1 today!

The day you find out you’re pregnant all you can do is think about meeting your little one. For me, I felt like I was pregnant FOREVER. Even my sister in law commented she felt like I had the longest pregnancy in history! But then once you have that tiny little newborn in your hands, time does something totally cruel and decides to speed up. That newborn stage is scarily quick. Blink and you’ll miss it. Blink again and your baby will be turning ONE!

One minute she’s rolling for the first time. Then next she’s sitting on her own, then all of sudden she takes off crawling down the hallway at a million miles an hour, starts understanding what you’re saying to her and happily obliges to a cuddle request, pulls herself up on her feet desperately trying to reach her puppy dog Jack snoozing on the lounge and then starts scooting around the furniture on her feet! And while I watched and encouraged her with excitement and pride I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t genuinely shocked at how fast everything kept happening!

And now today, our tiny little squishy gorgeous chubba bubba with the big blue eyes, ringlets framing her beautiful little face and her Daddy’s big chubby cheeks turns ONE.

A whole year since we welcomed Sophie Grace into the world on that very special date 10.10.10.

Miss Sophie you have bought more smiles, laughter and joy into our lives than we ever could have imagined. Happy 1st Birthday beautiful girl! xxx

How could you not want to talk to this beautiful face?!

Even before your baby is born there’s quite a bit of bonding going on, and I’m not talking about with your baby. It’s with complete strangers. Yep people you’ve never met or people you’ve never talked to, or more specifically people that have never talked to you.

From about 14-22 weeks we were overseas travelling around Europe. My little baby bump was often a topic of conversation, but I wondered if it was also because we were tourists. But then when we got back to Oz it appeared that the random baby talk had nothing to do with being an Aussie in Europe!

By the time we recovered from our trip and got back to normal I was about 25 weeks and walking around Officeworks one day. A lady smiled at me. Now I’m 110% sure it was a smile at my baby bump. Had I not been pregnant she would have just walked straight past. Every time I did the groceries the checkout chicks and even the guys would ask how far along I was, did I know what flavour we were having and was it my first bub.

Some would then tell me how many kids they had. One even proceeded to tell me when I was about 8 months pregnant about her dramatic emergency c-section. I filed that under things I’d rather not know from a complete stranger.

Then once bub comes along… Well it only increases! Of course when you’ve got a little newbie anyone and everyone wants to know how old, ‘oh isn’t she cute’, cue all the aaaawwwww’s! But lately. Lately. Oh my goodness. Last week I was in the Good Guys buying my Nonna a coffee machine. While chatting to one of the guys that worked there another employee came up to me and said “Sorry to interrupt but your daughter has the most gorgeous hair I’ve ever seen”! This from a man in his 50′s gooing and gaaing over a baby!

Then not 5 minutes later while I was waiting for the final price on the coffee machine, another man came up to me, probably in his 50′s too and exclaimed to Sophie, “Well aren’t you just a big bundle of cuteness”! He looked at me and said don’t worry I’m a photographer and I can spot a gorgeous kid a mile away. He then proceeded to have a lovely chat with Sophie who of course put on that gorgeous smile and made all the right cute baby noises!

I can only imagine it’s going to get worse, but in a good way, as Sophie starts to talk and no doubt make herself the centre of attention, especially when sitting up in the trolley at the supermarket like Queen Sophie!

How did you find random baby bonding when you were pregnant? Does it still happen now with your kids? Or are you one of the random’s chatting to all the expectant and new mum’s?!!

Daddy's girl

There’s 2 things you need to know about my husband. 1: He usually says no to a lot of my requests/suggestions. And 2: If I don’t nag and bide my time he usually comes around.

When I met John he was a mid-30 year old confirmed bachelor. Nice house, immaculate, minimalist, I called it the museum.

Then I came along! After 8 weeks together I moved in. First change to the ‘museum’ was to add some photographs. And as time went on we bought a couple more pieces of furniture, added more pictures, got a dog and suddenly the museum became a home.

Before we got married we decided to extend the warehouse and add another bedroom and bathroom. Yes we were forward planning for a family. (By the way NONE of my suggesstions were entertained during this process. That’s the problem when you live with an Architect!) So, we’d talked about starting a family after we got back from our overseas holiday. But of course I had other ideas. After our September wedding, I started dropping hints about November that if we were to fall pregnant by February it would perfectly safe for me to fly and I wouldn’t be hugely pregnant during our trip. After some negotiating a few days later I was off the pill. And at the end of January the stick said pregnant. All 5 of them!

Of course I wanted to decorate ‘the nursery’ straight away. Sensibly John made me wait until we got back from overseas. I was about 23 weeks by then. I wanted to paint, do wall stickers, the lot. Unfortuantely this was one argument that John won. We compromised, John kept his pristine white walls, but I got to put holes in them and put up some pictures and shelves! I wasn’t however ‘allowed’ to put letters on the door.

“We’ll need a bath in the house you know”, I said one day. Which was met with a no we won’t, and the baby can have a bath in the laundry tub, and then it can have a shower. Clearly no point in arguing, but I thought I’d try, “Well maybe I’d like a bath”. Nup, still didn’t work. So gradually over a couple of months I did some subtle nagging, and the week before I was due a free standing bath arrived. Sigh, I was looking forward to relaxing in the bath, with my huge belly and very swollen feet. But to my dismay something didn’t fit properly on the bath and they had to take it back. That was on the Wednesday. Saturday night I went into labour. I called the hospital, where the lovelyy midwife told me to have a bath. “We don’t have a farking bath because it arrived and it was the wrong size or something”. Ok, so maybe just a shower then. Anyway we finally got our bath when Sophie was 2 weeks old. She lasted only about a week in the laundry tub, a couple of weeks in the baby bath, and now is of course in the big bath. Yep, tick to Mum for that one.

Early on in my pregnancy the nappy talk started. “4 boys and 1 nappy is all my Dad did” sprouted my darling husband. “Well don’t think you’re getting off that lightly” I replied. And so went the nappy debate for oh about 6 months of my pregnancy. I knew deep down that when push came to shove he’d change a nappy if he really had to.

So then after our beautiful baby girl was born and I started struggling with the feeding, was totally exhausted and just wanted to crawl under the bed and sleep for a week, suddenly the I’m not changing nappies man, became THE nappy changer. I’d like to say I was amazed but I knew he would make a wonderful Dad. So John, the new chief nappy changer, even got up in the middle of the night in those first few weeks to do the nappy change while I sat there trying to get lumps out of my boobs (lovely I know) or pump. It didn’t take long for the spruking to begin: “I’ve changed more nappies than you!” This was one statement I was more than happy to smile and agree with.

And to say John is a hands on Dad is understatement. Hugely protective of his baby girl, they always have chats and cuddles every morning before he goes to work. To hear him say he was totally smitten from the first moment, truly makes my heart smile. Yes all together now, aaaaawwwwww.

Look at my letters Mum!

So for a while I was mentioning putting letters on the baby’s door. No, no and no, were the responses. “What about just the first initial of the baby’s name?” I thought I’d try. “Maybe”. Then for Sophie’s Naming Day she received beautiful letters for her door. Suddenly on Saturday, he’s telling me to get the leveling thingy out of the garage, find the double-sided tap and let’s put Sophie’s letters on her door. Woohoo, another tick for Mum!

So the latest negotiations that I’m slowly working on is the upcoming renovation of our garage into a rumpus room. I admit, with John being an Architect he knows a little more about design than I do! That’s why I haven’t got in the way when it came to designing the new 3 car garage and loft to go out the back. Ok, so maybe I got in the way a little when it came to timing. (We bought the little house behind us, and are going to knock it down. It was a long term plan, but with a dog and a bub we’re now hopefully starting in March!) So the current garage with a door into the house will become a rumpus room. I’d like to’design’ it. I use the term ‘design’ loosely. All I’d really like to do is put some cool wall stickers on the wall, make it nice and bright and fun. Cool storage boxes for toys, and have a little table and chairs area for Sophie when she’s older. Currently negotiations have stalled. As in, John just ignores my requests! But that’s ok. As usual I’ll just bide my time, and keep searching on the net for the perfect wall stickers, that I’ll no doubt be able to put up eventually! Fingers crossed!

Yep, that’s right. I don’t have a birth plan. Unless you call having no plan, your plan, then I guess I kinda have a plan. Make sense? Don’t worry I confuse myself sometimes too.

Anyway, I digress.

So the reason I don’t have a plan? Well like all first time mum’s I have no idea what to expect. It could be long, short, I could cope ok with the pain… Ok, well that’s a big fat lie because I have NO pain threshold, but I’m secretly hoping that I’ll surprise myself. And my Husband!

But the truth is, while I’m relatively open minded about the pain relief options, they scare the beejeesus outta me. So I guess I’m actually not that open minded about them! I’ve had the gas before and then proceeded to throw up for the next couple of hours. Pethidine, hmmm well apparently that also makes you nauseous and a little bit off with the fairies. And then there’s the epidural. Well. A big fat needle being inserted into my spine. Um, no thanks.

But then again, when the time comes I may be saying a big no thanks to those damn contractions, and a big yes please, stick that epidural needle right on in.

Who knows. I guess we’ll just wait and see!

What was your birth plan? Did you even have one? And did it get thrown out the window?!

I always knew men and women were different and I of course don’t just mean physically! But it wasn’t until I fell pregnant and our journey to parenthood began that I realised just how far apart my thinking was from my husband’s.

Or should that be how far HIS thinking was from mine!

Instantly there was a mummy organisation switch flicked in my brain and I wanted to talk baby names, baby furniture, wall colours, wall stickers, different nursery themes, you know all the usual baby stuff.

In the beginning hubby indulged me with the baby name talk until I got frustrated at his constant reply of no and his lack of input, which I’m convinced was just a tactic to shut me up.

But when it came to the nursery he put his foot down early and said I wasn’t to go nursery shopping until after 20 weeks. Ok, so I admit wanting to deck out the nursery at 7 weeks was a tad early and hubby was just trying to be sensible. Or should I say trying to get me to be sensible. Plus we were heading overseas for 8 weeks.

So of course the minute we arrived back in Oz, I was 23 weeks, we went furniture shopping. To my surprise we agreed on everything!

But what we didn’t agree on was the decorating part. Hubby saw no need for a feature wall or any paint of any description (the room is all white). He also saw no need for any wall stickers.

‘Why ruin a perfectly good bedroom for a tiny baby who isn’t even going to know what is in its room’ said my darling husband.

Followed by ‘decorating the nursery is not for the baby at all, it’s purely for the mum’!

Well whaddya know something we actually agree on! Yes decorating the nursery may be for the mum, but who cares! It’s all part of the journey.

Thankfully we agreed on a Peter Rabbit ‘theme’ and the room does look lovely and simple, with Peter Rabbit pictures on the wall (I was allowed to put holes in the wall!), the complete set of Peter Rabbit books, toys and linen.

Our next male/female clash was the good old debate over baby brain. Yep you probably guessed it, hubby decided that it didn’t exist.

‘Doesn’t exist my arse’ I do believe was my response after I found myself unable to leave the house without a list of what I had to do and where I was going, otherwise I’d be driving aimlessly around Newcastle.

So the baby brain debate continued until hubby could no longer deny what he had been witnessing with his own two eyes and listening to with his own two ears.

I was literally unable to choose a bottle of orange juice in the supermarket the other day while hubby impatiently help up a check-out.

I was apparently driving like a ‘nanna’ in my own little world but hubby didn’t dare say anything at the time.

And the final straw came when I swear hubby accused me of using his deodorant and asked me to buy him some more when I was at the supermarket next. Apparently he said shower gel not deodorant and after much arguing he declared my brain had gone to mush and I was suffering from none other than baby brain!

Horray, something we finally agreed on!

But despite our opposite ends of the baby thinking, the nursery does look lovely, we finally agree that baby brain exists, and we’ve narrowed our names down to 1 girl’s name and 2 boys names. Clearly all he needed was a bit of time!

Now. I wonder how much time it will take me to convince him that I need a ‘push present’?!

Then a couple of weeks ago feeling like shit, I thought to myself I’m only ever going to be pregnanct once with my first baby and despite my uncomfortableness I decided to embrace my bump. I’ve really loved being pregnant and have a feeling I’m going to quite miss my bump.

I then realised I never got back to my friend, so I messaged him and said, ok, let’s do it. I decided not to tell anyone, and would make it a surprise for hubby.

I was pretty specific about what I DIDN’T want! I’m funny about my legs, arms etc etc at the best of times, let alone when there’s a bit of extra baby fat hanging around! Ric and Maree were fabulous. And I’m so glad I did it. You can check out Ric’s website HERE (www.ricwoods.com). And so without further ado, here is my beautiful baby bump at around 33 weeks.

www.ricwoods.com

www.ricwoods.com

www.ricwoods.com

Please go and check it out:

Guest Post: Baby names, baby bedrooms and baby brain!

The other week I was at the mall running some errands (that sounded very American didn’t it!) and decided to stop in at DJ’s. We had friends coming up from Sydney and a group of us were going out for dinner on Saturday night, and I decided I wanted a new top. Why, because I’m fat and pregnant, and well, well that’s a good enough reason isn’t it? And I was sick of wearing t-shirts, my comfy hoodie and trackies. But god bless those trackies. A girl’s definite BFF when preggers. Sorry I digress.

So I knew DJ’s didn’t sell maternity clothes, but I figured I could find something loose and just go up a couple of sizes. Turns out it wasn’t so easy after all. Everything I tried on made me feel even worse than when I walked in. I suddenly realised just how big my baby bump was and ‘normal’ clothes weren’t going to cut it. And with the lack of maternity clothes shops in Newcastle, as in none, I quickly got the shits!

On the verge of having a mummy-to-be meltdown in the change rooms, I hot footed it outta there and headed home. I immediately vented on Twitter. Soon after I tweeted something about being fat, nothing fitting, no maternity shops in Newcastle yadda yadda yadda, the lovely Sarah replied that she had a beautiful satin maternity top and had been wondering who would like it. If I was keen, send her a message and I could have it.

The gorgeous top!

My tears of frustration soon turned to happiness. You see I’ve never met Sarah. We follow each other on Twitter and live in the same city, but that’s about it. Her kindness made my day.

So I headed over to Sarah’s and collected the top. I couldn’t wait to get home and try it on! I wore it out for dinner that weekend and had so many lovely comments! And when I told my friends the story behind the top, they too couldn’t believe the kindness that Sarah had shown to virtually a stranger.

So thank you Sarah for making my day, that day! I can’t wait to wear the top again.

Have you got an unexpected act of kindness story?

So to say bah-bye to the 20′s and hullo to the 30′s I thought I’d do a little bump progression! We haven’t really been very diligent with the bump shots, but there’s been a few, mainly of Tic Tac gallivanting around Europe! And it’s amazing to see how much I’ve actually grown. I guess because I see my bump everyday I don’t realise how much it’s ‘popping out’ until I see the pics!

What amazes me even more is that I’m still going to get bigger! So if you don’t like pregnant bellies, then don’t look! Otherwise, enjoy Tic Tac’s bump progression!

15 weeks

15 weeks

15 weeks

16 weeks

17 weeks

17 weeks

17 weeks

18 weeks

18 weeks

18 weeks

19 weeks

19 weeks

19 weeks

19 weeks

20 weeks

20 weeks

21 weeks

21 weeks

22 weeks

25 weeks

25 weeks

29 weeks

29 weeks Jack kissing Tic Tac!

30 weeks! 10 to go!

Online Baby Shower

The countdown is on, and as a first time Mum you’re all invited to my online baby shower! When, where, time? Now, here, and now!

At the moment I’m like a sponge, sucking in everyone’s opinions and advice from breastfeeding to burping, knitted jumpers to nappy rash, and yes that’s right I haven’t even hatched yet.

I know some expectant mum’s hate being bombarded with well meaning advice, but I on the other hand like to hear about other people’s experiences, and then of course after digesting all the information, go away and make up my own mind.

So ladies, (and men!), it’s time to put on your mummy or daddy advice hat! Grab a cuppa and a cupcake (I hear they’re delicious) and tell me what would you bring to the baby shower?