3 week countdown

Yup, in three weeks time, on this day, Cameron will join Chez Seal. Kinda scary and kinda exciting :) I am certainly well over being pregnant!! I am tired of my many pilgrimages to the bathroom, the 3 hours of sleep - the rest of the time I get to toss and turn and try and get my swollen belly comfy - a futile aim!! Yesterday was the Plunket coffeegroup - which went well with a brand new person turning up, and another stopping outside and promising to come next week - yay!!

Today we headed out to babygym. K loves thursday because we pretty much eat breakfast, shower, dress, and flee the house for the train station. He LOVES trains. Just adores them. And on Thursdays he gets to ride on a train. TWICE!! And there is the baby gym session which he adores too. So he had a great morning. I on the other hand leapt out of bed, got bread on, got K fed (poorly) got dinner into slow cooker, kneaded the bread and set it out to rise, hung out the washing, showered and dressed self and K, and bolted out the house. It took ages to walk up the hill. It is actually really hard pushing just under 30kg's of baby and stroller up that steep hill when one is over 8 months pregnant. I need to win lotto so I can buy an automatic station wagon haha!! Once home K took over 2 hours to go to sleep. I was beside myself as my back pain had ebbed but not vanished and I wanted to lie down. Then after K woke up he was a horror. I was on the verge of throttling him when his father came home. Tomorrow we may stay home and visit Isabelle in the afternoon I think!!

Memory malfunction

Last night I idly chatted to Chris as I waited for sleep to claim me and was reminded that we had a midwife appointment this morning. Whoops! Not 3 hours earlier I had confirmed with Suzie my desire to have K and I ride to playgroup with her.... at 9:30am, co-incidentally the exact same time that we were meeting Bridget. A quick phone call in the morning sorted it all out and we met with Bridget before Chris dropped me, K and the carseat off at playgroup. K had a blast! I felt very guilty that I had not motivated myself to get him there before. I paid for 4 sessions which takes us up to the Monday - 3 days before Cameron is born. This also means that there are only 3 more sessions of babygym for K too, as I doubt I will be hopping out of my hospital bed to take him along on thursday. However, depending on how things work out, his father or grandmother may be able to whisk him off for the 50 minute session. It is 2 minutes drive from the hospital too - convenient or what!! He starts his Porse session next week too - every Tuesday and Friday. I also realised this morning that I need to find a dressy-ish top for Chris's graduation & photo session on Friday (1 week away!!! Eeeek!!). I really don't want to spend more than $50 (borrowing someones clothes would be even better haha) as I won't be wearing it again. I have been browsing online and am appalled at the (expensive) crimes against fashion perpetrated on pregnant women. Ai ai ai. I shall have to get Chris to drop me off at a mall and try and find something this weekend - sigh! Tomorrow is our free day - so K and I will probably head up to the library in the morning, and relax at home for the afternoon.

35 and counting

Aaaah what a great weekend! Nesting is finished - yes, that sound you hear is Chris's whoop of joy. I finished painting the picture I did for Kieran - the one he so helpfully slapped paint across necessitating an urgent repair job.... twice! He was so excited to see me painting it for him too haha. Then Chris popped picture hooks in the wall and I hung up some pics. Currently we have a rabbit in a boat, a crab and 2 aquatic dinosaurs. Also above K's head is his special K painting :)

Chris did a sterling job being a father and cooking this weekend, and I did a sterling job of cleaning up after him haha. Today we headed out to the Glendale Park to run the sass out of Kieran. We ran, we played ball, we looked at mushrooms, we waved bark around, and we had a blast. Afterwards we were all knackered and headed off home. Sky has been playing Toy Story and Toy Story 2 this weekend. I was thrilled by this as I don't own them - and wanted to get them for K. So we recorded them both and will buy the 3rd after it is released on DVD.

I feel absolutely HUGE at the moment - 35 weeks pregnant means a lot of toilet stops in the night and a lot of tossing and turning! The cat is on the verge of washing his paws of me, and going to sleep in the chicken instead. Poor wee creature! Tomorrow Suzie has very kindly agreed to give K and I a lift to playgroup. We haven't been for ages and I am sure K will love it! And finally, the new baby will be a Taurus. Yup, Cameron just squeaks in under the line with a planned birthday of May 20th. So Chez Seal will contain 1x Ram, 2x Goats and 1x Bull... can anyone see some fraught times ahead? :)

Calloo Callay

Oh, how I love the weekend! On thursday Ruth picked me uo and we headed off to see Alice in Wonderland - which I enjoyed very much! I had such a good time, and it had been such a long time since I last saw a movie (Ice Age 3!). Friday went well, with the Obstetrician asking us to come in 30 minutes early for our appointment. Naturally this meant that we were seen at the original appointment time haha. The obstetrician was very understanding as I reeled off my reasons for wanting a C Section and agreed that we could go ahead and book a section and tubal ligation. YAY!!!

So we now know Cameron's birth date. I will be heading into the hospital to arrive there at 7:30am and be scheduled for a 9:30am c-section. This is excellent as it gives me a full day hopped to the gills on morphine hehe. Then on Friday morning K will be at his PORSE house and Chris can have some special time with Cameron. Then it is the weekend and then I will check out the hospital on Monday morning. I believe checkout is 10 or 11am.

After Chris got home we headed into New Lynn so Chris could spend his birthday present from me (cold hard cash haha) and K played in the Lynn Mall Kiddies area while I enjoyed a half strength chai. Cameron still kicked like a startled bull when he got a sniff of it tho! Today K slept in until 8:15. I went into his room to see if everything was ok and he was chilling out in bed, licking biscuit crumbs off his lips. I brought him into the bed and he had a lovely romp with us before we headed downstairs and watched the Wiggles. We headed out around 10ish and did some shopping before coming back for a certain person's nap! After the nap we headed out to the library and then ran the wee one around the local playground. Then Chris made home made pasta and (at my insistence) raised the cot. So, we are looking good for Cameron. I will make up the cot a little closer to the birth, and install the snugglebed.

Chris also managed to get another ticket for graduation so Joy will be joining us. He was very relieved by this as he didn't have much hope that we would get another ticket since he already had 5. Tomorrow, we plan to take K off to the Glendale park for a proper play, and I hope to finish the picture I am making for K. We will also install the mobile of the solar system that we painted when K was still in utero and hang some pictures up. And then, nesting should be COMPLETE!!! I am sure Chris will be ecstatic to hear it. We will also buy K the book The Gruffalo's Child and the DVD of The Gruffalo from Amazon.co.uk as a You-have-a-new-brother gift :)

Too few hours in the night

Yawn, there are many questions I lie awake at night and ponder. Questions like: Why can my sodding belly not scrunch up so I can SLEEP, or Why am I not the world's best baker, or Why must the cat sleep right on my throat, or Why does Kieran have to come into the room 4 times in a night... OK, kidding on that last one. He only came in once... but it WAS at 4am, and since he was popped into bed, by his father, where he munched a biscuit (CRUMBS!! Crumbs in the BED!!) and noodled about until Chris (muttering profane comments under his breath) took him back to his bed. Then this morning we had fun and games under the tree in our garden. Bandit was perched halfway up it howling like an air raid siren, with K leaping about underneath like a kangaroo and screaming "Bandit!! Bandit!!"While high in the tree a half grown moggy howled its angst to the sky. Much havoc ensued, until we were able to get the cat de-treed, and my 2 boys cooped away from the action... and it hadn't even turned 8am!! K approves of his new bedroom layout - sans futon. He romps over the beanbag, and has a ball playing with his toys (when he is not throwing them down the stairs that is. Sigh). I trudged up the hill with K enjoying the sunshine for the new mothers coffeegroup. There was a new baby there - with both his parents - which was lovely to see. We mooched home and K tucked into the roast potatoes I got him for his lunch, disdaining the chicken. Sigh. However, I did hear back from Waitakere Hospital and we are seeing the Obstetrician on Friday morning - which is excellent news. I also discovered that the BBC made a 30 minute short film of The Gruffalo. Cunning investigation revealed that one can purchase this from the BBC so we may have to think about this as K just LOVES LOVES LOVES the Gruffalo book, and the sequal the Gruffalo's Child. We have to buy him the second one (TGC) as the library copy is looking a little tattered. I made fish for dinner - one of K's favourite meals -primarily cos I am a lazy tart who couldn't face the walk to the Mad Butcher for meat and the fish shop is on the way home from the Plunket rooms. Chicken kebabs will do for dinner tomorrow and then... the weekend, and Chris doing all the cooking! Yeehaa!!

Aaaaand Ruth and I are going to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D - Gosh, my first movie for 6 months!!! Weehee!!

Insidious Infants

Aaah it's been high jinks at Chez Seal let me tell you. The great weekend clean up has been and gone and the house looks great. Well, great apart from the box of inorganic stuff sitting out on the lawn..... The inside looks good though, although the floor desperately needs a mop. Somehow I find myself completely unmotivated to perform this chore! On Monday I decided all the tag ends from the cleanup needed to be addressed and vital tasks (like rearranging the medicine chest) undertaken. Yes, I am in the throes of nesting fever, why do you ask? :) So K and I stayed home on Monday. It was a happy day as K visited the naughty step again and again - and for the same, oft repeated, action - yup, throwing things down the stairs. I do not love him very much when I take 2 steps up and have to duck a mega blocks truck as it hurtles towards me! I am also putting together a rainy day activity box, and just need to convince people to give me their old wrapping paper, unused stickers and greeting cards. I have bought some card stock, glue, glitter, stickers and hope this will see us through the early days of Cameron. I baked some Chia bread today and it turned out very nicely. Next time I may add some more salt to the mixture. I have also trimmed the wee ones hair. It had become sort of a reverse mullet after the last trim, now it was all party at the front and business at the back - as you can see in the pic :) He looks just lovely now :)

We had the growth/position ultrasound today and the little swine has turned out of breech position - truly, this child does not know how to please his mother! As soon as we got home I hastened to the phone to call Waitakere hospital. As I am no longer breech I don't get an automatic c-section - terrible news I know!! It was good I called as they had no record of the midwife's referral. So I called Bridget next and she will sort it out when she heads into Waitakere hospital tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is my Plunket coffeegroup so we will be out and about for that and then I am heading off to babygym on thursday.

Saturday approacheth!

I didn't do much this week. After all, there was the overflow into the house and garden from the great garage clean-out. It has taken me all week to get this into a fit state to have people round :) The weather hasn't been too grotty - but it is definitely not summer anymore haha. On wednesday I did my usual Plunket coffeegroup. Numbers haven't increased but the women coming along seem to enjoy themselves. I forgot to get my timesheet in by Weds afternoon though so that will only go through the next pay run. We still haven't heard from the Obs tho I guess it pays to wait and see what Tuesday's ultrasound shows before I get too concerned haha. Thursday was a stay at home day as I had sold stuff on Trademe that was being collected. We are slowly getting though it - and I sold the Futon. Yay. I am so happy!! That afternoon I went over to Isabelle's (the lovely neighbour who feeds Bandit when we are away) and K cavorted with her 2 moppets. Today we went up to the library and then to the Plunket rooms where Suzie and I assembled some mothers day gift baskets for the mothers day raffle that is going to be run. They are pretty awesome - I am going to buy some tickets myself and hope that I win! Tomorrow Chris has a sleep in and I and K get to catch-up with Ruth. Then later tomorrow morning I am off to the warehouse as I desperately need another pair of pants. A top for Chris's graduation would be good too - and of course Crocs for Kieran!. I shall have to see what is on offer. I found a great Infantino puzzle on trademe too - a colours/textures one - for $15. Score!!! I just love the Infantino puzzles. And now all we need to be totally set for Cameron's arrival is a raincover for the Graco Duo stroller. Isabelle incredibly kindly gave us an Evenflow capsule which fits the stroller - so we don't have to buy one. We are really fortunate!!