Archive for September, 2007

Tricia and Aaron


28 Sep

Posted in Family, Friends, Sydney city | No Comments »

Tricia is a friend I have known my entire life. Literally! She is one year older than me, and when we were growing we lived across the road from each other. Our parents are good friends and for many years they have played cards together most Sunday nights that they were all free, and we used to laugh about their post mortems in the days following their matches. Trish would even come on our family holidays when we were kids. I moved to Melbourne to go to uni, Trish went there to live a few years afterwards and once again we could regularly see each other. She worked in the city and I travelled through each day, so we’d meet up on Friday nights for dinner and eat out somewhere. Then I moved to the other side of Melbourne, and by this stage Trish was married and soon had a son, and so we’d catch up about one Saturday a month for lunch. Then I moved to Sydney, and it again became hard to keep in touch. But it doesn’t matter, for no matter what happens in our lives we will always be friends.

Anyway, Tricia came to visit for a few days with her son Aaron, who is now 10 years old. They arrived on Saturday evening, and so yesterday we spent most of the day wandering around the city and Manly. We drove to Darling Harbour and then walked to the city and Circular Quay, stopping at the Lindt shop for some refreshments on the way. Then we caught a ferry to Manly where we had a late lunch of fish and chips. Aaron wanted to play footy on the beach and harassed Tricia to buy him a football, so we found a cheap, small squashy ball that would do, but by this time we were heading back to the ferry. So we decided to walk to the Opera House when we got back to Circular Quay, and then go to the Botanical gardens where there are lots of large grassy spaces that we thought he’d be able to play with his ball in. Unfortunately, when we got there we saw a sign saying no balls, so poor Aaron couldn’t play even there.

We went to the BBQ King for a chinese dinner which was really tasty and both Andrew and I enjoyed a lot. Unfortunately I don’t think it went down too well with 10 year old Aaron. From there it was back to the car, and a short drive home. I think everyone was exhausted after walking so far!

Tricia and Aaron were staying until Tuesday morning, so Monday night after work we all went to Gabe and Julie’s house for dinner (we took lasagne and a salad, Julie organised garlic bread and dessert) and had a great night there.

It was really wonderful to have Tricia and Aaron visit. 🙂

21 weeks


25 Sep

Posted in Pregnancy | 1 Comment »

I’ve been feeling the baby moving now for a couple of weeks, but it isn’t every day. It still feels like the inside of my belly has little twitches every now and again. Last weekend I didn’t feel it move at all, and so both Andrew and I were a little concerned. But I felt movements again yesterday morning. I think Andrew was still a bit worried, until last night when I was in bed and I got him to put his hand on my belly and he actually felt the baby kick! He was so excited about it! It’s just so nice for Andrew to be able to feel the baby and know it’s still wriggling around in there.

I also booked us into a baby class called ‘Having a baby – active’. The midwife we saw last week suggested it as being a good one if we planned to do classes. It starts November 7 and runs for 3 hours every Wednesday night until December 5. It should be interesting. 🙂

I also had to go shopping last week to get some pants that are more comfortable, since my jeans were no longer comfortable. I got a black pair of maternity pants that are very stretchy. At the moment they keep falling down a little, but I guess it won’t be long until I have more of a belly to hold them up. I also got another pair of loose pants (not specifically maternity pants) and some tops just because all the ones I’d been wearing were old and looked quite ratty.

One last piece of information, in the last 5 months I’ve put on 2 kg. I’m guessing that the next 4 months will see my weight increase quite a bit. It’s the only time I’ve ever been happy be heavier every time I stand on the scales. 🙂

Info from Birth.com.au

You are now 21 weeks pregnant and at the beginning of week 22. Your baby is around 25 cm long from head to toe and weighs just under 1/2 a kilogram. Most women have definitely felt their baby move inside them now, although the sensations may still be sporadic and infrequent. A few women are still waiting!

Your baby’s skin is being increasingly covered by vernix. This is a thick, white, greasy cream that protects their skin in their watery environment. Vernix disappears by about 40 weeks, but if your baby is born at 39 weeks or less, you will notice it is still on their skin. Your baby’s eyelids are still fused shut but the retinas of their eyes are fully developed and they now have distinct eyelashes and eyebrows. Your baby’s hair follicles are now pigmenting to give them hair colour, looking dark, fair or red!

Parliament house and Floriade


20 Sep

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Tapestry in the Grand Hall, Parliament House

Andrew and I made another weekend trip to Canberra. This time it was to go and see Floriade, Canberra’s annual spring flower exhibition. We drove down on Saturday morning, stopping at Collector to go to Lynwood Cafe for lunch. It was a fancy place and lunch was absolutely delicious!! We then drove the last half an hour to Canberra and visited New Parliament House where we tagged onto a tour of the place (they’re run every half hour and go for about 45 minutes). It was about 5 years since I’d been through Parliament House, but I think it’s such an impressive place that I was keen to go again! I love the green marble pillars in the foyer (supposed to represent a forest) and the tapestry in the Grand Hall, and again they were my favourites. There was also an exhibition of photos from the Antarctic which were just wonderful. Last time I visited, you were able to walk all the way up and over the building on the grass that covers it, but now the top is fenced off and the only way up is from a lift inside Parliament House.

After visiting Parliament House, Andrew drove me to the Telstra Tower because I hadn’t been there before. It was $6 each to go up to the viewing platform, but we didn’t bother with that because we’d had such a good view from the Red Hill lookout the last weekend. Then we booked into our hotel room at University House (ANU) which is where we always try to stay when we visit Canberra (and don’t stay with friends). It is a nice quiet place, and while the rooms are quite old they are very roomy and you generally have a sort of lounge room as well as the bedroom and bathroom. The floor of the bathroom is also heated, which is very nice on chilly Canberra mornings!

We had trouble finding somewhere to eat out that evening. Everywhere we went was fully booked, and Andrew said he’s had this problem in Canberra before. So we ended up at a fast food joint, Nandos!

Sunday we went for breakfast at Andrew’s favourite little cafe in Canberra, and from there it was to Floriade. The flower festival was, as always, a colourful affair. The tulips, irises, daffodils and many other flowers were in full bloom. There were heaps of people there, and it was a gorgeous sunny day! We even caught up with the Canberra Flickr group! Not that I’ve ever posted anything in their group, but Andrew has. We also went to a talk about the Great Barrier Reef given by someone who has been researching the reef for over 30 years, and also a photographer who has been photographing the reef for about the same length of time. It was just wonderful to see his images!

So that was our weekend. We decided that we wouldn’t have many more opportunities to spend the weekend away together and alone, so we decided to make the most of it. I certainly had a wonderful time.

 

 

20 weeks


19 Sep

Posted in Bugalugs, Pregnancy | No Comments »

I’ve been feeling the baby move more regularly, and at our first midwife appointment at the Birth Centre yesterday we heard the heartbeat thumping away nicely.  We had a chat to the midwife about birth classes, and she recommended one.  So I’ll book it soon.   Info from Birth.com.au:

Your baby measures around 23 cm in length from head to toe and weighs approximately 420 grams.

Week 20 is seen as the half-way point of the pregnancy and the time when your baby is legally regarded as a person if born (issued with a birth certificate in Australia). However, babies born between 20 and 24 weeks are medically regarded as being extremely premature and unlikely to survive. With access to modern medical technology, a premature baby’s chances of survival are greatly enhanced if born after 28 weeks.

Your baby’s nails are now formed and their fingerprints are visibly engraved in their fine skin. Their permanent teeth now appear behind the baby teeth deep within the gums.

 

Honeysuckle Creek


15 Sep

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Redneck wallaby with joey, Honeysuckle Creek

Well, it’s the weekend again and I haven’t had a chance to write about last weekend yet! Those of us in Sydney had a long weekend because there was an attempt to basically shut down the city while APEC was on. Andrew and I decided to head out of the city, and we dragged Iris along for the ride. So Iris spent Thursday night at our place, and the aim was to leave at 7 am on Friday morning. Needless to say we were running a tad late (situation normal) and we left at 7:30, only to find that we couldn’t turn out of our street because it was being blocked for the Russian president’s motorcade. So 7:45 and we were allowed to be on our way.

The plan had been to be in Canberra around 10 am because Andrew had to do a quick job there, so that was the first stop when we got to Canberra. Then we did some shopping to top up our food stores and grabbed some lunch from one of Andrew’s favourite cafes in Canberra. And then we headed to Namadgi National Park.

It had rained off and on the entire way, and naturally it was raining when we got to our campsite. It was late afternoon, grey and starting to get cold, so while Iris and I set up the tents Andrew got the billy boiling, set up our “kitchen” in the shelter (as we were the only ones there that evening), and started looking for some wood to burn. Last time we camped here, there was a wood pile that was available for making a fire in the shelter where there was a fire place, but apparently the rangers used to spend all day chopping wood so now they don’t supply it. The visitors centre had bags of wood for $12, but we didn’t realise we needed any when we booked into our campsite. So, the scrounge was on to find wood before it got dark and cold.

It did get cold, and we were very happy to have the fire. We showed Iris how to toast marshmellows on a stick, had a BBQ for dinner, and taught Iris how to play the child’s card game Uno (Andrew and I take a pack of Uno with us everywhere we go!).

Saturday morning it was still raining, so we spent most of the day just relaxing in the shelter. The camera came out to photograph the wallabies and birds that were around. In particular we were excited to see a couple of male bower birds hanging around with several females (or there might have been some immature males as well, since they look similar to the females). I hadn’t seen the male before, so we had great fun trying to entice the male closer by putting some blue things around and hoping he’d come to investigate. Iris and I went to buy a bag of wood from the visitor’s centre for the evening’s fire, and by the time we got back there were lots of people at the campground. Most were heading off for a day of walking, as the weather had improved a bit, but there were 4 rowdy guys who were spending the night at the campsite. Andrew and I were disappointed that we had to share with these noisy guys who couldn’t stop talking about their drinking feats and wondering whether it was too early (at lunch time) to start drinking, and if they did they’d be passed out by 6:30. I wasn’t impressed, we’d gone there to have a nice relaxing and quite time, and these boys didn’t fit those plans! But in the end they were fine, they weren’t so loud when they got back in the evening, and they’d even bought a bag of wood to help keep the fire going. One of the guys even ended up playing Uno with us that evening. It was a very cold night, and we were very glad that we bought the wood!

We went for a short drive that afternoon along a dirt road that goes to the ridge of the hill we were on. There were some nice views over a valley when we got there, and then Andrew and I went for a bit of a walk on another track while Iris stayed warm in the car. That track didn’t seem to go anywhere, but it was nice to wander along it anyway. We drove back to the campsite and then Andrew and I walked up to the old tracking station (Honeysuckle Creek tracking station) that no longer exists. The foundations are there and there are information boards around describing what used to happen there.

There was a frost on Sunday morning. I love frosts and I miss them, as living in a city and close to the ocean we don’t see frosts sitting on the ground. Unfortunately we had to leave that day, even though it was perfect for walking. We’d promised Iris a day in Canberra, showing her the sights, and so we packed up and drove back to Canberra. We went to a lookout over the city, and then went to Old Parliament House where we joined an interesting tour. Afterwards we had lunch and then headed to the War Memorial where we were until it closed at 5 pm. I’d never been there when it closed before, and there was a sort of closing ceremony with a lone person playing bagpipes.

We drove back to Sydney, making only one stop on the way to show Iris the Big Merino (a sheep) at Goulburn and another for petrol. It was quite a relaxing weekend, just a pity that it rained so much which restricted our options in the national park.

2nd trimester ultrasound


11 Sep

Posted in Bugalugs, Pregnancy | 1 Comment »

This morning we had the ultrasound that looks at the baby’s organs, legs, arms, head and face to see if everything looks ok. It was so wonderful to see the baby so clearly, though it does look very much like an alien! Still, the sonographer said that everything looked fine. She took lots of measurements and photos. We saw the baby’s bladder, kidneys (hard to make out), diaphragm, heart, cerebellum, head (different angles), face, lips, spinal chord, hands, bones of both forearms, humerus bones, both femur bones, the bones of both lower legs, feet, the entire length of each leg so you could see the knee as well, the umbilical chord, blood flow in and around the heart, checked the valves of the heart open and close, checked the heart rate, and checked blood flow in and around the umbilical chord. The heart beat was 150 beats per minute (at the NT scan it was 164 beats per minute) which is apparently fine. The entire session took just under an hour, and both Andrew and I walked out with big smiles on our faces. The sonographer didn’t think that the doctor would want us to go back for any reason, but she said if he did want another view of something that we shouldn’t take it as a bad sign and it’s just that he’s not there seeing the entire scan and only gets to see the photos she took. The sonographer also said that the estimated due date doesn’t change with her measurements, but they all showed the due date to be around February 6, so that’s about spot on really!

The sonographer didn’t say anything about the baby’s gender, and didn’t ask us if we wanted to know, so we aren’t any the wiser on that topic.

19 weeks


11 Sep

Posted in Pregnancy | No Comments »

I’ve been trying for 3 weeks to feel some movement of the baby, and I’ve had some weird feelings that I haven’t been able to identify.  They didn’t feel like the fluttering or bubbles that people describe, and so I put it down to stretching of ligaments as what I was feeling was more like little pains than anything else.  On Sunday, however, I felt something a bit different.  It was like little twitches, or maybe pokes, so the only thing I can think it might be is the baby moving!!  It was very exciting, and when I told Andrew he was so happy and he got a grin on his face that lasted the rest of the day!!  I felt the same thing again yesterday, just briefly.

Info from Birth.com.au:

You are now 19 weeks pregnant, which is the beginning of week 20. Your baby now measures about 22 cm from head to toe and weighs about 340 grams. The bones in your baby’s inner ear and their nerve endings are now developed to the point where it is possible for them to hear sounds (although their ears are not structurally complete until 24 weeks). Studies carried out on the reactions of unborn babies to sound have shown that a few babies start responding to noise as early as 19 weeks, but by 26 weeks all babies will respond. The sounds an unborn baby can hear include your heartbeat and breathing, the wind sounds from your intestines and the sound of your voice, as well as other sounds around you. It is thought that if a pregnant woman is constantly exposed to very loud noises, this may have an adverse effect on her baby’s hearing.

Aches and pains. Many women experience sharp groin pains during the middle of their pregnancy. These are usually caused by straining the round ligaments that support the growing uterus. Walking, sudden movements, coughing, sneezing or exercise such as swimming can trigger pains. As the pregnancy progresses into the middle months, various emotions can surface in both positive and negative ways. For a few women, their pregnancy feels like just an essential physical process they must endure in order to have a baby. These feelings may come as a surprise if you expected to enjoy being pregnant but in reality have found this not to be the case. Despite society’s expectation that all pregnant women should feel happy and ‘glowing’, for some women these feelings are far from the truth.

Childbirth preparation classes are not compulsory and you may prefer just to read books, talk with friends and relatives or use Internet sites to prepare for your baby’s birth. However, many prospective parents choose to attend face-to-face classes to help them prepare, as well as to meet other pregnant women and their partners. Childbirth classes fill up quickly, so we recommend booking them soon, even though they may not start until 28 to 30 weeks. In more recent years, childbirth classes have incorporated early parenting, breastfeeding and perhaps techniques for settling a crying baby. Often separate classes are provided to specifically address special areas.

18 weeks


04 Sep

Posted in Pregnancy | No Comments »

Again there’s not much to report from this last week.  The last couple of days I seem to have lost most of my appetite, so I don’t eat much for meals and then a couple of hours later I’m hungry.  It’s rather weird.  So I eat some more of my dinner, but it doesn’t take much before I’m full again.  I didn’t think the baby would be big enough to be affecting my stomach much yet, but maybe it is. 

I’m looking forward to Tuesday morning next week when we have our ultrasound where they check out the baby’s internal organs and external features.  It’s always nice to have confirmation that things are still going along ok.  And then a week later is the appointment at the Birth Centre. 

Info from Birth.com.au:

You are now 18 weeks pregnant, which is beginning of week 19. Your baby is now 20 cm long from head to toe and weighs approximately 310 grams.

Your baby has a fine layer of hair covering their body, called lanugo. This helps protect their skin and is only shed a few weeks before they are due to be born.

Nursery rhymes….Andrew style


04 Sep

Posted in Bugalugs | 2 Comments »

Andrew was talking to the baby last night while we were lying in bed (he’s still telling it to kick me), and he decided to tell it some nursery rhymes.  The problems are that we don’t remember very many of them between us (I think I know more than Andrew though), and many of them are outdated.  So, Andrew started to modernise them…..

Incy wincy spider…..well, Andrew decided that in this day and age it would be better to talk about water conservation, so it climbs a water tank instead of a spout (and is obviously one of those spiders that carry a bubble of air with them when it’s under water!)…..

Incy wincy spider climbed up the water tank
Down came the rain and so poor Incy sank
Out came the sunshine to dry up all the rain
So Incy Wincy spider climbed up the tank again.

 Then we thought about Hickory Dickory Dock. The only problem with that one is that clocks these days are mostly digital.  Andrew wanted to say something about the mouse chewing through the power cord and electrocuting itself.  Hmm…..I don’t think anything rhymed though.

Another one was Humpty Dumpty…..ok, we didn’t get it to rhyme last night, but an attempt by me thismorning came up with….

Humpty Dumpty wasn’t allowed to sit on a wall
Just in case he’d have a big fall
OH&S and risk assessments showed
That a fall could cause poor Humpty to explode.

Yes, I am contemplating a book on nursery rhymes so that poor Bugalugs doesn’t have to put up with Andrew-style rhymes all the time.  🙂

Red hands cave and missing hockey


03 Sep

Posted in Friends, Travel | No Comments »

Red hands cave, Blue Mountains National Park

Life has been so very busy of late that I haven’t really had time to write much here.  The weekend before last we took my friend Iris and her friend from Germany to the Blue Mountains.  We had to leave Sydney quite early, because Andrew was playing hockey at 5 pm so we knew we’d have to leave the mountains relatively early. 

We picked Iris and her friend up from Strathfield, and our first stop was in Glenbrook where we got directions to the Red Hands Cave.  I’d never been there before, and found it quite interesting.  It was about a 10 minute walk in from the car park, and the cave is blocked off by mesh and rather scratched perspex.  In fact, the best view we got of it was by taking a photo!  We then went to a lookout over the Nepean River, which was absolutely gorgeous, and checked out the campsite for future reference. 

From there we went to Katoomba to see the Three Sisters for the typical tourist photograph, and then on to Govetts Leap for a late picnic lunch.  We stopped to check out Wentworth Falls on the way back, but didn’t really have the time to walk down to the lookout.  So we drove back to Sydney, dropped off Iris and her friend, got to the hockey ground with about half an hour to spare.

 It was about then that Andrew realised that we hadn’t brought his hockey shoes.  I’d been trying to hurry him up in the morning, and so had packed his shirt, shorts, socks and hockey stick into his bag and took it down to the car.  I hadn’t even thought about his shoes.  Because I’d packed his things, Andrew forgot to pick up his shoes (I guess thinking that I already had them).  So this debacle meant that he couldn’t play.  We drove home, but it was too far to make a return trip to the ground worthwhile (the game would have been more than half over).  So that’s the story of how Andrew missed his last hockey game of the season. 

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