Bump Update: 33 Weeks

Just look at this thing...it is huge! I am certain I am bigger this time around and after a recent growth scan, it appears I might be right. I don't have big babies usually but this one is pretty big for me. The scan indicates it is already 4 pounds and after having a 5 pound Rosie (at full term!) and a 7 pound Harry, the sonographer indicated this one could even make it to 8 pounds. I am sure this doesn't sound huge to many woman but I for one am quite scared at the prospect! 

My expanding bump!

This little bub is measuring just on average for weight but is on the 98th percentile for height. Harry was the same and I remember packing a carefully chosen Size 0000 outfit for him to come from the hospital in. The top and pants both ended up being 3/4 length on him! The night time "get ups" are definitely on the increase now and I am averaging between 3-5 trips to the bathroom a night. I guess it is nature's way of getting me used to all the night time feeds I will soon be facing. :)

Overall, I feel pretty good and am finding it so much easier to dress for a summer pregnancy this time around. I wear dresses most days as they are comfortable and cool to wear in the summer heat. I remember struggling to make my 2-3 pairs of winter work trousers look different each day, despite wearing them 5 days a week for weeks on end! I love feeling the baby move and kick, it is so reassuring and I never get sick of it. For the most part the kicks are gentle but every now and again I get a boot in the ribs. It is such a busy time at the moment with family and work commitments, however I can't help but think that this is such an amazing season of life to be in and I have never been happier. I love my family, I love my work and I am truly blessed. :)

Landscaping Lessons!

A few weeks ago I mentioned some of the landscaping madness going on at our house. It is still very much a work in progress but I thought I would share a couple of the lessons we have learnt recently.

The first lesson is: If a truck comes to deliver a large load of soil, it really isn't worth it to push them to drive through a small set of gates in order to dump the soil closer to your intended project.

This was unfortunately a lesson we had to learn the hard way. I have to say, I was dubious from the start but I am married to an optimist! There was literally 5cm to spare on each side of the truck but it had made it through.

All was going well until the large load was emptied, somehow causing the truck to no longer fit through the gates! I think it had something to do with the shift in weight after the truck was empty.

This marked the beginning of a very complex process to remove the truck and keep the fence and gate intact. The truck driver and Taff worked closely together and all was looking good...until the very last moment when we heard a crack. The truck had taken out the fence! This wouldn't usually be the end of the world but this fence is one of our pool boundary fences so we needed to address it immediately.

Thus began the search for a fence builder...and fast. This then led to landscaping lesson number 2: Do not try save money by choosing the cheapest quote you can find, you get what you pay for. The builders we went with were only a couple of hundred dollars cheaper than professional fence places and in hindsight, this is only a small amount in the bigger scheme of things.

The first day they were onsite was looking good, until after several hours of work they (and we!) discovered that the gates had been built wrong. The fence is on a slope and they hadn't taken this into account, instead building a completely straight bottomed gate, leaving a nice little gap for young children to crawl under and get into the pool area.

To their credit, they came back and finished the job and rebuilt the gates but Taff spent the last two hours "supervising" their work and asking them to redo things! Not one for confrontation, I chose to hide inside at this point. :)

So finally the new fence and gate were finished and after a couple of days of uncertainty, we actually quite like it now and think they did a reasonable job in the end. There is still much work to do to get it looking finished but we have plans to sand it and paint it further down the track. Still, it is functional and 100 times better than the old brown fence. In the end it was a good thing the truck smashed the fence as it accelerated a project that had been a very low priority prior to that. I am also sure this won't be the last lesson we learn in landscaping! :)

Organising a Pregnancy

A few months ago I blogged about the organising system I use for vouchers and coupons. It is still working really well for us so I decided to use the same technique to organise all the pregnancy information I have been inundated with over the last few months.

I used the same type of mini folder I used before and decided on some categories which would help to organise all the information I had. Some of the categories I chose included Pregnancy Diary, Blood Test Forms, Scan Forms, Test Results and a place to store pregnancy and baby specific vouchers I have received.

I have found this a fantastic system which keeps all my important information together in one place. This means that when I have a midwife appointment or scan, I just grab my folder and no longer need to go hunting for scan forms or other loose documentation.

It is a quick, easy and inexpensive solution to something I struggled with a bit during my last two pregnancies. I was forever writing things down on tiny bits of paper and then misplacing them. I am sure a more organised person wouldn't have need for such a system like this, but for me it has really worked. :)

Oh and look what I picked up for the nursery. As soon as I saw this Zuny giraffe a few weeks ago, I fell in love with it. It is actually a paperweight but I thought it would be nice touch in the new baby's room. :)

30 Week Bump Update

It is hard to believe I am into the last 10 week stretch of this pregnancy! Things have been moving along swiftly and I am growing fast. I am now well and truly into maternity clothing for the most part and I have been surprised at how well I have coped with the hot weather thus far. To be fair, it hasn't actually been "that" hot and my weight gain is only up 1kg in the last 5 weeks, so that has made this summer pregnancy much easier to deal with.

I had my glucose screening test a few weeks ago and failed. I never had this problem with the first two and the prospect of having gestational diabetes was quite worrying to me because let's face it, everything worries me! Last weekend I had my follow up GTT (Glucose Tolerance Test) and yay, I passed! I have since found out that it is quite common to fail the screening test and have to go back for the two hour GTT. Sitting around at Labtests for two hours was a pain but I made the most of it by taking in a pile of writing to be marked.

Speaking of work, I am back now and working for the first school term. This will take me right up to 38 weeks and things are busy beyond words at the moment. I have very long 'To Do' lists each and every day and am doing my best to tick everything off so I can tackle the next task. On the topic of lists, I am really far behind in organising things for the baby this time around. I usually have a fully decorated nursery and everything prepared by about 18 weeks, but this time the nursery is a mish mash of all sorts of things floating around.

I have found it hard not knowing the gender of the baby this time around and being able to get the room all prepared in advance, in the way I would like. I think that for me personally, I much prefer finding out, rather than waiting for a surprise! I put it down to my control freak nature. :) The other week we did get some storage organised for the nursery though and Taff refreshed his flat pack assembly skills on an Ikea Expedit cube storage unit. I LOVE the Expedit's and would love to get another for our front entrance way.

For the storage underneath, I found some white POLO cube boxes from Freedom and they are a perfect fit for the Expedit and hold quite a bit. These will be great for storing wraps, nappies and all the other things you accumulate when you have a small baby. Well, that is my 30 week update! Soon I will share the way I have been organising all my pregnancy medical "stuff" so that I can keep on top of appointments, etc.

Back To School Treats: Double Chocolate Muffins

My family are not the greatest fans of muffins...but these scrumptious ones are an exception. Perfect as a back to school treat!

Double Chocolate Muffins

1 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

1/2cup sugar

100 grams melted butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup strong cocoa drink (the original recipe calls for strong coffee but we are not coffee drinkers!)

1 cup chocolate chips

Method

Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl, stir in sugar. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Melt butter. Beat egs and cocoa drink together. Add butter,egg mixture and chocolate chips to the dry ingredients. Mix quickly with a fork until ingredients are just combined. Three quarter fill greased deep muffin tins with mixture (I often use cupcake wrappers to save time). Bake at 190 degrees for 20 minutes or until muffins spring back when lightly touched. Serve warm and dusted with icing sugar. Makes 10-12.

I bake most weekends to prepare for the school week ahead and these muffins keep well and are a great addition to your repertoire.

A New School Year Begins

Another school year begins. Rosie is in Year 3 now and it was Harry's first week of school this week! It is hard to believe that he is now 5 and all grown up. :)

Both were super excited about starting school and had been looking forward to it for quite some time. Harry has enjoyed trying on his unform periodically during the holidays, "just to make sure it still fits" and was up bright and early on the first day.

Rosie and Harry are both really lucky to have great teachers and the first few days have gone very smoothly. They love getting up each morning and going to school and that is such a blessing to me. Being a full time working mum, we are up fairly early and they are now at an age where they are largely indpendent in getting changed, getting their own breakfast and packing their school bags.

With baby number three arriving in a few short months, it will be quite a shock to the system to go back to nappies, sleepless nights and having a little one who relies solely on us to take care of all his/her needs. I am quite scared about it! lol. Things have definitely got easier as the kids have grown older but I figure we have been through it twice before and survived, and hopefully we can do it again!

Oh and I had to share a photo of Harry's new chair bag that I made. A couple of years ago I made Rosie a school chair bag and this one isn't nearly as fancy, but I found this blue skull fabric for $5 a metre and whipped one up for him. It isn't the flashest, but at least he likes it. :)

We are all looking forward to another great year at school! :)