The Rockgarden: Bags are packed

, Christmas has been and gone. It was a lovely family packed day with the traditional breakfast at Dad’s (scallops this year, yum!). We followed this with the full Christmas lunch at my mum’s, then full Christmas dinner at Mr RGs mum’s! All in all it was a love fest of family, especially all the little kiddies. There are six grandchildren all up across all the families, and they really bring the magic to Christmas day. Next year there will be 8 grand children to celebrate Christmas with, once my sister and I have brought the two newbies into the world!

Around Christmas we have also had celebrations with friends and lots of birthdays. It was my Dad’s birthday yesterday, which led to more family love fests, this time with reggae at the local. Here are three generations of the men in my family.

Today, at 38 weeks (really??!!!) I finally properly packed a hospital bag ready to go with all the bits and bobs that I may need. And probably a few things I won’t!

I’m still blessed with a pretty happy pregnancy. Some changes recently include:

reflux in the middle of the night
bloated/puffy extremities
mild nausea and dizziness if I don’t take it easy
uncomfortable ……. generally!
some overall skin discolouration on my arms and chest – kind of pale spots everywhere. Nothing too major, but I notice it.
still only one small stretch mark under my belly. The lower part is quite veiny, I’m not sure if it is permanent, or if the veins will go away after birth. The appendectomy scar you can see in this pic is getting stretched to the max!

I was reminded by a recent GP visit that my original due date was 31 December, based on LMP. It was only that the scans measured Pebble as a little further along that the date was changed to 11 January. So really, we could be looking at a delivery any day now! I’m really hoping for as late in January as possible, if only to avoid the seven other family and friends birthdays that are between now and the 11th! I’d also like a little more time to rest as much as I can before Pebble arrives. Between finishing up at school, getting the Christmas shopping done, enjoying lots of Christmas and birthday celebrations and getting house renos and Pebble’s room set up, it has been a hectic two weeks since I stopped work!
I almost forgot (this post is now mammoth, but there’s lots to catch up on!) – here is Pebble’s room. It’s still in progress, we’d like to paint it a neutral cream colour. All the bedrooms in the house are blue from when we purchased it. We also need to put up new curtains, get a floor rug and do a few other minor things, but otherwise, it’s baby ready! As you can probably tell, I’m really not into cartoon character decos or wall stickers. I like to keep it simple.
It’s never going to look this neat again, I’m sure….