Whenever we lay him down, he’s on his stomach within seconds now!

My poor baby had his first vaccinations today, or at least, the first ones that I was present for. In hospital they always took him away any time he had injections and tests. Anyway, despite the assurance that it was definately a good idea to get Connor vaccinated before we left, we still had the doctor questioning us about vaccinating early, and the nurse who would administor the injection rang up the Immunisation Australia Information Line to get approval. In the end and after plenty of paperwork Connor received his vaccinations which I’m not sure he was totally happy about, but thankfully he doesn’t have a good memory. 🙂

Connor now has both his Dutch and Australian passport so he’s now all ready to fly 😉

He’s growing well and is a pretty well behaved baby. He only wakes during the night for a feed, and sometimes I’m lucky to be only woken once during the night. Most other nights are 2 or 3 times.

Alexander has put up all our photos of Connor and of our wedding temporarily at http://dvd.photons.nl.

I think Connor is a little cutie and everyone has to agree with me 🙂

Connor had his first post-natal appointment today where he gets a checkup and weighed to make sure he is growing well and all that. We were surprised to find out that not only was he well and truly growing well, but he actually put on more than double the weigh he is expected to. Since babies (especially breastfed babies) can’t technically put on too much weight, this is awesome and means he’s growing really well.

Everytime I look at him I just think he looks so beautiful!

Yesterday we started getting everything we needed to, to apply for Connor’s passport……Dutch and Australian. We’ve got such limited time that when I got discharged from hospital we went straight down to Births, Deaths and Marriages to register his birth. We applied for priority processing which meant we could pick up his birth certificate yesterday…..then we headed down to the Department of foreign affairs to get the apostille stamp put on our documents (required for the dutch passport and I’ll also need it when applying for residency in the Netherlands). Next we drove to Hutt st to the recommended photographer to try and get passport photos………now THAT is fun. Eyes open, mouth closed, looking at camera, white background…………ugh, right. Connor either had eyes closed or mouth open crying, he didn’t seem to want to close his mouth and look at the camera. We finally got a pic that will hopefully be accepted.

Armed with the photos I rang Department of foreign affairs and trade to see if they’d done the apostille stamp, and they had, but it was 3.50pm and they close at 4pm. I was in Hutt st and they were in Currie st. I thought I’d give it a go and managed to get all the green lights with a 15 min parking spot directly outside the building!!!! Alex stayed in the car while I dashed upstairs and managed to get it with 3 mins to spare!

Then off to the Dutch Consulate to hand in application form for Connor’s passport. Thankfully they were open till 5pm so we managed to get it all done in one day. We only now need to put in the application for an Australian passport, which isn’t as urgent cuz they process them within a couple of weeks. The Dutch passport was the urgent one cuz they take up to 5 weeks to process those.  And we couldn’t put the application in yet for the Australian passport (even though we were already there at the passport office) since you have to get someone to endorse the back of the photo to say that it is a genuine photo of the applicant. The person endorsing the photo cannot be related and has to have known Connor for at least 12 months…….or since birth……..riiiiiiight! lol

was born on 16th May 2008 arriving at 2.21pm (14:21) and weighing 3350 grams (7 pound 6 ounces).

Length: 50cm
Head: 35cm

Just a brief rundown……..I was pretty tired from 6 days of sleepless nights from getting pre-labour contractions every 15-30mins. I finally went into labour at 2am Friday 16th……..but I was already exhausted and hadn’t slept at all yet that night.

I think I got to the hospital around 4am it was already happening pretty quickly but I was so so tired. I had wanted to go without an epidural, but I was just too exhausted to do it, so I opted for the epidural which I got after about 6 hours. My labour slowed down quite considerably then, which they tried to tell me had nothing to do with the epidural, but I’m not convinced as there’s lots of information out there that suggests epidural’s do slow labours down. Anyway, at this point I at least got my mind back a bit and I was able to rest.

My obstetrician was absolutely fantastic and definately gave me a lot of confidence and faith in her. Her support after the birth also has been incredible.

He’s a beautiful baby boy, although I’m probably biased. Others assure me he’s beautiful too, but they’d better say that in front of me anyways, haha.

Looking after a baby is a bit of a learning curve, but it’s amazing how the maternal instincts take over relatively quickly and it all becomes much easier. Funny how vomit and disgusting nappies don’t upset you quite as much when it’s your own baby……..or maybe it’s just the fatigue makes you not care?

The baby has been threatening for the last 24 hours or so to poke it’s head out on Mother’s Day, but I think we can safely say nothing is going to be happening tonight.

The last few weeks have been busy, with me spending time with Alexander, the wedding, organising animals that still needed to be sorted out since my sale of my house etc. The last few weeks have also included seeing my obstetrician weekly, with me slowing up significantly and cutting down gym classes. Although I have still been teaching a few classes (pump and balance only) up until last Thursday.

So on Friday I had to move my unbroken gelding out to my parents place in Murray Bridge as the property he was on was being plowed up for cropping, which I wasn’t aware of happening. So lots of driving around, moving heavy stuff that was stored in the horse float and then shifting an unbroken horse that had only been floated for the second time……a big day for me and I was pretty exhausted afterwards.

It was at this point Friday night that I wondered if I noticed a “sign” of impending labour. Then Saturday morning I started feeling cramps which resembled period pain…….about every 30 mins or so.

These have continued all day, then over night, and this morning they started getting quite a lot more intense, rather painful……and some were only 10 mins apart. I was supposed to be catching up with my mum and some of my family for Mother’s Day out at Belair National Park and I was undecided for a while whether it was a good idea to go or not. I rang the hospital for advice and decided to go just for a short time and see how I went…..it’s still pretty close to the hospital at least.

The afternoon went uneventful and I actually felt very relaxed and the contractions didn’t come as often, although when they did come they were still fairly painful.

So tonight, things aren’t much different now, with them still coming irregularly although I haven’t timed them for a while. I plan on resting and who knows whether these are going to last for hours, days or a week?

After 4 days of fairly regular pre-labour contractions coming about every 15 -30 mins I finally had a quieter night last night thankfully. I’ve been getting pretty exhausted and they’ve been relatively intense, not just the tightenings of Braxton-Hicks contractions, but no real sign of true labour.

So last night, while I was still up about 10 times during the night, I felt heaps more refreshed in the morning since the pain was no where near as bad or as frequent.

I saw the obstetrician this afternoon and after she examined me it was incredibly relieving to find out that I’m actually 3 cm dialated, so while I haven’t actually gone into labour at least something is actually happening! So the last 5 days in some way have been worthwhile I guess.

That’s helped me feel much more positive, cuz after the 4th day of pain it really started to wear me out and test my tolerance and endurance and began to make me feel disillusioned about getting through labour without help. I really want to avoid intervention as much as possible, but going through what I have so far without actually commencing labour really started to reduce my confidence.

But now, knowing things are happening has kinda helped…….and my obstetrician has also done some “stretching” when she examined me to see if that triggers things a bit. Although no one can say for certain, she said she expects I’ll probably go into labour in the next 24-48 hours!

Now this evening the pre-labour contractions have picked up again and are feeling a bit more intense, although not as painful yet as some of the others I was getting. It’s hard to explain, but I’m really feeling the pressure with each contraction. Who knows if it’s going to happen tonight? But I really hope I don’t get contractions all night again without going into actual labour…..only so much of that I can handle!

 Just a quickie post to let everyone know about our fantastic wedding day. Alexander and I decided to get married on 25th April 2008. To some people this may be a surprise, but I kept it relatively quiet since I was unsure whether a premature baby would upset our plans.

As it was the baby held off and we had a beautiful day for our wedding. Cool enough for Alexander that he didn’t suffer in the heat and the terrible rainy whether that followed held off and didn’t disrupt our wedding.

I felt great with my family and the few close people that attended. A lovely winery, a great job by our hosts at Kaeslers Winery and Restaurant and afterwards we stayed the night in the bed and breakfast………except we missed breakfast and got kicked out of bed by the cleaners at 11am, haha. 😆

We plan on putting up a webpage of this beautiful day once we get the photos.

Since it was a fairly small wedding, the current plan is to have a full wedding later……maybe next year, so that we can have the opportunity to share it with the rest of our friends and family we’d like to share it with.

Alexander finally got to meet my obstetrician and today we had the “labour talk” where my obstetrician told us what we needed to do and what to look out for if I appear to go into labour or get worried about anything. There’s been so much I’ve read up on, but it was good to get another reminder and also very clear guidelines on what to do when and where and it was all kind of in note form what we need to do.

I also got a chance to explain to her my wishes on what I want out of the birth and explained to her that I would like an active labour with as little intervention as possible.

She also did another scan so Alexander got to see his first live scan and baby is well and truly head down and has been for quite a few weeks now, so that’s a positive start. With everything else going on at least I don’t have to worry about waiting for baby to turn or whatever.

So after the wedding on Friday I can start waiting for the baby to arrive. I’ll just be so thankful if I don’t have to worry about it coming early……..but I also hope it doesn’t come too late cuz not only am I getting sick of it being so heavy, I also want to avoid being induced if possible. Once you get induced it tends to be a cascade of interventions to get you into labour and I seriously want to avoid that!

I finally got to do my antenatal classes today, although I’ve been so exhausted from moving house that I wish I could have postponed it. But as it was I was easily the most pregnant there, with most of the ladies being around 30 weeks pregnant. I guess it’s ended up being so late for me that they originally booked me into a series of evening classes which were on while I was teaching classes, and the weekends were all booked out.

As it turned out they didn’t offer a lot of information that I hadn’t already read up on, however it was good to know the stance and philosophies and things available at my particular hospital. I’m glad to know that I can pretty much go with my own choices and beliefs for my childbirth.

I haven’t previously viewed my ideas on what path I’d like to take, but after a bit of reading and research I’d like to go with as little intervention as possible. Although there seems to be contradicting discussions, there are schools of thought that one intervention tends to lead to another……..so for example, if you have to be induced for labour then you’ll likely need your waters to be broken, and in turn an oxytocinin drip to encourage contractions, which in turn can cause more pain and require an epidural, which could then make it harder to push, making you need forceps and if that fails a ceasarean may result. So what started off as just being induced into labour it’s possible it may lead to further unwanted interventions.

I’m a little scared of a ceasaren, so I hope I don’t end up in a situation where I require one. I’m trying to keep an open mind and not be afraid of it, especially if it’s for my own or the baby’s sake, but still it’s something I want to avoid. I also want to avoid an epidural at all costs, but it’s hard to know whether I’ll have the strength to go through the entire labour without assistance. Basically I want to go for what they call an “active labour” where you use positions, moving around and different techniques to allow the labour to progress naturally. I mean, after all, it is a natural process which animals in the wild do all the time without assistance.

One of the things I found interesting was the attitude of one of the men in the group. Before we got to the part where she talked about different forms of pain relief, this guy happened to pipe up “why wouldn’t you choose to have an epidural! That’s just crazy” It surprised me, cuz how many women would have been sitting there thinking “well I don’t want to?” Seemed such an ignorant comment……..I mean, I don’t expect people to share my views, but it would at least be nice to understand the pros and cons before making such a statement.

At the antenatal class I was also the only person to go there without a partner. Unfortunately Alexander couldn’t be there with me cuz he’s currently on a plane at the moment, and it just wouldn’t have been possible for me to delay the class much longer. I’m now 37 weeks, so labour could really happen at any time. Of course it would have been nice if he could be there so that he could also learn about the options etc, however the midwife at the end invited me to book in for a tour for Alexander to have a look around with me once he arrives. I thought that was lovely of her to mention that, as it was something I was indeed thinking of……so just need to somehow find the time to book that into our hectic schedule now!

36 weeks pregnant and another obstetrician appointment today. I thought it was going to be just like any other appointment……..I get my fundal height measured, check blood pressure, listen to baby’s heartbeat and that’s about it. But no, this time I find out I get to be swabbed and jabbed, ugh.

Turns out I had to have a blood test for I’m not really sure what……..I remember something about anti-bodies being tested. I’m too tired and been doing too much lately with moving house to really take it all in. Then the swab……….always such a nice girlie thing, lol.

Also I was apparently supposed to have another anti-D injection last appointment but it appears that was missed. So I had to have that today after my blood test. It’s a relatively painless injection, except this time, while the actual prick of the needle was painless, it hurt quite a lot injecting the actual fluid into my arm. My arm still aches after that. That’s the penalty I pay for having an incompatible blood type with Alexander……grrrr.

Anyway, all is going well…….baby has been well and truely head down for about 6 weeks now, although it’s still not engaged yet. That’s fine by me cuz that means labour is not necessarily imminent, although it doesn’t mean I won’t go into labour either. Well really, I guess it doesn’t help predict anything at all! lol

I know it’s been so long since I updated my week by week piccies, but I have still been taking the photos when I can. Just things have been so hectic here and I get so tired sometimes. I’ve made an effort tonight to update this page since I’ve been getting asked about them all the time (and particularly harrassed by Alexander, lol 😆 ).

I can’t believe how much everything is really starting to hit me now……..slowing up big time. On Wednesday I did my last combat class and it’s like overnight I can feel my body making me stop and it feels like it’s preparing to settle down for the last home stretch (last 6 weeks).

I’ve been feeling the lax ligaments for a while, with my hips feeling increasingly unstable, but I was surprised that I’ve even felt the support in my feet disappear. I know they say that your feet quite often get a little bit larger due to swelling and the ligaments relaxing in your feet, but I didn’t expect them to start aching too! It just seems never ending all the horrible pregnancy symptoms!

At least I haven’t got the swelling in my legs though and I have remained pretty active, even if it has been bloody hard. I’m also lucky that my belly button hasn’t yet popped out and so far I still have no stretch marks…….so crossing fingers for the last 6 weeks!

I’ve started a new section of this blog with a new link, listing some of the items I currently have, need or not sure if I need. I’ve been asked a lot about what I already have or will or won’t be getting (since I’ll be here such a short time), so hopefully this list will help keep all my friends informed.

If anyone can add suggestions to the list please do, I’m still learning about what I’ll need and won’t need, so any advice would be appreciated!