To plan or not to plan?

I’ve done the classes. I’ve read the books. I’ve consulted Dr Google (much to my Husband’s disgust). And this is my birth plan.

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?!

Baby names, baby bedrooms and baby brain.

Here’s my recent post that appeared on Early Childhood Resources.

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’?!

My Beautiful Bump

Around 30 weeks I was ready to have my baby. Crazy thinking I know. I could no longer bend down, and that’s when my bump felt like it was getting in the way. I had run into a photographer friend a few weeks prior, and he suggested I go over for a baby bump shoot. I ummed and arrred and then kinda forgot. You know, baby brain and all.

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