Sick babies and crazy kids

I found out yesterday that my poor lil newborn nephew has whopping cough (and his mum too). He was in hospital overnight last night, and will be assessed today to check his progress. It's awful to think of such a tiny body having to go through that pain, and the scare that it gives his mum and dad. It's also not impressive that they had to take him to three different hospitals to get a diagnosis and to get the attention that bubs needs. Thank goodness for mother's instincts!

In other news, I'm wheeling my 7 month preggas body off onto school camp today, in charge of 43 very excited 7 and 8 year old kids. Luckily I have 9 other adults to help, including one experienced and awesome teacher. It is only one night, and it is only 45 mins drive from home. It will be fun, and it's a pretty low key camp (no night walks or adventure activities). However, when all is said and done I'll be glad when it's over! My goal is to come back with 43 happy, if tired, children, who have had a fun and memorable camp experience, and who look forward to going on more camps in the future.

Keep your fingers crossed for a healthy recovery for bubs, and a successful camp for me!

p.s. laptop is still dead, still using Mr RGs laptop and writing blog posts using blogger online. Yuck!

Techie sadness

My laptop is on the fritz! I am quite distressed about the potential loss of photos and work, but am trying to hold it together until we can do some more investigating. Mr RG has a few ideas, he is quite clever with these things. However we may need to take it to the professionals.

For now, at least, I have Mr RG's laptop to use - even if it is running Google Chrome and doesn't have Windows Live Writer or Picasa (or the MANY other gadgets I have on my laptop).

Keep your fingers crossed for me that all will be saved!

33 Weeks

Well, it’s 32 weeks and five days, but who’s counting? And who knows what’s accurate!? An old school acquaintance recently updated their facebook status to say that she was now measuring a couple of weeks ahead and her due date had been changed – three weeks earlier than expected! Oh lordy, please don’t let my growing Pebble (boulder?) get any ideas in that direction.

I am still loving being pregnant. Right now I’m enjoying all the little changes:

• Pebble has long and strong movements and body parts poke out the side of my belly. When I (gently) poke Pebble back it pulls itself away, then comes back at me with another kick/punch/butt wriggle. Or at body part appears at the other side of the belly!
• I felt hiccups (I think) for the first time this morning. It just happened to be when Mr RG put his hand on my belly, and we felt small rhythmic movements, about 12 – 15 of them, spaced exactly the same time apart.
• I’m getting slooooow. I was doing some shopping this arvo (maternity bras and teaching resources – such is my life) and I found myself walking sooooo sloooooowly around the shopping centre. Old people were over taking me!
• My hips give me some trouble at night. I use my body pillow to support my belly and leg, but toss and turn a lot. Sometimes there’s just no comfy spot!
• I keep getting a dead hip and thigh, pretty frequently now. I told the obs. about it and she said it’s very common, but that it can cause long term nerve damage if it’s not taken care of. She referred me to a physio.
• We still don’t have any definite name choices, just two long lists of boys and girls names we don’t hate. Eeeek!
• I still don’t have any stretch marks! I know they’ll come, but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.
• That tiredness from the beginning of the pregnancy has started again – that whole body and mind, completely drained, too tired to eat kind of tiredness.
• My fingers are either getting fatter or I’m retaining fluid. My wedding rings have felt tight, especially on hot days. Some days and nights I’ve had to put them away

I really don’t make it sound that wonderful do I? Surprisingly, it still is. I’ll enjoy this feeling while it lasts, I’m sure it won’t be long before I’m begging to get this baby out. For now I’ve very happy to have it right where it is.

It’s Tuesday and I can’t wait…

… for my baby shower!

It’s on Sunday week, which also happens to be my birthday. Just a coincidence of date availability of family and friends.

It should be fun.

Did I mention I was one of these people who used to say that they would NEVER have a baby shower. And if I did have one I would have one after the baby is born, so that everyone can meet the baby.

Even I’m laughing out loud at that idea now, and I haven’t got a newborn yet. Ahhhhh. Funny.

BTW I’m totally playing ‘It’s Tuesday’ by myself.  The usual ring leader isn’t ring leading at the moment, but I still love the tradition.

Beach babe

Last night Mr RG and I went to the beach. This may sound like a totally normal thing to do, right? However, we are Mr and Mrs We-Love-Winter-Die-Sun-Die-Ew-There’s-Sand-and-Seaweed-and Jellyfish-Oh-My!

I have to say though, I kinda enjoyed it. It was 39 degrees yesterday, and a 5pm beach visit was timed just perfectly to avoid the sting of the sun, but to enjoy the warm sea breeze while having a splash in the water.

Of course, we are not beach people, so we don’t really know how to DO the beach. First I packed these important items:

• water
• my camera
• my mobile phone
• my purse
• one towel (we only have one towel remotely suitable for the beach)
• sunglasses

We flip-flopped our way across the sand and started to paddle ankle deep in the water, me with my huge  tote full of digital hardware, the towel still in the car. Mr RG reasoned that we won’t need it until we get back to the car anyway.

So off we paddle, until I realise that it’s all actually quite pleasant, and I would like to have a swim (at the beach. I know. Who’d have thought?).  So I ask Mr RG to take a quick photo of my pregnant beach body, for historical purposes, then we go back to the car to return my bag of unnecessary items.

We trundle off again, this time I am carrying nothing but my thongs, and Mr RG has the car key in his shorts pocket. That’s all we need, right?

Paddle, paddle, frolic, frolic. We slowly get deeper and deeper into the calm, clear, cool water. We laugh at each other as the water gets higher and higher and feels cold when it first touches our dry skin. We’re like a couple of giggling kids as we walk gingerly through the water, I on the lookout for man eating sharks and deathly jellyfish, and Mr RG wearing his only vaguely suitable beach attire: tennis shorts and a cotton summer shirt.

We’ve been walking along for about half an our, paddling in chest deep water, when Mr RG freezes and calls out “the keys!!!!”. I freeze and jump all at the same time (something to be seen, I can assure you). I look frantically around for danger. Key shaped danger. “WHAT?” I seek clarification. “The car keys!” Mr RG clarifies.

Oh.

Where do you beach people put your car keys when you go for a swim at the beach? As we were walking a few kilometres across the beach we didn’t want to leave them with a towel on the sand, as it appeared many people must do. What are you supposed to do with them!??

So we shrugged, figured the damage was done, made a vague escape plan should the keys be truly buggered (push button electronic door opening keys that may or may not set off the car alarm if inserted into the lock old style to open the car), and continued splashing in ankle deep water. They keys were now being held safely out of the water in Mr RGs hand.

After a very enjoyable evening we made our way back to the car to cautiously press that tiny little ‘unlock’ button– and HUZZAH! We were safe! The car opened, we drove away into away from the sunset, discussing the finer points of beach survival that we need to teach our children.

So, how do you prepare for the beach?

Babies and Gender - What a weird world

I have never understood why it is so upsetting that strangers would identify a baby as the wrong gender, eg. “oh, what a beautiful baby boy!”, when said child is a girl, or vice versa.

I haven’t really given it much thought before, except to think, so what? Most babies look androgynous to me! Androgynous in a good way!

I have read two blog posts recently about people getting upset about this type of thing. Two lovely people who’s blogs I thoroughly enjoy reading, and who’s opinion I am not disrespecting. I’m just saying I don’t get it. Yet.

Anyhoo, that led me to this weird and wonderful shopping opportunity. SERIOUSLY. WTF?!

Cute overload

I’m catching up on some blog reading and just found the cutest damn Halloween outfit I. HAVE. EVER. SEEN.

Tassie

I just got back from three days in Tasmania celebrating the lovely Celery Stick’s wedding. It was a beautiful three days, not least because I avoiding the 39 degree heat wave in Adelaide for a while!

Here’s a pictorial overview.

 

Huzzah!

Pram!

We finally did it, we bought a pram!  Yesterday Mr RG and I went to Baby Bunting and had a look at all the prams.  We test drove a few. We looked wider at other brands (are people seriously spending $1800 on a pram!? Wow!). We practiced putting some up and down, and taking bits of pieces on and off.

We decided on a Strider 4, with a bassinet attachment. The reasons for our choice:

• reversible (Pebble can face towards or away from mum and dad)
• easy to turn and move
• adjustable handle height
• 4 wheels
• good safety reviews
• good product reviews online and from people we know
• good striding space (Mr RG doesn’t bang his ankles with every step)
• easy to fold up
• good sized and easily accessible basket space
• good price

You don’t need to get the bassinet attachment, and the sales lady assured us that the standard seat is suitable for newborns. However we both felt (in all our wisdom and experience!) that we wanted the option to lay Pebble completely flat, which the standard seat does not do.

I did learn something new – apparently you’re not supposed to sleep the baby in the bassinet that comes with a pram as there is limited air flow. You can sleep them in bassinets which you buy for the purpose of sleeping. The sales lady says short sleeps are ok in the pram bassinet, but once they are sleeping through the night they should be moved to the cot. We have a bassinet on loan from a friend that is suitable for sleeping, but at least Pebble will have the option to lay flat while he or she is very young. I thought that Pebble might get all crunched up when newborn if the seat wasn’t flat. You know how you see the little tackers all floppy and sliding down into the bottom of the seat? Maybe I’m wrong…. but it wasn’t much of an extra cost.

Now that I’ve come to record the cost I can’t find the receipt! Mr RG was given one, but we had to hand it over to the guy out the back when we collected it. We will have to make sure that we go back and get one because we’re waiting on the bassinet and change table on back order!!

Anyhoo, from memory the Strider 4 in Slate was $469 and the bassinet was an extra $149 – both were 10% off from that price, so $556 in total.

The bassinet attachment looks like this:

We bought a Regent change table, originally $249, but with 15% off it was $211. The change table we ordered is the style of the darker coloured one on the left, but in the lighter colour on the right.

 

I like this style of change table because it’s a lot sturdier than the fold away type, and I can imagine using it later to store toys and then later again for little craft boxes or whatever the little tacker is into. We didn’t need to get one with drawers as we have a huge built in wardrobe in Pebble’s room, which the child will surely never be able to fill. Surely? And I preferred this type to the plastic sort with a bath tub, as I couldn’t imagine using it for another purpose later – and all my mummy friends say the bath tub is too awkward to use in those styles.

After picking up a mattress for the change table as well, we walked out of there $800 lighter!

The only negative to our pram choice is the Strider is very wide, as are a lot of the prams out there today. I looked at a few different recommendations in our price range and read a lot of reviews. It seemed that every pram I looked at had at least one comment that it is very wide and sometimes difficult to get through checkouts.

I had one lady standing near us while looking at the Strider and she said it was awesome, and that loves her Strider. I also had the same comment from another mum that I accosted in the shops recently. Both said they had no trouble with the width. I will  say that when we assembled it at home we found that we couldn’t get it out of our lounge room via the entry with the bifold doors (which cut off about an inch on one side of the doorway width). Thankfully it goes in and out of every other doorway, including the second lounge room entrance – and the front and back door :)

We will probably get a lightweight stroller later when Pebble is bigger, but hopefully this pram will service any other kiddies we have later on.

Geez, who’d have thought there was so much to say about bloody prams? Thank goodness that’s over!

Not happy Jan

*warning, negative rant-fest coming up*

My sinus/tear duct infection continues, with constantly weepy eye and intermittent crippling head/eye pain. Thankfully the obstetrician said it is fine to take Sudafed, so for two days I’ve been taking it as sparingly as possible. It’s worked pretty well, and I’ve been getting through the days.

I needed to get buy more today, so I went to the chemist – the pharmacist was incredulous that I had been sold Sudafed previously when pregnant, and clearly didn’t believe me that I was recommended this drug by my obs. The pharmacist said that pseudoephedrine raises the babies heart rate and is not a healthy drug to be taking while pregnant.

I walked off with some nasal spray instead, which I hate taking, because from my one and only experience, all it does is relieve the symptoms but create a dependency. The more you use it, the more stuffed up you get! But I had to get something, this is too awful to deal with without some medication (ps. how the HELL am I going to get through BIRTH if I can’t cope with sinus pain!????).

So I got home and rang the Women’s and Children’s Hospital pharmacy, which has a hotline for advice about drugs during pregnancy. The pharmacist there confirmed that they do not recommend Sudafed for pregnant women. WTF?

So is my obgyn giving me inaccurate advice? Or is it just yet more conflicting advice? A quick Google search turned up more people saying that, while it used to be more regularly recommended during pregnancy if required, recently doctors have changed their tune and are no longer recommending it.

I’m no longer taking the Sudafed. I will try the nasal spray, I guess. I won’t be able to talk to my obgyn until Monday. How do I handle it when I do talk to her? I am quite pissed that I could have been taking something that is not safe during pregnancy, but don’t really know what to do about it.

Meh!

Pram shopping this afternoon. So over it!