It's been a while

Wow, Aston is now 4 months old - it feels like so much has happened and yet not much has happened all at the same time...

I have neglected this blog page, I seem to spend much more time on Facebook and Twitter than blogging, mostly because I can access them on my iphone whereas blogging via iphone is a bit more tricky.

Believe it or not I'm back at work 2 days a week and so far (2 days) it seems to be working. Aston gets to hang out with Daddy on Mondays and with Aunty Belinda on Tuesdays so he is happy. FOr more about my work with Credo check out my AFES page

Hopefully I'll come back and blog a bit more often...

Being a Mum

It's been 3 weeks and 3 days since Aston was born and I'm learning a lot about being a mum. In some ways it's incredibly normal and I can't imagine not doing it, in other ways it's pretty full on and tiring and scary!

The other night as I went to bed I said to Stu "I don't want to get up in the middle of the night" but the reality is I don't really have a choice, unless I want my child to cry and starve (I think you get arrested for that kind of stuff these days). And there's no way I could just lay there and let him cry, no matter how tired, sick or grumpy I feel there's something in your baby's cry that impels you to do something about it.

There are so many questions we have and decisions to make: decisions about when to feed him or what cream to put on his nappy rash, is it cold - should he wear a singlet? Should we use commercial bath products full of 'evil chemicals' or just water? We have moments where we both shrug and go "I don't know". If you know me, you know I'm not great and making decisions and I usually need someone to reassure me that I've made the right one - that doesn't always happen when you're on your own with a baby who is crying. Add tiredness into the mix and even the little decisions like should we use baby wipes or make our own out of cloth can become major moments of stress.

Stu's philosophy is "as long as you don't drop him on his head or kill him, it will be ok" which is true and I need to work hard on remembering that.

Now, to choose a photo to go with this post that shows off Aston's extreme cuteness!

Aston John Spires

Aston John Spires was born on Friday 20th March at 3.15pm. He weighs 4.4kg ad is 53cm long - Big Baby!

I went into spontaneous labour on Friday morning - no induction needed - praise God! I even managed to get through without pain relief, although Aston did need some help coming into the world with a little bit of suction to his head (not nice!).

So now we are at home learning how to be parents - very scary but fun!

The Latest

Today we are 8 days overdue! I didn't think we would last that long, obviously Jellybaby is not quite ready to enter the world of his own accord.

We had our 41 week "just-in-case" appointment yesterday at RPA and they are very keen to make sure babies are born before they hit 42 weeks, as a result we are booked in for an induction tomorrow morning at 7am.

I have mixed feelings about being induced, on one hand it's exciting to know that soon we will see our baby and the craziness and uncomfortableness of the last few weeks will be over. On the other hand, induction can be quite a shock to your body and the baby which can make labour a lot more intense and harder to deal with. Depending on what method of induction I end up needing, I may be strapped to a monitor for the whole time which means being unable to move around or use the shower or bath for pain relief - something I was really keen on doing.

I'm praying for calmness mostly, I know I can get very flustered when I'm in an unknown situation and would really like to feel a little bit in control and to be able to ask good questions and make good decisions.

Playing the waiting game

A week or so ago I was telling everyone that I wouldn't mind too much if the baby was a bit late... So it's now 4 days past due date and this waiting thing is getting a bit hard...

I have ups and downs, times when I'm patient and times when I'm not, I even have times when I forget I'm waiting...

Still waiting

but that's ok, he'll come when he's ready... Now I just need to find things to amuse myself so i don't get too bored with waiting!

In case you were wondering...

Yes, it is our official due date today... We are still waiting...

I have had a few prelabour-y things happen (I think) but nothing real yet... Stay tuned

Before and After

I found some photos of our unit that were taken before we moved in, when everything was empty and boring.

Before (left): our "old" front door and random foyer space

After (right): now baby's room (the new front door is in the lounge room)
















The other wall in the baby's room, this is the same cupboard as in the above photo but with a new coat of paint. You can also see the doorway into our room - nice and close.













Before (left): fireplace and wall space in the lounge room


After (right): The same wall space now with custom made shelves (by Stuart), you can also see the new colour on the chimney breast. You can't see the fireplace which now has the boards removed and nice new tiles on the floor in front to match the chimney breast.

38 weeks & 3 days

Here I am at 38 weeks & 3 days - only 11 days to go according to the countdown on the right... Assuming Jellybaby is born exactly on his due date which is not very likely...

So, what's been happening? I've survived 2 weeks of maternity leave, it's been both nice to be at home and not have to worry too much about work stuff and also hard because uni is starting and lots of exciting things have been happening. 250 people signed up to join small group bible studies - awesome!

I've also spent the last 2 weeks obsessing about and learning to drive - I had 2 driving tests and managed to pass the second one - yay, so now I have my red P's and theoretically can drive a car all by myself... I haven't actually been out by myself yet, I'm still a bit scared, but I will soon, I promise!


Time off has also meant time for organising Jellybaby's room, I've washed all the clothes, sheets etc and put them away - he has so many clothes already! They're so tiny, it's hard to imagine anyone would actually fit into them... I can't wait to try them all on him.


I made the cot up today, we've decided he will sleep in his cot from the beginning as the room is very close to ours - you have to walk through it to get to us. I know I've made the cot up all wrong for a newborn but the blanket and sheets are so cute I couldn't resist putting them on.

I've also started reading through Barneys prepared readings for lent I've never done anything for lent before. It's always been one of those weird Anglican/Catholic things that seemed old fashioned and unnecessary. But I decided that as I have time (at the moment anyway) and I havne't done anything structured in the way of spending time with God lately, that it would be a good thing to start.

It's been fun so far, we're reading Matthew and it's been good to read some of the things Jesus said and see them as part of the bigger picture of His life and ministry. It's also fun to know that there are a bunch of other people reading the same thing, hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about it together.

Well, this is very long post to make up for my lack of posting over the past couple of months - hope you enjoyed it!

Tagged

Katherine tagged me on her blog, so now it's my turn... I don't now who reads my blog regularly, except Ang but she's already done this... Maybe Deb or Jodi?

Here are the rules of the tag:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open to page 56.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the next 2 to 5 sentences, along with these rules.

5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual book. Pick the CLOSEST!

6. Tag others to do the same!

*****
"Yea," Henry said slowly, "He must be bound to me more closely yet."
"So, we march to aid him against his rebels, brother. Is that how it runs?"
"Maybe, maybe," The King muttered. "I can use him, I think. Yes, I have work for the Bastard."
*******
This is King Henry of France talking about an alliance he has with William of Normansy (aka William the Conqueror) in "The Conqueror" by Georgette Heyer

Goodbye Georgette

Yesterday my fish Georgette died, I don't normally cry when my fish die but yesterday I did. Possibly because of crazy baby hormones but also because she was the last of the original 3 fish we bought to start our fish tank just after we were married.

Five years ago we decided to actually do something with the empty tank we had and so bought Ellroy, Marlowe and Georgette, all Fantails. They got on pretty well together, to the point of laying eggs together (well, Georgette laid the eggs but we were never quite sure who the father was).

At one point we had around 40 baby fishies but it's very hard to keep tiny fish alive in a tanks and eventually only one was left, we called him Nemo. Now, once again, Nemo is the only one left.

This is a picture of Georgette (top), Marlowe (below her) and Nemo (the tiny one).

Brain in a whirl!

So much to do, so little time...

Only 7.5 weeks until JellyBaby's estimated due date 11th March! I'm staring to feel a bit overwhelmed by all the things that need to be done, work stuff, organising baby room/clothes etc, catching up with friends, much other stuff and learning to drive!!!!

I still have about 18hours to go before I can do my P's test... Anyone for a roadtrip?

To make matters worse, I don't seem to have started nesting yet which means if I'm tired and overwhelmed I'm more likely to sit and mope than get anything done. Although Stu seems to have picked up the nesting bug and has been having fun painting walls, making bookshelves etc. At the moment he's sanding an old bookshelf/cupboard thing we inherited when we moved in so it's ready to paint.

Oh well, at least I have a very organised to do list...

PS My friend Gail and I went to the aquarium on Thursday and saw the dugongs - they are really cool!

iphone blog

For Christmas Stu and I got iPhones :-) so as well as rearranging the furniture we've been playing with our new toys! I'm trialling an app that let's me blog from my phone . It seems to work so far!

New year. New shelves

As part of the New Year, we have been getting ready for our new arrival- only 10ish weeks to go! Stu built new shelves in the lounge room so we can use some of our other furniture for the jellybaby.

Latest News

It has been so long since I've blogged, I'm really getting quite lazy... To add to my laziness instead of actually writing what's been happening I'm going to redirect you to my latest prayerletter for news. For some of you this may be the first time you've seen what I do at work from "the inside" - enjoy :-)

And just to make this post look a bit more interesting here is a new ultrasound picture of the Jellybaby at 28 weeks. I think it's amazing how much detail you can see! (in case you can't see it, there's an eye, a nose and two little fists)

Advice to ignore on marital sex

I read this post on Jean's blog and didn't know whether to laugh or cry... I am so glad most Christians these days have a much more biblical view of sex than poor Mrs Smythers.

Have Faith in God

I've been thinking a lot about Faith lately, or maybe Trust, or maybe both...

A few weeks ago we (I!) drove up to Cessnock to attend the celebration of 20 years of Dad and Mum working at Cessnock Congregational Church It brought back many memories...

Dad spoke about the '6 little old ladies' who stepped out in faith and agreed to support a minister with a family of 6! They knew that it was time either for the church to start to grow or to close down for good. It's amazing to see how that step of faith has borne fruit over the last 20 years. They had faith that God knew what was best and that God would provide.

On our first Sunday in Cessnock our family doubled the size of the congregation! There are now up to 50 or more people (including kids) at church on a Sunday... In the beginning Dad was paid hardly anything and had to work 2 jobs, now the church can afford to pay him almost a full wage.

Mum and Dad had faith too, there were times when they had no money. Mum would make omletes out of eggs we collected from the geese who lived on our rental property because she had no money to buy anything else. As kids we thought it was fun, and I don't think we ever really knew how hard it was for them. I guess it could have been so easy for them to walk away and find a bigger church with better pay but they trusted that God had put them in Cessnock for a reason and He did.

In Credo small groups we have been studying the book of Hebrews, which is full of so much great stuff! There is one passage though that is quoted more than many others, Hebrews 11, here the writer of Hebrews lists many famous believers from the Old Testament who had faith in God even when it seemed like things weren't going their way. They knew God had a plan for the Salvation of the world, that he would build a new kingdom and they knew that they probably wouldn't see that kingdom before they died but they lived as people who belonged to God's kingdom anyway.

I often struggle to see that far ahead, we have a much more accurate picture of the kingdom in Jesus than they did and yet it still seems so hard... I get dissatisfied with my life, distracted by the little things, scared of what others will think of me...

So, I've been thinking (and praying) alot about faith lately...

Stuart's tea is now cosy

I'm not sure what I think of the finished product... It doesn't look quite right, but that could be due to the teapot which is not a traditional shape while the pattern I used was for a traditional teapot...

Blog!

Over the past week I've been pondering blogging on many different topics, I just can't seem to focus on anyone thing, at least not long enough to write something challenging and insightful on it.

I have been thinking about friendships, money, my relationship with God, work, becoming a mother, health, miracles, people who are going to lose their hearing because their ipods are too loud... and a whole host of other things.

Maybe one day I'll write them all down.

Questions People Ask

Now the news is out there, I've noticed that we often get asked the same questions by curious people so I thought I'd list them and the answers here in case you are curious too.

When are you due? 11th March 2009 but apparently only 1 in 20 babies are born on their due date so anytime in the weeks before and after then.

How many weeks along are you? Today Wed 17/9/08 I'm 15 weeks.

Do you know the baby's sex yet? No, apparently you can tell now but ultrasounds are usually done at around 18-20 weeks

Do you want to know the baby's sex? Yes, no, maybe, probably... Not 100% decided but I think we will find out.

Have you been very sick? Thankfully no. Only 50% of pregnant women get morning sickness and I seem to be in the 50% that don't - yay! I have however been really really tired and occasionally get bad indigestion/heartburn/reflux - whatever you want to call it.

Can you feel the baby move? Not yet, s/he is still too small for that but this morning at our midwife appointment we did hear the baby's heartbeat and heard it as it kicked :-)

Do you have a baby bump? Kind of, it's more like a "I've eaten too much chocolate" bump but there are some pants that are too small already and I can definitely tell I'm changing shape.

Are you excited? Yes and also quite scared...

If you have any more questions you think I should add let me know :-)