression screen test. I think I scored 4 out of a total, maybe, 100 possible points. I had to give myself a couple of points for "irrational fear" - I couldn't stop thinking about this young girl who died in a car accident about 6 months ago - she was on her way to anti natal and only had a few weeks before she was due with her first baby. Greg works with her boyfriend. Today I had to drive past the same intersection her and her baby were killed, in bad driving weather, as many weeks pregnant as she was. I was obsessing about which car to take, and praying all morning I got home safely to my kids. Anakin just loves his Mummy so much at the moment, I don't know what he'd do without me. But anyway here I am, all good.

One of the midwives had a feel around and Little Boy's head isn't engaged yet. (In fact he's riding up high under my rib cage, I think they're going to be permanently bent out of shape!) She estimates him to be about 5 and a half pound atm. And predicts him to be somewhere between 7 and 8 pound at full term. We'll see. I reckon he'll be 8 plus the rest!

I'm taking the plunge and towing the caravan with the two boys to Coconuts on my own this weekend! The thing is I've had no practice at reversing the van and suspect I'm gunna totally suck at it no matter how much practice I get anyway! I'm going to have to think ahead at all times and make sure not to park anywhere tricky along the way. Luckily it's such a light little van that when we do actually make it to our camping spot we'll be able to unhook it and pull it into position manually. It'll be a bit of a test for me, but it'll give me more confidence to do it more often. Probably rain on us all weekend, but who cares?! I love the rain. We'll just stay in our togs!

We are really looking forward to Anakin's Playgroup breakup at the swimming pool at the end of the month. I bought him some Christmas coloured boardies to wear today and a plain red T-shirt that we are going to decorate tomorrow at Playgroup. He is SO excited about getting a new book from Santa, who'll be coming along on the firetruck. I told him how Santa called me on his kitchen phone and asked me what sort of book he'd like so Mummy knows he's going to love it!! (A pop-out book chock FULL of dragons!)

Gotta go, Bub's woken up.