Sunday, November 29, 2009

Welcome to the world - Toni Childs

Awesome song that I heard on a birth montage the other day. Now I want Toni Childs' music to birth to!

Hush, now
And go to sleep
Go to sleep my baby (repeat)

Let me welcome you to this world
And let me tell you of my world
How it is
And how it is
You want to know now
I want to say that it's a bad world
And tell you that it's so, so bad
I don't want to disappoint you my child
But this world is gonna take you
Gonna take you by storm child
You will be hurt and there will be pain, yeah
But there will be love just the same, yeah
Welcome to the world my boy and girl
Welcome to the world, welcome to the world

Welcome to the world child
And all it has in store
You will do what you do
What you choose any old time
And take how you take
You'll begin to find
That fight as you fight as you will in life
Solutions, confusions
Won't you take this time now

I want to welcome you to this world
And yes, there'll be days and nights
When you know the world is alright

Round and round the world we go
Easy come, some say, easy go
The world could be a better place
But it's going to take the whole human race
We want to welcome you to this world
And yes, there'll be days and nights
When you'll wonder is the world right
We want to welcome you to this world
And yes, there'll be days and nights
When you'll know the world is alright

We all bounce on the big world ball
Come child, come with me
Come and bounce onto this world and see (repeat)

We are joy
We are light
We are darkness and we are night
We are hands and heads and ears and nose
We are feet, fingers, limbs and toes
We all, we all
We are bouncing on this big world ball

We pull triggers
We play with guns
We play with shoelaces and we twist our tongues
We are kisses
We are huggs
We are the match that will light you off

Saturday, November 28, 2009

10 not so important things that are things on my mind

  1. I am in the market for a new watch.
  2. Have had a touch of something gross this week.
  3. The exam I sat on Wednesday is now part of the "the subject that never ends" because of (2) - I have to resit it.
  4. Stuggling to get my ipod touch to sync with a calendar.
  5. 24 weeks down and Puggles is kicking up a storm.
  6. I see myself in a sarong for summer but am yet to find one I like. I might have to brave ebay.
  7. Speaking of summer - we renewed our lease the other day for another year.
  8. Augh the internets. They are broken and then they are fixed for $110 and some very highly skilled guy coming over to unplug the alarm system.
  9. Money is crap and tight and it's only another 12 weeks before I go on maternity leave.
  10. I need new shoes and a few other things and see (9) for why this is a problem.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A step somewhere...

This motion from Senator Siewert that was moved in the Senate and agreed to today:

Senator Siewert: To move—
(1) That the following bills:
Health Legislation Amendment (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill 2009
Midwife Professional Indemnity (Run-off Cover Support Payment) Bill 2009
Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth Contribution) Scheme Bill 2009,

be again referred to the Community Affairs Legislation Committee, together with the Government amendments to the bills circulated on 28 October 2009, for inquiry and report by 1 February 2010.

(2) In undertaking this inquiry, the committee shall consider:
(a) whether the consequences of the Government’s amendments for professional regulation of midwifery will give doctors medical veto over midwives’ ability to renew their licence to practice;
(b) whether the Government’s amendments’ influence on the health care market will be anti-competitive;
(c) whether the Government’s amendments will create difficulties in delivering intended access and choice for Australian women;
(d) why the Government’s amendments require ‘collaborative arrangements’ that do not specifically include maternity service providers including hospitals;
(e) whether the Government’s amendments will have a negative impact on safety and continuity of care for Australian mothers; and
(f) any other related matter.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Holiday decoration ideas!

Sooper Bloomers is a lovely little etsy shop that I am in love with and am seriously wanting on the Starry Holiday Ornament for my tree. I want to collect an ornament for each year that Puggle is around. This year is not technically their first giftmas and while we don't celebrate per se, I want to have something to celebrate the end of the year and giftmas ornaments are easy to do.


I highly recommend going and visiting. I'm about to check my paypal account to see if I can afford a brooch ;).

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Henna and bellies and exams, oh my!

I have a heap of photos to share but because our internet is dicky at the moment I can't rely on it to stay up long enough to link to them. So I'll do it in dribs and drabs, ok?

Here are some from yesterday, where I hung out with a whole heap of people from Joyous Birth and did a heap of things including having some henna on my hands and belly. Belly shots are to come so here are the hands:


This is the mixture on my hand - it's now a lovely chocolate woody brown and will darken over the new day or so.

Here is my belly cast - Alice did it for me at 23 weeks because I wanted one roughly halfway through, and then at the end. I'll upload a how-to soon!

Here's the bump:


And lastly a photo of the photo we had printed and framed for my FIL's 60th birthday last weekend:

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Almost to the end

I had plans for Friday morning but instead ended up making sweet sweet love to my LAST ASSIGNMENT FOR THE YEAR and then went to my LAST SHIFT FOR THE YEAR at a hospital and shared an amazing empowering birth with a woman whose previous birth was traumatic and this one was amazing (her words, not my judgement).

I now only have 18 units of my degree to go (oh and two exams and a portfolio but *meh*). I am struggling a bit to just. keep. going when I want to be focused on work and nesting and being pregnant. I have two solid subjects next year to get through, including big placements

Today is a delicious day off. TheMan has gone to the gym to do a double class - RPM then pump. He is bringing coffee home for us though.

Then we need to tidy the house. It is clean, just not tidy. It's the effect of spending 6 months doing 99% of things and discovering that at the end of 6 months, that means there is stuff and things around the house waiting to be put away.

The study is slowly turning into Puggle's Room. I refuse to call it a nursery as I don't plan on nursing in there, and s/he won't be in there by themselves for ages. I will take some photos shortly to show!

The shopping list is shrinking:

Need:
  • Nursing and maternity clothes for moi
  • Reusable cloth pads for moi (12 x Regular and 6 large)
  • Mattress protectors x 2 (for our bed)
  • Sheet set x 2 (extra for our bed)
  • Nightlight (actually yes I want a touch lamp for beside the bed and these are hard to find!)
  • Lambskin baby rug
  • Singlet suits x 10
  • Knitted hats x5 (have new book for these! Now to buy some yarn to make them with :)
  • Baby wipes (both disposable and washable)
  • Nappy bucket(s)
  • Thermometer
  • Steriliser (bottle/pump) (want a microwaveable one)
For later:
  • Storage containers for milk/food
  • Training cups
  • Bowls, plates, utensils
  • Teethers/teether toys
  • Teething gel / Razberry
  • Non-slip bath stickers
  • Safety gate
  • Powerpoint plug guards
  • Cupboard & appliance latches
  • Potty
  • Toilet training seat
And a few big things that we want:
  • Chest freezer
  • New car (we have a 3 door hatch at the moment and are going to have to upgrade to a 5 door at some point soon)

Monday, November 2, 2009

How's the pregnancy going?

I get asked it a lot and I guess you, my loyal blog readers, should hear some more about it.

I am now coming up to 21 weeks pregnant. That is pretty much set though I'm measuring 1cm in front of that "guideline" by fundal height, so who knows what that means. But in terms of due date:

"Recent research offers a more accurate method of approximating gestational length. In 1990 Mittendorf et Al. undertook a study to calculate the average length of uncomplicated human pregnancy. They found that for first time mothers (nulliparas) pregnancy lasted an average of 288 days (41 weeks 1 day). For multiparas, mothers who had previously given birth, the average gestational length was 283 days or 40 weeks 3 days." Source

So 41 weeks and 1 day puts my due date at 25/03/2010 rather than 17/03/2010. Now for me, it matters not when bub arrives - I am comfortable knowing that sometime before Ostara next year, we'll be a family of 3. Which I what I'm telling people - either that bub is due in March sometime, or else "before Ostara/Easter".

What is amusing is if I tell people I'm 21 weeks, they'll go "ahuh", like it means something to them. If I say "5 months", then the assumption is that I have 4 left to go. If I say "March" invariably people go "wow you're big/small for that!", like they have any idea of what I should be now.

By the way I've updated my 101 in 1001 days list and need to get my bum into gear as it's now less than 2 years to go!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Paganism 101

Lammas - first week in Feb
Mabon - autumn equinox
Samhain - April 30th
Yule - winter solstice
Candlemas - first week in August
Ostara - spring equinox
Beltane - first week November
Litha - summer solstice

You Call it Christmas, We Call it Yule

You Call It Easter, We Call It Ostara

You Call It Hallowe'en... We Call It Samhain

You Call It Groundhog Day, We Call It Imbolc

You Call it May Day, We Call it Beltane