Koby's arrival...

Here is the story of how little Koby came into the world.  (Warning: long post, some gross bits!)


On the Thursday night we dropped Skye off to hubbys parents and headed in to hospital to start the inducement process. The plan was to insert the gel and leave it overnight to start to dilate the cervix, then go home and wait. If nothing happened overnight then I was to go in Friday morning to have my waters broken and possibly intravenous oxytocin to speed up the process.

When we got there, we were shown into a birthing suite and met the midwife, who hooked me up to the monitor to measure bubs heart rate and movements. Bub was being very sleepy as usual, but it was comforting to see the heart rate steady at around 150 bpm. I had been concerned, especially since bub had slowed down movements in the last few days.  We were only meant to be hooked up to the machine for about 20 mins, but since they were busy it was more like 45mins. The first 20 mins bub didn’t move, but in the last 20 mins or so started to move around a bit. At one point hubby said that the sound of the heartbeat was like Rolf Harris’ wobble board, and for some reason that just tickled us, and we went into fits of hysterical laughter. We joked that bub didn’t want to come out because the wobble board was blocking its way.  (Funny the things that just seem to tickle your funny bone, especially when everyone is a bit nervous!)

Then I had an internal exam and found that I was 4cms dilated anyway, so there was no need for the gel at all, since it would not get me any further than I already was. That was a bit of a relief actually, and we went home feeling positive and hopeful that the stretch and sweep that she also performed might make something happen.

Went to bed early, and actually got an ok nights sleep. I did wake up around 2am with more cramps, but they went away again. Waters hadn't broken naturally so we headed back to hospital for our 6am appointment.

When we got there we were told that it was crazy busy in birthing (it had been a stormy night, and they say its always busier in labour ward when its been storming!), and there was some doubt that they had a spare suite for me!! But there was, and we got settled in birth suite 1. We were warned though that we might be in for a bit of a wait, since all the midwives and doctors were busy with all the labouring ladies, and since nothing had happened with me I was a bit lower on their priorities list!

We waited for 1.5 hours, reading magazines, chatting… and listening to all the other ladies moaning and screaming LOL!   I bounced on the birthing ball and tried not to panic about what was soon to happen. At 7.30am a midwife came in and decided that she could at least break my waters for me to get the ball rolling.

I changed into a gown and got on the bed. Had an internal – no change from the night before. Waters were broken – this was totally painless but I kept getting a gush of water when I moved – weird! I was strapped up to a monitor and again had to wait. After half an hour bub was still asleep (lazy little monkey!) so I was given some juice, and finally bub woke up and moved a bit so they could monitor him.

Another half an hour on the monitor, with baby movement this time (and more gushing ewww!) and I was finally able to get up, pants on, and move around. I had my first little contraction just before the straps came off – around 8.30am.

Then I sat on the birthing ball and bounced and rolled around on it, and started to get some very mild contractions. They lasted about 20 seconds and I could still talk through them no problems. I made sure I kept drinking water, and kept going to the loo – I didn’t want to get stuck with a full bladder that wouldn’t empty like last time!

I used a contraction timer app on my iphone to keep track of contractions. The midwves were amazed at the technology LOL!!  From 8.45am I started to log them at around 8-10mins apart, lasting for 20-30 seconds each. By 9.30 they were about 5-6mins apart and lasting 30-40 seconds – I wasn’t able to talk through them by then and they were really taking my breath away. By 10am they were 3mins apart and 40-50 seconds long – and really painful. They stayed 3mins apart for a while – just increasing in intensity. I was still on the ball at this stage, but finally I got up and tried to walk around – bad idea. The pain was getting way too intense. I just wanted to grab metal bars and shut my eyes!

By 10.30am they were almost 2 mins apart and lasting 45-60 seconds. Hubby had taken over recording of the contractions by now, I couldn’t stay upright any longer and had to lie down on my left hand side on the bed. By 11am the contractions were 1-2 mins apart, and I was starting to really panic and hyperventilate with the pain.

The doctor came in and laughed that things were a bit more intense than when he’d come in a few hours ago. I was in too much agony to say anything but in the back of my mind I was swearing at him for making a joke of the situation. He asked if I wanted any pain relief, and I asked for gas. He said my next check up with him would be in 45 mins, so he’d see us then and left.  (And I never saw him again, as the baby was out before my next review!)

By now with the contractions so close, I had started to sweat profusely. It was dripping off me and I just remember thinking that I was burning, I was so hot. Hubby started to fan me with a magazine and it felt heavenly. I was drenched in sweat, still wearing the purple hospital gown, bra and undies.

After a few goes on the gas, I started to panic even more – thinking that I had hours of this still ahead of me, and started demanding an epidural. Hubby did his best to dissuade me (since I had already pre-decided NOT to use it), but I was determined. I couldn’t take this pain anymore. He even asked the midwife to tell me all the negatives (I would have to sit still for the needle, it would take 40 mins for them to get it organized, I wouldn’t be able to walk around, I’d have to have a catheter etc) but I was not going to be deterred. Each contraction was worse than the one before it, and I could not imagine having to go through hours more pain like this. I was shrieking in agony each time a contraction hit, and I’m normally a very quiet person! I didn’t even make much noise when Skye was born, but this was just too quick and intense!

Then at the next contraction I felt like I had to push so I shouted “I need to push!!”. Midwife was a bit taken by surprise I think, so she asked me to roll onto my back so she could check me (I hadn't been checked since before my waters were broken). My undies/pad were completely saturated by this stage, so she had to peel them off me (I remember thinking in the back of my mind how sorry I felt for her, and how gross that would be!).

I then started babbling about how I cant push yet, its too soon, I’m not ready yet etc. I had to explain this by saying that I had the urge to push last time when I was only 8cms and was told I must not push under any circumstances (easier said than done when your body wants to do its thing). So I assumed the same thing had happened again.

Anyway she checked me and said “oh you sneaky thing you – you’re 10cms fully dilated and ready to go! That was quick! We’ll have this baby out very shortly!” And kept calling me “clever girl, sneaky girl etc etc” and all the while I was thinking “Yeah yeah I bet you say that to EVERYONE!”

So I had to slow things down and calm my breathing. Midwife asked me to listen very carefully, as she would be giving me instructions on how to push and it was really important that I do exactly as she said.

Funnily enough from this point on I don’t remember the pain of the contractions, as I had something to really focus on and a purpose to the pain.

After 2 contractions of pushing they could see the head. A couple more contractions and the head was almost out. The midwife warned me then about the ‘ring of fire’ – which actually wasn’t as bad as I’d thought (maybe all those practice sessions with the epi-no paid off). I had to do little pushes, stop, more little pushes, then stop etc, so that his head didn’t just shoot right out of me and cause tearing!

And then his head was out, and he was face down – NOT posterior!! Phew! And then, according to my birth plan, Hubby took some photos of the head being out! I’m so glad he did that, I’m fascinated by those photos and the wonder of just HOW on earth that head could fit through there!

I then slowly slowly pushed out his body with the next couple of pushes.

Scott got bub immediately and placed him on my chest and told me we had a little boy! And I instantly panted “told you it was going to be a boy!”

I felt a huge surge of relief that the worst was over, and the next thing I said was “Thank God I never have to do that again!!”

I was shaking for a while afterwards, in shock. I had the injection in my leg to speed up the birth of the placenta, which came out whole. I did have to push that out too, but it was nothing after pushing out a baby.  We both had a good look at the placenta too - quite fascinating really.  The midwife was great at explaining how it all worked.

I was quite pleased with myself that I had done it all with just a few puffs of gas (maybe 10 mins worth) and that I had no tearing, no episiotomy, and no stitches – just a very small graze. The midwife also said that I’d had an almost bloodless birth too!

I was amazed at how I was much more lucid this time around - I guess because it was so much shorter in duration I didn't have time to get fatigued and fuzzy-headed.  Big advantage not having pethidene either, last time I was pretty spaced out between contractions, but this time I was much more aware of my surroundings, what people were saying and doing.  It was like I was going through this horrendous pain, but I still had this under-layer of conciousness that was thinking clearly and normally, enough to be annoyed at the doctors comments or to have total understanding of the midwifes instructions or whatever.

The cord had been wrapped loosely around his neck once, but he was fine. A grand total of 3 hours in labour, and only 10 mins of pushing!

After all that excitement I felt really cold and shivery for a while, so hubby covered me up in blankets. We then spent the next couple of hours just gazing at our son, and talking about the experience, and trying to decide on a name!

In hindsight, I’m glad that I had to be induced – if my waters had broken naturally and I’d waited until the contractions were close enough together before going to hospital, perhaps we wouldn’t have made it in time! Who knows, I’m just grateful that it all went smoothly and we have a beautiful baby boy to add to our family!

He's here!

Our little man, Koby Zack, arrived safe and sound at 11.35am on Friday the 2nd of December!  Birth weight 3.22kgs (7pds 1oz), 52cms long and 35cm head circumference.

He was 10 days overdue, and I had to have my waters broken (no gel or drip though thankfully!) - but it was only a 3 hour labour in the end!  Although I have to admit that the last half hour to 45 mins was one of the most painful in my life - it was excrutiating!  And since it all happened so quickly there was no time for drugs, so all I had was gas for about 10 mins, and then it was time to push!  And 10 mins of pushing and he was out!  Thankfully he was facing the right way, so all those fears about a posterior birth were unneccesary.  Happily, no stitches or anything so I'm feeling great physcially... just very very tired.

So a very different experience compared to the first time around.

I will be back later to blog more about the details (since I love birth stories!) - for now I'm trying to figure out how to juggle a newborn and a toddler on my own since hubby has had to go back to work already :(  Forgot just how exhausting a newborn can be!

OVER IT!!!!!!

Officially one week overdue now... still waiting AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

Will be induced on Thursday night/Friday morning if nothing happens before then.  Keep your fingers and toes crossed that we can avoid that scenario if possible.

Hurry UP baby!!!

Nope, still pregnant!

Just in case you were wondering - I'm still here, tapping my foot impatiently!

*Sigh* - this is one of the worst things about pregnancy, waiting... waiting...  Due date is tomorrow, but dont hold your breath!  Doesn't feel like anything is happening.  Next hospital visit is on Thursday.

I've mentally started making a list of all the things I'm going to do once I dont have an enormous bump in front of me.  Things like giving my hubby and Skye a full-frontal hug, without feeling like we've got a basketball between us.  Or being able to sleep on my back again. Or sleeping without constant hip pain.  Or being able to pick things up off the floor again, or have more than 3 items of clothing that fits me!! 

Yes, can you tell I'm at that REALLY whiney, whingey, complaining stage?? LOL!  And yes its exciting to be having a new baby too, I hadn't forgotten about that!

It hasn't been helping that Skye has been really frustrating with her sleeps lately.  She started to drop her day sleep altogether, and is now waking at 5.20am every day - regardless of her bedtime.  I've got her mostly back on track with her day nap, but still cant work out why she's waking so early in the mornings... just another challenge, another phase!

Our pup Dutchy is proving to be a great little addition to our home though, and its wonderful how well he and Elke get along together too, since this was one of the main things we were concerned about.  Elke can be a teeny bit, ummm, aggressive, with other dogs - but somehow she just seemed to "know" that Dutchy belonged.  Animals are so smart sometimes.

Anyway, the other week I'd put them to bed and turned out the light - but then a few minutes later realised I'd forgotten something so switched the light back on - and I caught them - like this:

They looked SOOO guilty LOL!!  Huddled on Dutchys bed (Elke has her own of course, it was just funny that they both squeezed into the same bed)  It looked so funny that I had to turn on the light and take another photo:

Awwww, they love cuddling together!

So glad they have each other now :)

In other news...

The evolution of our main bathroom.  18+ months in the making.

It started out looking like this below: (before we bought the house - Sept 2009).  Not really to our tastes!



We had a separate toilet and bathroom.  My husband, ever the "cant-help-myself" home renovator (and yes its just handy that he's a licensed carpenter by trade as well) decided back in March 2010 that the bathroom needed "fixing".  Main reason was that we had a 3 month old baby at the time, and only a spa bath in our ensuite to bath her in.  So the aim was to renovate the main bathroom to give us a more child-friendly bathroom.

 

 Out came the dividing wall... up came some tiles.  The tiles had other ideas about being removed though, they were stuck fast!

 Pretty horrible... pink blinds... nice!

So then he had to extend the wall out and move the laundry door too so that it didn't open into the new bathroom space (laundry is also in the process of being done) 

Piping had to be changed and diverted from the corner, to the back wall.  We lived with it like this for a long time!  I had started to shun visitors because of the state of the bathroom!

And then.... suddenly it all started to happen about 6 weeks ago!  Our tiler mate came around and did the floor to ceiling tiles for us.  The bath had been in position for a while, but then it actually got plummed in!!

Next thing to tackle was the surround for the bath.  Hubby bought some Tallowwood flooring "seconds" a while ago, with a view to using it in the bathroom and laundry.  This timber is beautiful.  We actually had a cabinet-maker mate come around to design our bathroom for us months ago, however he told us that hubby's design for the bath surround could not be done!!   Yes it was painstaking and fiddly, but its a custom built work of art as far as I'm concerned :)  Perhaps I'm biased :)

He also used the Tallowwood for the vanity drawers.  Some Caesar Stone for the benchtop and some lovely chrome taps make a difference too.

And this is the bathroom as of November 2011 as it nears completion!

The bath - looking all shiny and lovely!  We are going to put some little accessories/candles/knick-knack type things in the niches - we just need to decide on a colour and go from there.  Now that the timber has been all laquered up it looks awesome.

And the new vanity, again custom-made with the Tallowwood.  The only remnant of the old bathroom here is the gold powerpoint and light switch.  White ones coming soon!



And the last things on the bathroom "to-do" list - sand and paint the ceiling, square-set cornice, and some down-lights!

So nice to have a shiny new bathroom!

Waiting... waiting...

Yes I'm still here, still waiting!

About 11 days to go now until our official due date - although Skye was 8 days late so I'm not holding my breath!!

I'm at that really uncomfortable stage now - where it doesn't matter how I sit, how I lie down in bed, or how I stand - you just cant get comfortable, or even sleep.  How cruel is it, that at a time in life when you need the most sleep you can get, you just cant get it!  I dont sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time now, either waking up to go to the loo, or just waking up so I can roll over to reduce the pain in my hips, or waking up to adjust the multitude of bloody pillows that I now share the bed with - aaarrggh!!

I have finished work as of Tuesday though, so thats a relief.  Baby capsule is now installed in the car - and wow, does it feel strange when I look back and see TWO kids seats in the back of my car!! 

Anyway its all for a good cause!  Although I'm starting to freak out - I want this baby out now, but I know what I have to go through to get it - eeeek!!

Thought I'd share with you a conversation I had with my 22 month old daughter in the car the other day:

Skye:  "Mummy?"
Me :    "Yes Skye?"
Skye:  "Mummy mummy?"
Me:     "Yes?"
Skye:  "MUMMY!!!!"
Me:     "What?"
Skye:  "Mummy mummy mummy MUMMY!  Mummy!  MUMM-EH!  Muu-uum... mummy... mumm-ehh!  MUMM-EH!!"  etc etc etc and continued for 15 mins (all said while grinning at me in triumph)

Me:    "Sigh"

How do you manage it?

So all you mums with more than one child – HOW DO YOU DO IT??


The further along in this pregnancy I get, the more and more I start to worry about how the hell I’ll cope with a baby and a toddler.

Of course you just “do it” and you somehow manage to get through the days, but are there any tips or tricks for how to better manage it?


I’ve been thinking back on the early days with Skye – unfortunately she had colic and silent reflux - but we didn’t realise she had reflux til she was older, and it explained A LOT.

Anyway, I vividly remember some days where it would take me 2 + hours to get her to settle off to sleep, often with non-stop screaming along the way. Only to have her sleep for 20 minutes, wake screaming for a feed, and go through it all again. Exhausting. I would come out of her room after hours of burping and settling her, to flop on the couch and cry. Quite a stressful time.


We tried everything to fix the colic/reflux, but sadly the only remedy was time, and putting her on solids at 4 months as advised by the doctor.


Obviously I had the time to spend settling a colicky/refluxy baby back then – but I will not have that luxury this time.


Of course we’re hoping to not have a second unsettled baby. I’d like to officially place my order for one of those “dream” babies you hear about!!


Unfortunately, both reflux and colic runs in my husbands family – they AAALLLLL had either one or the other, even his niece and nephew. However there is none in my family, so we can but hope.


This bub is MUCH quieter and less active than Skye was. Skye was beating me up internally, constantly, from about 16 weeks onwards – all day AND all night. She never seemed to stop kicking me or constantly hiccuping while in utero. And she’s totally active now, never stops. This bub though seems MUCH more sedate. Sometimes I get a bit worried because I haven’t had much movement – and then I get a good strong kick or feel it "squirm" and feel better.


Anyway, I’ve bought a Maya Wrap/ring sling to try, as I’ve heard that baby-wearing can help. I’ve also got a Baby Bjorn carrier too from last time. I’m thinking that this bub might just have to learn to sleep on the run, in the swing or in the baby carrier. Or else I might just have to buy some noise-cancelling ear phones!

Hellooo!

Hello my poor neglected blog, are you still there?? I seriously don’t know where the time goes these days!



We’ve got about 7 weeks to go until we meet the newest family member, and the countdown has begun in earnest! Cannot WAIT for this pregnancy to be over!

The whinging has started MUCH earlier with this pregnancy :)

Seems like my coping abilities are declining with age maybe? Anyway, I’m certainly not breezing through this pregnancy like I did last time.  My knuckles started to swell weeks ago, so I’ve had to move my wedding and engagement ring to my little finger so that they don’t get stuck like they did last time.

I’ve also just this week started to notice some slight swelling in my feet – here comes the “sausage toes” look, just in time for summer – hooray! :)
 I think the main reason for the lack of coping is having a child approaching the terrible twos!! I love my child to death, but seriously she is learning how to push all my buttons lately.



Is it normal for a child of this age-group to NOT CARE if they get into trouble? I mean, everything is like water off a ducks back to this kid. Cheeky? Oh yeah, with a capital “C”. She doesn’t care if she gets yelled/roared at, privileges removed, bedtime story withheld, nothing else to eat if she doesn't eat dinner, smacks on the bum or anything. Just doesn’t care - everything is funny to her.


Last night she decided that she’d had enough of her dinner, and started squirming in her high-chair, twisting around, and then standing up in it. After being asked a couple of times to sit down, daddy ROARED at her to sit down. Which she did. She hung her head for about 5 seconds, then glared at him and gave him the evil eye for 5 seconds, and then proceeded to chuckle and giggle at him!



To which we both had to turn our heads and cover our faces so she wouldn’t see us cracking up laughing! But she saw us laughing anyway, and it just reinforced to her that getting into trouble is funny!!  How do you deal with that?  Its SO hard not to laugh!


I suppose the good thing is that she doesn’t sulk, ever. She gets over things in the blink of an eye. Its hard to stay mad with her for long because she herself just ‘gets on with it’.


She hasn’t really had many tantrums yet – her big thing is if she decides she doesn’t want to walk where I want her to go, she just lies down – wherever she happens to be – in the shops, on the driveway, in a carpark etc. She just lies down and looks at me as if to say “ha-ha – come get me!” So I then pick her up, drag her by the arm or whatever – I try to make her walk if I can, since my back isn’t coping with carrying her much anymore. I’m fast running out of energy, especially with a huge pregnant belly as well.


Negotiations don’t really work either, so sometimes I just give in because I really don’t have the energy or the patience to fight with her anymore. Toddlers really are exhausting little people!

Progress photos and our newest family member

A few "bump" photos from this pregnancy... I must admit I've been extremely slack at taking photos this time around!  Last time I took them every 2 weeks, pretty much religiously.  But these days I just forget to.

18 weeks and I was pretty much feeling just fat at this stage.

 20 weeks

 27 weeks and HOLY DOOLEY I've suddenly "popped"!  My belly button is even sticking out already! 

I think I'm going to feel like a whale by the end, considering I've still got 12 + weeks to go. 

Getting a few comments that I'm much bigger, sooner, this time around. 

The weather has started to warm up and I've been able to go without jumpers for the last week or two, so perhaps its just suddenly visible now.  Had a few comments from other mums at playgroup that they didn't even realise I was pregnant, and then suddenly I'm VERY pregnant!

For the last month or so I've been feeling quite restricted around my ribs.  I have to be careful not to eat too much at one sitting because it feels like my lungs dont have enough room in there.  Dont remember feeling this way last time!

Anyway - in other news:

We got a puppy!

I know, I know - in 12 weeks we'll have a newborn baby and a toddler, and then we go and add a puppy to the mix??  Are we insane??

This is Dutchy - he's a 12 week old toy poodle X pomeranian.  (yes, he's sort-of named after a character from Sea Patrol, but it does suit him!)

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you might remember that we lost our beloved Alaskan Malamute Shavez, not long before Skye was born (Read here if you want to feel sad).

We've umm-ed and ahhh-ed about getting another dog ever since.  We still have our beautiful miss Elke (Border Collie X Keeshond) who is now 8 years old, and my gorgeous Siamese Cat Connor who is now nearly 14 - but my husband has been missing "his boy" ever since that awful day.

Sometimes we still sit and chat about Shavez, and it usually still ends in tears from both of us.

So getting a new pooch has been a long time coming, but hubby just hasn't been ready.  It will be 2 years on Fathers Day since we said goodbye to Shavez.

Miss Elke is an awesome dog, but she's a little strange that she never gets excited when we get home  -most dogs leap about in crazed excitement.  She wont sit with him while he's working outside, she'll come inside and sleep on her own instead.  She's a bit of a loner in that respect.  (I love her to pieces though - she's SO good with Skye, so patient and smart, and I can leave food on the ground in front of her all day and she wont touch it unless I say she can)

Anyway, after deciding that he wanted a little lapdog, hubby found this little pup on the internet on Saturday - and agonised over it for hours!  Finally we made a mad dash to the northside of Brisbane to check out this little man (in the pouring rain!) and came home with him!

How could we refuse a face like this!

Let the games begin!

Baby names

Oh my poor neglected blog! If anyone is still reading, I apologise for my lack of posting!

Partly I’m just busy, partly I’m just uninspired. I’m sure everyone is sick of reading my dribble! The only things I’ve got to talk about are my toddler, and my pregnancy and at the moment I’m into my 3rd week of battling a cold/chesty cough/tonsillitis so my motivation is quite low right now!

Anyway, onto baby names…

Wow – its SO hard to come up with baby names that you can both agree on. Last time, we had two girls names picked out – our number one pick was Piper Lily, and our “back up name” was Skye Lily (but we both preferred our first choice). I’m a big believer in having a few options!

When she was born, I looked at her and I thought to myself “She doesn’t LOOK like a ‘Piper’”… and two seconds later my husband said the exact same thing! So by default, she became Skye! I couldn’t imagine her with any other name now!

It was lucky that we had a girl, because we had absolutely ZERO boy names picked out. We just couldn’t agree on anything.

During my labour, my husband was asking all the midwives:

“Have you got any good boys names?” I didn’t know about this until later, I was so wrapped up in my own little world LOL!


Girls names seem to be much easier. Boys names are tougher in my opinion!

Names are so individual too. Once the baby is born, people will generally say that it’s a lovely name, whether they actually feel that way or not! It doesn’t matter though, as long as we like it.

How did you go about choosing names? Baby name book? Internet site? Celebrity name?


Before Skye, I’ve only had to name pets in the past. I had a beautiful Staffie once, and named him “Tyler”. I got his name by flicking through the White Pages, looking for surnames that appealed to me.

When we got miss Elke (Border Collie X Keeshond) she was nameless for a day or two. We toyed with the idea of “Sassy” and even called her that for a day, but it wasn’t right. I found “Elke” on a baby name website, and it just fit. (We pronounce it “Elkie”).


Connor the Siamese cat got his name from the Highlander movie (“Connor MacLeod, of the clan MacLeod!” – I used to love that movie, and this is the only line I remember from it!)


We like unusual names, but not so weird that they’ll get teased. We prefer names of just one or two syllables too – it just seems to fit with our surname better.

I have about 5 iphone apps dedicated to Baby Names – I guess I’ll just keep looking! Time is running out though – we need inspiration!

Thoughts on Childbirth for Bub Number 2

The Jellybean at 19 weeks

Well, I'm almost 22 weeks pregnant now, over half way - where is the time going?  We have a revised due date of the 22nd of November (one day earlier LOL!) so lets hope this little one doesn't keep us waiting like Skye did!

Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I would do differently for this birth – which is frighteningly fast approaching!

I think that having “been there and done that” once before, you are LESS scared of the actual birth process itself. But having said that, it doesn’t mean I’m not scared!!  In a few ways I'm MORE nervous, because I know whats coming!  When we first found out I was pregnant, I found myself trying to sleep, but having flashbacks of the birth, and started wondering "What the hell am I doing this again for??!!"

I had a relatively “ok” birth the first time around. Skye had been posterior at around 34 weeks, but by 36 weeks she had turned around the right way. By the time I went into labour at 41 weeks, she was back to posterior again! A lot of babies turn themselves during labour, but not my stubborn little monkey. So she came out face up and mummy had to have a ‘snip’.

The doctor at the hospital asked me last week whether, if I had the choice, if I would "do" another posterior birth without the epidural, as I did last time.  Hmmm, will have to think on that one.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about whether having one posterior baby leads to a likelihood that the second baby will also be posterior. The last doc said there was about a 30% chance - but a lot depends on mums body and how the pelvis is built. I found it particularly frustrating, because the “cure” for getting a posterior baby to turn is to spend a lot of time on your hands and knees so your belly swings down, sitting forward on chairs (and not slumping back into couches when watching TV etc), to make gravity do its job and get the heaviest part of bub (their back) to naturally fall towards your front.

BUT – here’s the frustrating and difficult part – how do you manage that when you have edema (swelling of feet, ankles, legs and hands) as well? Because whenever I complained of that to the docs/midwives, the recommendation is to “put your feet up/recline, lie down/have your feet higher than your hips” etc. Which contradicts what you’re meant to do for a posterior bub.  So you do both - and neither helps the other.

Anyway, maybe I’m counting my chickens before they’ve hatched, but its something I’ve been thinking about.

I was relatively active in my first pregnancy, still exercising regularly until about 26 weeks, I worked full time in a busy role until 35 weeks pregnant too, along with packing and moving house when 7 months pregnant. I’m probably less active these days – not as much exercise as I’d like, and my job involves walking from the lounge room into the study and sitting down at the computer for the entire duration of Skyes naps. So I guess I’m concerned that a posterior birth is more likely.

For the actual birth process, I have a few ideas.

Last time I hated the gas, and so I’m going to tell them this time to bugger off with it unless I ask for it. I didn’t have the strength or knowledge to say no last time, every time I cried in pain, the midwife would say “USE THE GAS, USE THE GAS!!” and I just dutifully obeyed when it was shoved in my face. I found the gas annoying more than anything. Plus it gave me a dreadfully dry, sore throat for a couple of days afterwards – it hurt to swallow!

The other thing I’m going to ask for is WATER!! I drank zero water during my last labour. Hubby didn’t think to give me any, nobody else thought to give me any. And honestly it was the last thing on my mind, but I was so parched and dehydrated afterwards that I really wish I had. So that will be hubbys job this time around – to at least keep offering (even when I’m swearing at him LOL!).

I’d also like him to take a few photos this time around. Not of the ‘gory’ bits, but just the environment in general. I don’t remember much of anything except pain from last time (hazy memory due to the pethidene I think), and the only photos we took were AFTER Skye had entered the world.

And I’d like to have a bit more of an active birth this time. Last time I was so caught up in my own little world, I just wanted to lay down and grip the bars of the bed and squeeze my eyes shut and not think about anything. But I think I should try to do some breathing exercises this time, stay on my feet more (or at least just lean on the bed, rather than lie on it). Hopefully that might let me have more of a sense of reality, rather than just be in a bit of a haze the whole time. I guess the pethidene didn’t help with that though, as it makes you doze off between contractions. Maybe I can avoid it this time!

And finally of course I'm hoping for a shorter labour this time - although I cant really complain too much, Skye took about 14 hours "unofficially" (or 9 hours if you go by the hospitals records of "official" length of labour) - so I shouldn't really complain I guess!

Hoarding

We are part the way through setting up Skye's new bedroom, complete with a new King Single bed!!  (We're going to need the cot, and the room beside ours for the new arrival in November).  Now I just need to get some decor happening in there, some block-out blinds and a safety rail for the bed and she'll be ready to move in!

So yesterday I cleared out the wardrobe of her new bedroom (which was previously the ‘spare’ room – commonly thought of as the ‘junk room’) to make way for the move.

This room has been the prime place for storing things that we don’t use often, or don’t know where else to put them. It also contained a double bed for "guests" (except we never have any stay overnight these days), spare TV, golf clubs, extra clothes, Christmas decorations, boxes still unpacked from the last move etc.  Every house I’ve ever lived in has had a room like this, and I just move this junk from one house to the next!

YesterdayI discovered about 7 rolls of wrapping paper in the wardrobe (and yet I could never find any when I needed it!), and I finally came to the conclusion that I have a serious problem with hoarding gift bags. Whenever people give presents in a gift bag, I always save them with the thought that they are so cute, I’ll use that again. And guess what, I never do! So I have dozens of gift bags "saved" for that purpose!

Another sadder realization that I finally admitted to is the fact that I’m a shocking hoarder of anything sentimental from my past. I mean, I knew that I still had these things, but for some reason I couldn’t let them go. I went through bags containing my high school English lecture pad, with stories I’d written as a teenager (I was an aspiring short-story writer back then).  Also, my year 12 student diary and class timetables, with lots of scribbles, notes and jokes inside from friends now long lost. I used to be a member of a theatre group after I finished school, and I’d kept all the old programs of shows that I’d gone to or been involved with – also from those days I’d kept cast newsletters, song lists, scripts, handwritten notes regarding plays that I was in…

I found my old poetry book, where I wrote some pretty good poems (and some pretty bad ones too). And for some reason, I’d kept all my wall calendars from the last 15 years – handy in case I ever wanted to know what date I went to the dentist back in 1998, or what movies I went to see in 2001!!

I also found things from when I was 15 or 16 when I was MAD on the TV shows like The Young Ones and Monty Python movies/series – so I’d written out entire scripts from the skits I liked, along with Monty Python song lyrics… scribbles on paper with lines from Doors or The Cure songs that I listened to at the time etc

I also found my old guitar that I tried to teach myself to play on, when I was about 14!! I keep carting these things from house to house every time we move. I don’t even think about NOT bringing them, because I suppose they are a part of me and my history.

But yesterday I culled about one third of it. I’ve kept the stuff that I just cant even contemplate dumping (and probably wont). I’ve still got a couple of shoe boxes of cards, letters, postcards and photos to go through yet, so I might be getting rid of even more junk soon.

Part of me feels a bit sad at throwing away this “junk”. I know most of it is meaningless, but I suppose its what it represents, rather than what it is. All of these things remind me of certain times, artistic times, or certain friendships. The fact that I haven’t looked at any of these things for years means nothing, its just a part of me.

But another part of me knows that I cant continue to hoard ALL of this stuff for the rest of my life (otherwise I'd need a whole house to store it all!), and I know that it’s a good thing to let some of it go. I have the memories, and that’s what counts.

Luckily I’m not a hoarder of anything else!!

But don’t get me started on my husbands Car Magazine Collection – and he doesn’t see anything wrong with that either!

15 weeks

The weeks are flying past – only another 25 weeks to go LOL!!

So now I’m past the first trimester I’m feeling a lot better, so nice to feel relatively normal again!

Although having said that, I’ve picked up a cold – booo!

I haven’t been sick for a LONG time, I think the last time was when I was pregnant with Skye, so its been maybe 2 years – a bit of a shock to the system! Normally whenever I feel a tickle in the throat I’m quick to dose up on good old Olive Leaf Extract – multiple spoonfuls of that usually sees me waking up just fine the next day. But of course you cant take anything like that when you’re pregnant.  :(  So its been lemon juice, manuka honey, and Butter Menthols all week. 

Anyway, since I haven't been sick in ages, I've been moaning about it all week.  My hubby is the kind who DOESN'T want sympathy when he's sick, he just wants to be left alone - never grumbles (yes I know, how was I lucky enough to score one of those men??).  But the opposite side to that is, when its ME that gets sick, I get no sympathy from him at all LOL!!

My bicep tendonitis seems to be flaring up at the moment too.   My whole right shoulder, rotator cuff, shoulder blade and lats seem to be involved, and its at the point where its getting painful to raise my arm above shoulder height when my arm is outstretched.  I haven't done any shoulder exercises for a while, so I'm not sure why its playing up now.  Possibly picking up a 17 month old doesn't help.  Might have to eventually see somebody about that.  But who?  Physio?  Acupuncture?  Massage?

I've got my first hospital appointment this week, deciding to go to public hospital again.  After doing the sums, its going to end up costing about $3000 out of pocket to have this baby private.  We had an awesome experience with public last time, I could not fault them - you even get your own room with a shared ensuite, and the care and the food was fantastic - so we'll do that again and I think I'll just downgrade my private health insurance since we wont be using the Obstetrics side of things now.

So as you can see, nothing very exciting going on here, anyway I'd better get off here and get my week organised!  Enjoy your Sunday night!

Some news!

Baby #2 is on the way!


This is part of the reason I’ve been absent from blogging (along with trying to get my work done in the short day nap Skye now takes) – so its nice to be able to share the news.


I’m 13 weeks along now, the due date is 23rd of November. This means there will be 23 months between Skye and this little jellybean, not a bad spacing I guess! We thought between 2 and 3 years would be good – just happened a little sooner than expected :)

We actually didn’t technically “try” to get pregnant this time. Since it took 18 months of very stressful and emotional “trying” to fall pregnant last time due to PCOS, well, I didn’t believe that it would happen quickly this time around – but it kinda did! I stopped the mini-pill around the end of November (after I stopped breastfeeding), and then we just adopted a “see what happens” attitude – and so it only really took 4 months this time!

A doctor did tell me once (when I was pregnant with Skye) that its common for PCOS to not be an issue the second time around – sort of like, your body knows what to do now, and just does it. Pretty cool, since I’m now 36 and technically my fertility levels aren’t so good anymore!


And so far, its been a pretty different pregnancy. Last time I sailed through the whole thing. No real morning sickness or nausea – except for a week or two of feeling a little bit off, and not being able to eat protein.


But this time around I’ve been feeling absolutely rotten since about 5 weeks – constant nausea (no actual vomiting though, thank goodness!) dizziness and light-headed, freezing cold all the time, exhausted, and BIG TIME food aversions – nothing but carbs, carbs, carbs lately! The sight and smell of meat cooking, even salads and some veggies just turned my stomach.


And changing a pooey nappy, with morning sickness, has been a bit of a struggle! I remember chopping up a roll of dog food a few weeks ago, and portioning it out into little baggies to pop in the fridge for the week – and then spending the next two or three days trying NOT to vomit whenever I was in the house – even though the dog food was in SEALED bags, in the CLOSED fridge, I could still smell it!


Anyway, hopefully the worst seems to be over now!


We had our 12 week scan on Monday, and it was still SO amazing to see our little creation on the screen! I remember when we first saw Skye in a scan, she was leaping around doing backflips, bouncing off the walls etc (a true indication of how she is now – she has ONE speed - FAST!) – well I was a bit worried about this little one because it barely seemed to be moving at all! But the heartbeat was strong and normal, and the sonographer said that it was just asleep. Fingers crossed that this little bean is a bit less hyperactive than his/her big sister! Everything is healthy and normal too!

Oh and in case you were wondering, no - we're not going to find out if its a boy or a girl.  We like surprises :)


Exercise has been… um…. fairly limited. Ok, to be honest I haven’t been doing much – but now that I’m feeling human again, I’m getting back into it. The plan is to do 1-2 resistance training sessions per week, and 3-4 treadmill walks per week. Getting up early to do them hasn’t been nice though! Now that the middle-of-the-night toilet stops have eased, I’m feeling a bit more energetic too – so will continue this while I still feel able.


I started this pregnancy at 64kgs – 1kg heavier than my pre-preg weight last time. So far I haven’t gained anything yet, which is on a par with my last pregnancy. I gained 14kgs all up with Skye, so the goal again is to not gain more than 15kgs.


But even though the scales haven’t moved yet, OMG I FEEL HUGE! They say that you start showing much earlier with your second due to the fact that the uterus and other muscles are already pre-stretched, and that is certainly true in my case. I feel like I’ve already got a belly – my waist has disappeared, I feel so “round”.


Anyway, I will try to blog more frequently – rather than leaving it so long and then posting a mammoth and boring post!  I also must get around to read some other blogs – its been a while, sorry guys!

Long time no blog

Long time no post - AGAIN!

Its been so long I'm not even sure where to start! 

Skye is now doing just one day nap, and has settled in pretty well now - usually sleeping around 1.5 hours over lunchtime.  Unfortunately this has meant that its more difficult staying caught up with my day-job work, as well as my IBO work.  I went through a bit of a rough patch a few weeks ago, where instead of getting up early to train, I was getting up early to work because I just wasn't getting enough done during the day.

I had a bit of a meltdown the other week, because I was also trying to get our BAS sorted (which took me a week - it was more complicated this time due to a recent vehicle purchase and sale) and other MYOB stuff which I find quite confusing at times.  I am fairly new to MYOB (or bookkeeping of any kind) and I have a very limited understanding of accounting, so trying to run the business on my own in MYOB (with the guidance of our accountant) has been a bit of a nightmare!  I have to keep asking stupid questions, and I KNOW they are stupid questions, but sometimes I just dont understand!

My little munchkin is growing up WAY too fast - 16 months now and she is just a joy.  I love how she runs up to me now, climbs onto my lap and throws her arms around my neck and SQUEEEEZES a big hug.  She makes us laugh every day.  This is a beautiful age - she's too young for tantrums yet (although she's tried a couple) and she hasn't realised that she can disobey me yet!! 

Piggy tails!

 Climbing the slippery slide

 LOVES her swing-set!

We had a nice, relaxing Easter break - it was nice to just have some family time with just the 3 of us.  Skye also had her first ever taste of chocolate.  She bit straight through the foil of a 17g egg (about the size of a chicken egg) and after we unwrapped it, she ended up eating about half of it.   Here's a photo of the first taste...

 Easter - her first ever taste of chocolate....

...and the after-effects!

The sugar-rush lasted for a while afterwards - with her running around the house yelling "Yippee!!  Yippee!!" LOL!

We also had a morning trip up to Tamborine, and went for a bit of a bushwalk.  She did pretty well and walked for about 1/3 of it on her own, before cracking it and having to be carried!

Anyway its taken me all day to write this post (!!) so I'll sign off now and go enjoy my Friday night! 

Busy Days!

Jeez I just cant get into the habit of regular blog posting these days! Things are going well here, just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day!

For the last two weeks Skye has decided that she doesn't need her second day sleep, so that has been making things a bit more challenging for mummy! I really rely on her having two day naps of about 1.5 hours each. If she doesn't do this then I struggle to get work and other stuff done.

BUT - she's getting older now (15 months - eeek!) and I knew the day was coming, when she'd transition to just having one day nap. Seems that day is pretty much here - sob! So even though she's only having one nap, I've been keeping her to the two-nap schedule. The afternoon nap is now just some "quiet time" in her cot, while mummy finishes up with her day job!

Lets hope that when she officially goes to one nap, that she does me a favour and has a 3 hour long one! (We can hope!)

The other week, Nicole came for a visit and gave me some instruction on how to do some kettlebell exercises, which was fantastic! Kettlebell swings are MUCH harder to do correctly than they look. Anyway, after Nicoles excellent lesson, I feel like I'm able to do them properly now - and can even tell when someone's doing them wrong on TV! I've been practicing them most days with my dumbbells (we haven't bought any KB's yet) and although the action is slightly different with dumbbells, I still feel like I'm targeting the right muscles. I've also been practicing some Turkish getups too :) Thank you Nicole!!!

As far as my challenge goes, well I guess I'm just taking things at my own pace at the moment. And I'm enjoying being able to feel a bit of room in my jeans and shorts these days too, so I've definitely shrunk a bit in the hips and butt department.

Other news – I got all my hair chopped off!!  So I’m back to a short bob again, and went back to dark brown.  Having it lighter just needed too much maintenance – I hate having regrowth roots.  It feel so nice and shiny and sleek again.  One of the benefits of having totally dead straight hair.  I still tie it up most days, but its nice to be able to wear it out occasionally and feel like there is a bit of style there!

Oh yes - for Kelly and Kristy - regarding our treadmill... initially I was going to get a second-hand one on eBay (so many people seem to buy them and then they collect dust, so I figured it was a good place to start looking). But then we saw some brand new ones on eBay, starting from around $500. Did lots of research, and ended up going for one of the brand new ones for about $600-700 (had a longer belt, higher horsepower, inbuilt speakers, ipod plug etc). They were local to us, so hubby went and picked it up for me, saving us the $100 delivery fee. I have to say that I'm impressed with the great quality of this treadmill too, especially for the price! I LOVE eBay! If you want more details, let me know your email address and I'll send you some more info :)

Have a great week everyone!

Turning it around

I’ve had a great fortnight. Something SO simple has turned it around for me. I’ve started logging food again. I swore I wasn’t going to get into that again, but its really helping me stay in control.

Now, I love a gadget. My favourite gadget is my iphone. I play with it all day. I even have to try to make a conscious effort NOT to play with it when hubby is home, because he gets the shits with me LOL!

So when I found a free iphone app last week called “My Fitness Pal” – I had to give it a go, and its awesome! So I’ve been logging my food, my cardio, strength training, calories burned (according to HRM), water intake, measurements, weight etc

Theres heaps of Aussie brand foods too (although even though I’ve switched it to metric, some of the portion sizes come up with ounces rather than grams… so I’ve had to use my Handy Convert app to figure that all out LOL!)

So I even had another whoosh on the scales last week, plus a very sensible weekend, no huge free meal, and I’m even starting to see those lines appear down either side of my stomach again – yay!

I’ve been doing weights and simple cardio – incline walking, and straight powerwalking. I’m trying to be kind to my foot and give it a chance to heal. Nicole has very kindly offered to come next week to teach me how to do kettlebell swings correctly, so I’m really looking forward to that!

I’ve also started doing a bit of Crossfit too. A friend of ours runs a Crossfit Studio, so he’s been giving me some tips and ideas. I’m just starting out with bodyweight stuff, but don’t worry – its not easy!! This week I did “Cindy” – which is 5 x pull ups (using rings, modified), 10 x pushups (modified) and 15 squats. Repeat for as many rounds as possible – I did 5 minutes to start with, and managed 5 ½ rounds… Caught my breath for a few minutes, then went again for another 5 minutes. This time did 6 rounds! I've had really sore leg and back DOMS from this session!

Then later this week I did 5 x DB one arm snatches, followed immediately by 5 x burpees. Repeat. For FIFTEEN minutes!! OMG I was dying at the end! (I hate burpees!!) I did 12 rounds in 13 minutes - yes I had two minutes to spare, but I needed to breathe instead!!

On in-between days I did treadmill walks (cant let that sparkly new treadmill go to waste now)

I'm feeling great, and looking forward to adding some kettlebells into the mix next week. I also went and got all my hair chopped off yesterday too, so I'm feeling like a new woman!

I’m still here

… treading water.

Last week after “that comment”, I really knuckled down. I upped the ante with my workouts, I was particularly careful with my nutrition. I jogged more. I threw in some more interval training.

A few days later I had one of those magical “Whooshes” on the scales – hooray!!

Then my foot pain flared up again. And I had to scale it back again. Rest, and steady state cardio to nurse my poor plantar fascia on my right foot. Damn. More ice/heat/ice/heat therapy (which I should be doing multiple times a day, and I usually forget – oops!)

My podiatrist says it should settle down, but with my jogging its not getting a good chance to heal. The orthotics really help, but I need to be more patient and stop jumping in head first like I do, and doing too much too soon. I love interval jogging, but my feet dont like it.

So frustrating! But still hanging in there.

Last weekend sent me backwards though - a big free meal on Saturday night, and then a few friends came over on Sunday, and I DRANK! I'd already had quite a few big glasses of wine, and then some more friends turned up and we opened another bottle... and then polished that off too. I must have had 1.5 bottles of wine to myself. I haven't drunk that much in a LOOOOOONG time!

Needless to say I felt a bit yuk that night, and very dehydrated on Monday. But it was nice to catch up with friends and talk about stuff other than kids for a change!

I've been feeling a bit down about my progress (or lack of). My body seems intent on staying this size at the moment, and I'm just going to have to work even harder to bust through it. I need to stop having big free meals (a small one would do just as well) and I need to stop letting those little extras creep in.

Measurements day tomorrow!

End of week 6 - refocus & recommit

Ok so it was measurements day again yesterday - and I went into it with some trepidation!

It was TOM so I wasn't expecting much - and I was right. Up 300g from last fortnight, grrr, and most measurements and skinfolds had little or no movement. 2cms lost. BAH!

Very annoying when you feel like you've been working your butt off. But anyway - time to refocus and recommit to my goals. I know that this is normal, so I'm not going to let it stop me.

I had a very negative moment on Friday when a relative said 5 little words that every woman dreads - "Have you put on weight?"

WHAT!!!!?????

Only a family member would dare say that to anyone, wouldn't they? It took all my strength to keep my composure and not let it get me down. I kept saying to myself "dont let it get to you, dont let it get to you..." over and over.

But of course it got to me. I even had a little cry over it to hubby when I got home.

Stupid thing is, I only have to look at my results over the last 6 weeks to know that this is NOT true, but these comments have such a way of deflating you, dont they?

Anyway, not letting this stop me - here's to having a fantastic fortnight, and I'm going to kick arse!!

Funny little habits

Do you have any funny little "rituals" or idiosyncrasies?

Last week I discovered I have a “funny little habit” that I knew nothing about…

Now when I’m preparing dinner, I normally always have 2/3 of the plate covered in a big salad, and the final third is the meat. I’m normally the one who sets the plates down on the dining table, but one night last week I was still getting Skye’s plate organized, so hubby grabbed our two plates and set them down.

But when I went to sit down to eat, I looked at my plate and realised that it just didn’t look right. I stared at the plate for a few seconds before I realised that the plate was the wrong way round - I cant eat my dinner unless the salad is on the left, and the meat is on the right!! Once I turned the plate around, I was fine!

I once had a neighbour who counted steps. She knew exactly how many steps it took to go from her car, to her front door. How many steps from the front door to the kitchen bench, how many steps from her house to my front door etc.

I thought that was a bit funny, then I realised that lots of us have our own “funny little habits”.

My main “funny little habit” that I’ve always been conscious of is being worried about forgetting to shut or lock the door properly. I used to lock the front door, check it, get in the car, drive out the driveway, then spend the rest of the day worrying if I'd locked the door. I'd do that every day. When that got a bit much I developed a new ritual where I’d lock the door, check it (several times) and then scratch the back of my hand with my key. Then whenever I started to worry about not locking the door, I could look at the scratch on my hand and remember – YES I locked the door.

I’ve overcome that one a bit, but I still think about it. We've never been burgled or anything, so I'm not sure where that comes from!

My mum has a thing about wall picture frames having to hang straight. If she’s in your house, and a picture frame is hanging crooked, she cant sit still or concentrate until she gets up and straightens it.

I've heard that some people have to put their left shoe on, before their right. Or wont eat a certain coloured food etc

Do you have any funny little habits? Come on, share them with me so I don’t feel so strange!

The playgroup

Today I ventured into the world of the unknown… the playgroup.

I've been wanting to take Skye for a while, but I kept putting it off.

I find it amusing that despite my roles in the workplace, which for years saw me flying around the country to stand up in front of a room full of strangers and train them to use a computer program, and then later as a sales rep covering the whole of South-East Queensland – where I was talking to strangers all day, and making small talk out of absolutely nothing, that I should be so daunted by a childrens playgroup!

Its a bit off-putting, entering a room full of mums and their kids, who all know each other. Me not knowing anyone. Wondering if they’ll be friendly, or keep to themselves etc.

But kids are amazing aren’t they? They aren’t shy, they just jump right in there and go play. They don’t worry about if someone will talk to them or not – they just march right in there and get down to business.

Grown ups on the other hand, worry about all sorts of silly things. Nobody likes to be the new girl!

Luckily this local playgroup is a small, relaxed one – only about 20 kids. Its raining today, so they had to stay indoors. But I was amazed at the huge variety of toys, and activities for the kids… a drawing table with lots of crayons and paper, a painting table with glitter and glue, a big padded play mat with a zillion toys, a reading section, a food table with lots of healthy kids foods (plus a few unhealthy too! I was quite pleased to see Skye reach for the strawberries and apple, and then pick up the piece of muffin and throw it on the floor!)

Skye had a blast! Plus I got to meet a couple of other mums who were also new today (but they were already friends) so it was a pretty nice morning. I think I’ll be going back.

Next on the agenda this week – Skye’s first official swimming lesson!

Weigh-In day

Results after 4 weeks:

This fortnight has seen a small loss on the scales again – only 800g since last fortnight, and 1.5kgs in total. Bit disappointed in my measurements this fortnight too, as my waist, hips and chest stayed the same (and they are normally the big movers for me), and only had small losses from thighs, calves and biceps. Still, a 4cm loss is a 4cm loss and I am still happy that things are going in the right direction – albeit a bit slower than I’d like!

I am pleased with my skinfolds though – I’ve lost another 1.3% bodyfat (down 3.8% in 4 weeks) and a 8mm from all over (down 17mm since the start).

So although the scales and some measurements aren’t showing the progress that I’d like, I have to look at the big picture and know that the changes are slowly happening!

I’m actually quite impressed with myself this week, and really really chuffed that my determination and commitment is still there!

I had a bit of an “a-ha” moment yesterday when I was thinking that my progress felt slow compared to in the past, despite the hard work. I’m not sure if this is because I have Polycystic Ovaries – this was never a problem until we first started trying to get pregnant a few years ago and went off the pill. Actually – I never even knew about it before then. I was on the pill from the age of 18, until I was 32, and so consequently I never had any of the tell-tale signs or symptoms until I stopped taking the pill and tried to get pregnant (and even then, I don’t have MOST of the symptoms that go with PCOS, just the faulty ovaries) and being on the pill may have helped control the symptoms.

So PCOS is possibly hampering my fat-loss attempts, but in no way is it an excuse. But it might explain why my belly fat (which I’ve never had a problem with before) is a bit more stubborn now (or it could just be that I’m older now LOL!). I’ve been working hard and eating clean – the results will come but they might just take a little longer.

We had a night from hell with Skye last night – she woke up every hour and a half crying… I don’t know why, she NEVER does that. She seemed fine and if I went in to her, and picked her up, she would fall asleep on my shoulder. Put her back down and the crying started again. At 1am we brought her into our bed (which we’ve never done before) to try to get her to settle – BAD IDEA! She thought it was so much fun, and was too excited to sleep. So… back to her room at 2am – more crying… finally she went to sleep until she woke at 3.45am crying again… sigh…

Today I feel shattered, I don’t know how on earth I survived on so little sleep when she was a younger baby!

Where do you get your motivation?

I have been flicking through some of my old fitness magazines recently… and it got me wondering – what do others do to keep themselves motivated?

I used to buy fitness magazines regularly. I have a huge stack of old Oxygens, Muscle and Fitness Hers, Fitness RX, and Womens Fitness and Health. I even bought a few running mags too, back in the day :)

I went “off” fitness magazines a few years ago though. I don’t know, I guess my priorities changed. At the time, I started buying pregnancy magazines instead! I have to say, although I still buy the occasional fitness magazine here and there (or have a flick through them at the newsagent), they just don’t do it for me anymore, or else they are not what they used to be. I suspect it’s a bit of both.

So what do you use to give yourself that extra kick of motivation?

**************************************************************

I've had an ok week - not perfect by any means. Everything was going well, but on Australia Day I decided to blow off my training in favour of a sleep in, and then a day down the Gold Coast. We had other stuff to do down there, so only spent about half an hour on the beach (little miss was overdue for a sleep by then, but she loved the water!) and then spent over an hour stuck in traffic trying to get home... grrr!! All the while Skye was grizzling and crying in the backseat... enough to set your teeth on edge!

I kept my food clean though (taking my own chicken salad and water with me) but then treated myself to a glass of wine to celebrate Australia Day (and because of the stress of listening to a screaming child in the car for an hour LOL!). Back on track with training on Thursday morning though - except I'm now a day behind - oh well.

Feeling really good and starting to see some definition coming back in my upper arms which is nice.

Yesterday was my birthday (thank you to everyone for your kind emails, texts and FB messages!) and I still dragged my butt out of bed at 5am for an hours cardio. The older I get, the more I begin to realise that its just another day. Bit scary to think that I'm 36 now - eeek!

So last night we had take-away chinese for dinner and I had a few glasses of wine, which I have to admit I didn't enjoy as much as I was expecting. Then we watched a movie - 127 Hours - which I've been wanting to see for a while now. (About the American mountain climber Aron Ralston who got his right arm trapped by a boulder, and after 5 days had to amputate his own arm in order to survive) It was quite harrowing but fascinating to watch at the same time.

Anyway, thats it for another week. Time to go do some housework!