Bonding with Bubs - Week 24

Size: over 29cm and weighing more than 600g!

What's Pecan Up To: using newly developed tastebuds (which might explain the crazy movements after my little Skittles fest); filling out my uterus and Pecan's brain is growing rapidly.

Symptoms: Dizziness and tiredness.

Cravings: Still citrus fruits and coffee.

Keep that away from me: The smells of Hubby's tuna sandwhiches and insanely salted liquorice.

Weight: No idea, no doubt over 76kg. I know I keep saying it but I'll buy a scale soon.

 

Feelings: Sad because my Nana (who is 91) is stuck in hospital after having a stroke and two falls. Not good news but thankfully she hasn't broken anything and this reminds of the other reason that we chose to have a baby while we are young. I really want to be able to show off our little baby to his/her Great Grandmother. It's doubly important to me because she is the only Grandparent I've ever known.

Random: Pecan can now be seen from the outside and I find myself losing track of my book to focus on the little kicks and punches being thrown in my belly.

Shopping

So this weekend (starting about 2 hours ago) I've decided I'm going to treat myself. Sorry Pecan, this will be a Mama only shopping experience. I feel like everything I've been buying at the moment is baby orientated and I feel like spoiling myself.

If you live in Australia I suggest checking out www.freez.com.au they're having a good sale at the moment and their sister site www.iwantabargain.com.au is great as well. Postage is super quick and I'm always happy with what comes through (other than when I've gotten a couple of sizes wrong but that just means little sister is happy ha-ha). They do offer international shipping but with the dollar being so good not sure it would be super cheap (still worth a look!).

This is what got added to my cart:

Reminds me of my Dad when I was little (Ladakh Seattle Nights Shirt)

Love the colour and it'll be COMFY!!! (Junk Scoop Neck Tee)

Work ZZZ but it was cheap (Living Doll Romped Rouched Shirt)

Don't know if I'd brave this as a dress, but will work while I'm pregnant (Sass Flanno Shirt Dress)

PS: Teasing my Hubby about going to the November midnight screening of Twilight's Breaking Dawn is great fun. I told him I'd most likely give birth  (and be just like Bella) and then we'd have to call our child something Twilight related. He threatened to divorce me! Bookclub already jokes I better not call my kid something like Renesmee!

PPS: I don't like Twilight but I love making fun of the movies, so much so my little sister refuses to watch them with us.

Salt & Butter - Hello Old Friends

If you have never heard of the Pioneer Woman you are missing out. Her recipes are literally to die for (I mean that and you'll see why when I list the ingredients!). Hubby had left chicken thighs for dinner and I remembered I'd put aside a chicken soup recipe from her website. I checked out how long I needed (1.5 hours) and decided that would be our dinner. I am so glad that I did, even Hubby begged for the leftovers (usually he bypasses all leftovers for a roll with tuna!). So without further ado here is my dinner in pictures (with recipe at the end).

Cast of Characters

OMG How many stock cubes!!!???

Chopping up the veggies while the chicken is cooking away

OMG How much butter???!!!

Finally healthy veggies (but wait how much butter is hidden in there...)

Chicken and veggies

The end result - YUMMO

Ingredients
1 pack chicken thighs
1 packet of Pearl CousCous
6 chicken stock cubes
1.5 cups chicken stock
8 cups water
1/3 large onion - chopped
1 large green capsicum - chopped
5 celery stalks - chopped
6 tbsp butter
4tbsp flour

Method
1. Put chicken in large saucepan and cover with water and liquid stock. Add stock cubes and bring to boil. Reduce to medium heat and cook for 20 minutes (or until chicken is cooked through).
2. Take the chicken out and leave them to cool (then cut/shread into bite size pieces)
3. Chop the vegetables.
4. Melt 4 tbsp of butter in a pan and then add the flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until thickened and then add to broth. Stir the heck out of that thing and just keep going so you don't wind up with lumpy yucky flour stuff throughout.
5. Add couscous to liquid and stir. Meanwhile clean the pan and melt 3tbsp butter then add your veggies. Stir it all together and then add the chicken. Cook the chicken and veggies for 2 minutes and then add to broth.
6. Make sure the couscous is cooked (at least 8 minutes) and then serve it up in big bowls.

I guarantee this is worth all the butter and stock! My Hubby who doesn't like capsicum gobbled it up and we both had seconds! 

Bun in the Oven - Part Deux

 

 

 

 

 Pecan and Me :) Forgive some of the dodgy photo effects eg: in the last photo, I was wearing a nude bra and because I've worn that dress to death the fabric is pretty stretched. I looked awesome though because it was paired with a black jacket...and of course that's all that matters ha-ha

You can also notice that I've definitely popped and everyone is commenting on it which is really nice.

Bonding with Bubs - Week 23

Size: approx 29cm

What's Pecan Up To: the new nickname Little Ninja might be introduced soon! It's crazy how it can go from hmm is that gas or baby to OMG stop bashing me up! I can't imagine what I'll be saying when Pecan is even bigger! Apparently our little one can also hear now too.

Symptoms: Dizziness leading to an inability to go shopping or cook :(

Cravings: Coffee and grapefruit, but not together because that's plain crazy

Keep that away from me: Nothing really.

Weight: 76kg I've probably gained a little bit but I hope not! I really need to buy a scale.

Feelings: Enjoying feeling Pecan on the outside and the inside but I'm very over not being able to go out shopping with Hubs.

Random: Mum got to feel her grandchild for the first time last night at Dylan Moran and seeing as Pecan is starting to hear she suggested I read books/play music and keep repeating something so that it calms the baby later. I'm a bit opposed to this because listening to the same thing over and over will drive me bonkers! I figure by now he/she will be soothed by scary loud coughing seeing as that seems to be the constant with me at the moment!

Pretty!

So little Pecan got splurged on...or rather the nursery did, is it wrong that I'm almost finished with the main parts of decorating and I'm only 22 weeks?!

I have a wonderful obsession with Etsy and I can trawl it for ages. It always makes me wish I was more crafty which is why I asked for a sewing machine for my birthday (and why it's still in it's box). I swear I'm planning to make some cushion covers and I've even got the cushion inserts so now I sort of have to! But back to Etsy...

C/O thejoysofjess

C/O thejoysofjess

C/O thejoysofjess

In honour of 'Team Awesome' (my wonderful uni girlfriends) C/O sweetharvey

C/O sweetharvey

My favourite!!! C/O cleverapple

The nursery is a very cool mint colour with accents of red, black and white. It's fun to be able to add splashes of colour yet still have a very gender neutral place for Pecan :)

I'm going to keep adding to these but some I will make myself just using cool fabric to give the wall they'll all be hanging on a bit of OOMPH. The crazy organiser in me is super excited.

Uni

I think one of the biggest complaints I had about uni was the admin side of things and the stupid red tape they had. Sadly it only seems to get worse the longer you're in your degree - we almost didn't graduate ours because they introduced a new compulsory unit. I got very good at arguing with our Psychology department!

Unfortunately it hit Hubby with a big BANG about two weeks ago. He was so excited to get his second last semester marks (this is his EIGHT YEAR) only to be shocked to receive a supplementary for his thesis project. It has been a horrible past two weeks in our house because of this, with him trying to figure out what went wrong (and getting no response) and just the general stress that that bought on. So he handed everything in and re-did his oral presentation yesterday and today uncovered that the person who marked it (who was finally back from holidays) reckons that someone entered his mark in wrong! So he shouldn't have had to re-submit anything. Hopefully he'll finally get this sorted on Thursday and he'll wind up not having his course average destroyed.

GRRR I am so angry on his behalf that I've been wanting to call the uni myself and blast them. It's looking like his Supervisor has been very lazy and dodgy as well which doesn't help matters (in fact he outright lied to Hubby about having not marked his project!). I cannot wait until uni is behind us and I definitely wouldn't be opposed if our kids chose to pursue a job that didn't involve university!

Bonding with Bubs - Week 22

Size: approx 27cm

What's Pecan Up To: moving around, skin is turning from translucent to opaque. Pecan has little eyebrows and is starting to look like a newborn!

Symptoms: Still dizzy but that's about it

Cravings: Coffee, fruit and a HJs burger

Keep that away from me: Chicken

Weight: 76kg - I don't know if putting on 5kg by now is a good thing or a bad thing?

 

Feelings: Really happy! I find out my best friend will actually be able to make it to by baby shower. It means we'll have to hold it on a long weekend but oh well.

Random: my cold came back, luckily not as bad as before but the sore throat is sticking around and my cough is horrible! It was so sweet last night as well, Hubby has been so stressed with a supplementary for his thesis (that's a whole other story) but as we were getting into bed he reminded me I'd forgotten to take a bump photo! So whoops we'll have to slightly cheat for last weeks hehe

Moving Office

Yay!

After almost 16months I'm finally getting a real office. I'm so excited! Being in recruitment (and being the face for all the new employees) it was crappy having to walk them outside the main office and into my crummy donga :( Now I get to zip them straight out of reception and into my office (no more battling the rain either!). I'll also finally be rid of my horrible clunky noisy as anything airconditioner, the only source of warmth I had out there.

I'll sort of have two offices as well, one huge one, which I'll later be sharing with my replacement, and another one which will be our 'interview/meeting' room. So now I can put up photos etc... because I didn't like having personal photos around with some of the dodgy people that I bring in for interviews. It was weird enough when one of them kept commenting on my rings and saying how I must be so loved! Oh how I love recruitment and the fun stories we have.

Eat her hat

So my GP said she'd eat her hat if I had to have a c-section (because of my placenta)! YIPPEE, hello to the week turning around. Apparently it's only reaching and she said more than likely it will move up a little bit more later on. I feel really relieved and hopefully I can twist the midwives' arms to stay where I am. I really want to try for a natural birth and thoroughly recommend that people DON'T read about having c-sections etc... cos it's pretty damn scary. Then again any births are scary and people I've spoken with who have had a C were completely fine with it. 


Unfortunately just got told to keep my fluids up in regards to being dizzy. I guess that's a good thing though because it wasn't something that concerned her. We got to hear Pecan's little heart pumping away, oh how I love that sound.


Also we've (98%) decided on a boys name for Pecan. My mind was changed after a movie cameo grr I hate being secretive but it does mean that our pets and our child will all have the same first two letters of their name. So there you go you can probably figure it out from that :p If Pecan is a he he'll have the same initials as my FiL which is sweet but either way his middle name will be Peter to honour both dads.

On a random side note did any West Aussies go the public route and if so did you get free ultrasounds/ultrasounds that don't cost $200!!!??? Because I might need two more with my placenta and that's a lot of moolah I could spend on other things.

Bonding with Bubs - Week 21

Size: 26.7cm, my little banana

What's Pecan Up To: other than kicking me lots...swallowing amniotic fluid and just getting his/her groove on

Symptoms: Dizziness - going to check out with the Doc if this is low iron levels or just because your BP is supposedly low at this point in pregnancy. If it's iron bring on the supplements!

Cravings: Coffee like a crazy person, fruit...

Keep that away from me: Still not a fan of chicken I will eat it but it doesn't really appeal. Meat I'm still half and half about.

Weight: I'll find this out on Monday! I don't feel any bigger other than my boobs & bump.

Feelings: Unsettled over the whole placenta thing but whatever will happen will happen! Sad because I wanted to be in control of my birth (at least at this point, when it gets down to 'the baby's coming' then I forfeit that).

Random: Finally decided that I would have to sacrifice one of my best friends and have the Baby Shower in October. I think if I did it before that and my MiL missed out I'd be dead. But still really bummed, it's like the whole bridesmaid situation at my wedding all over again :( I think I might to some sort of Baby Naming ceremony after Christmas/New Year and ask her and the other uni girls to be the equivalent of god parents to our little Pecan.

PS: Thank you girls so so much for all your kind words, first with my damn placenta and then with our beautiful dog. It's been a tough week hopefully Week 21 is kinder to me.

Before there was Twilight

...there was OUR Bella.

Our gorgeous family dog is going to be put to sleep Friday night and I'm extremely upset. It's sad because I don't believe she's quite ready to be put down but I'm not the one who has to clean up after she's been incontinent all night and who has to watch her struggle every time she wants to lie down or stand up. It's so hard to come to terms with and all I keep thinking about is the end of Marley & Me and how my Mum, little sister and I were all bawling our eyes out. I won't be going with Mum when she gets put down, I know I should to provide support to Mum but I just can't handle it and sometimes I think I'm allowed to give in to being a little kid and just hiding while the horrible things happen.

It's so hard to know I won't get to pat her anymore or give her huge cuddles, even now I've got tears in my eyes.

She will be the second dog I've ever had to put down in my life and it's horrible but I wouldn't give up dog ownership for it. It just really really sucks that our pets can't live as long as us :(

Baby Scan

We got to see our gorgeous Pecan! We requested not to find out and I'm still trying to decide if the tech's use of 'him' was an actual slip or just because she wanted to use a pronoun. I still think it's a little boy in there so that just cemented it ha-ha

Unfortunately we found out that my placenta is still low-lying, they reckon it is 'reaching' over my cervix and not completely covering but that it could be covering and therefore I'd need a c-section...I was half expecting this because it had been low lying at my first scan but my midwife said not to worry because everything moves upwards. I'm not down about possibly not being able to have a natural birth as I only want what's best for bubs but it does mean that the birthing centre might now turn up their nose at me :( If that's the case I'm now contemplating going with the hospital that's just 5 minutes from our house especially if I need to stay in the hospital for longer with a c-section. It's a real pain but we'll be going back for another scan at 32 weeks so fingers crossed. I'll just discuss it with my doctor next week and then the midwife in early August and hopefully we can come up with a game plan. My biggest concern (other than everything going well) is just wanting to know where I will be giving birth, I'm such a planner that that is really important to me and if the birthing centre turns me away at a late stage I'll be feeling pretty AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! 

Mum's 85 year old grandchild

Our little DJ, Pecan kept his/her hands near his/her head the whole time.

Cute little button nose!

I know it's all going to be ok and I just have to wait and see but it's so hard damn waiting ha-ha and I'm only halfway through the pregnancy!

PS: Congratulations to Mrs Wolff on her gorgeous new bundle of joy!

Baby Moon - Melbourne

So we finally jetted off from Perth after the debacle with Tiger and the ash cloud (we've made a pact now that we are never flying Tiger no matter what the discount and they've further proven this with the safety stuff going on now!). We arrived at Avalon airport and then were in a mad dash to make it to Melbourne so we could do our chocolate degustation. Unfortunately the baggage handlers had other ideas and whilst one family got all their bags the rest of us were left watching 3 random bags spin around and around for 20 minutes until the rest came out. The afternoon didn't get much better due to the cranky as anything bus driver we had drop us off at our hotels (he was annoyed at how many people had booked to arrive at different hotels). People actually got off the bus at the wrong place just to escape him. It was extra hard for me experiencing that seeing as my job involves recruiting people for the public transport industry!

As always because we were running late I was super stressed about missing the chocolate date I'd booked for Hubby and I, especially because the place had told me they really didn't have any space for us but could squeeze us in. I called to advise we would most likely be late and I got the nicest guy on the phone who told us no problems at all he would see us when we could get there. Immediately I felt so much better and I could finally switch into holiday mode.

We arrived at our hotel on Little Collins Street and it was fantastic. But it was a quick dump our bags and jump on a tram to make it to Shocolate. OMG it was delicious, I was jealous of Hubby's glass of wine but he's very anti me consuming any alcohol so no booze for this Mummy except my one glass of champers when Hubby finishes uni!

Because we'd only just arrived in Melbourne (and headed straight to Shocolate) we got lost looking for our next voucher spot - Urbany Woodfire Pizza Cafe . Or rather I believed that a 30 minute walk wasn't that much, it was cold but I managed to get there (surprising with all my dizzy spells!) and it was nice to see a bit of Melbourne. I'd definitely recommend this little pizza/pasta place. I ate so much and it was extremely yummy, I can't remember exactly what I got but it was scallops and prawns in risotto. I also tried their yummy pesto bruschetta (Hubby ordered a proper bruschetta but I couldn't eat it) and it was delicious. We both loved the meals and if I lived over there we'd definitely be going back.

On our way to the DFO, Hubby loved the bridges.

We spent our only full day in Melbourne going to the South Wharf DFO (oh how I wish Perth had something this awesome, Harbour Town just doesn't cut it) and to St Kilda (for cakes) and Chapel Street. At the DFO we stocked up on some cute things for Bubs and some sports gear for Hubby and I got my favourite bag of the moment from Tony Bianco - small but fits everything in (including a water bottle) absolutely perfect for me. After that we utilised the trams and tried to find the shops I remember on Chapel Street, no luck unfortunately but I'm sure my wallet was happy! We had an early dinner (5pm!!!) at Embassy@97 Restaurant. Because we were trying to use a ScoopOn it was the only time they had available. But it was great a small little restaurant and our waitress was lovely. I finally got my snails which I've been craving for years but unfortunately I ordered the pork and whilst it was really yummy my pregnancy belly decided it wasn't to be. Luckily Hubby was still hungry after his duck l'orange so he happily gobbled it up. Then we shared a crepe and headed across the road to a chocolate shop we'd spied.

Looked better than what it tasted unfortunately and came with the worst coffee I've ever been served!

Can I just say if you are ever in St Kilda on Fitzroy street (directly opposite that restaurant) GO THERE! The macroons were to die for and so were the chocolates. We easily spent over $60 and have no regrets whatsoever. So to all those people who are obsessed with getting Krispy Kremes whenever they go to Melbourne ignore that and head to this chocolate shop, you definitely won't regret it.

After that we left early Sunday morning for Sydney but that will be another blog post...

Bonding with Bubs - Weeks 19 & 20

*I'm combining the two because of the BabyMoon, nothing notably different between them!

 

Size:Week 19 15.2cm; Week 20 16.5cm

What's Pecan Up To:developing millions of motor neurons and getting covered in vernix so he/she doesn't come out looking like a prune.

Symptoms: Very strong movements from Pecan including what must have been a full body roll (that was crazy!). I'm still getting super dizzy and this didn't help my attempts to destroy my bank balance whilst shopping on the BabyMoon.

Cravings: Green apples, vegetarian options of things on the menu. COFFEE!!!

Keep that away from me: Chicken and meat in general which is really annoying because iron would help with the dizziness.

Weight: No clue but with all the eating I'm assuming I'm sitting in the high 70kg.

 

Feelings: Really enjoying feeling Pecan move about in there and so excited to be halfway through (as of tomorrow). Unfortunately sick with a cold though.

Random: You girls were right the Jeans West maternity jeans ROCK!!! I'm surprised mine still last after I wore them to death on the BabyMoon. We've also assembled our Ikea cot (minus 1 missing screw grr and 2 broken plastic bolt thingoes - another trip back is on the cards to get that sorted but the engineer aka Hubby assures me baby will be fine) and the nursery is all painted WOO HOO! And yes, I do realise we're getting in a bit early with the whole nursery thing but I love planning and just can't stop myself.


PS: Once I get over this cold I'll post about the BabyMoon, I'm just so annoyed that our first year wedding anniversary is being spent with me surrounded by tissues and feeling horrible! Oh and I'll also post some Bump pics soon as well. I'm turning into all boobs and bump at this stage ha-ha.

Baby Moon...

was awesome! Photos and posts to follow but now I'm just going to enjoy my first anniversary weekend with the Hubs.