Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Baby Classes - the 2nd Installment
Daddy and I have just done week 5 of 6 weeks of classes all about how to care for a baby. This week was all about Breast feeding and Daddy has been looking forward to this all week, it's all about the Boobies he said.
First we had to each pull an item out of Louise's goodie bag and then say what relevance we think it has to breast feeding. I pulled out a Wine glass, yes you heard right a wine glass. I had 2 thoughts about what it could be for, 1 would be they were going to tell us that baby only drinks the equivalent of 1 standard glass of wine per feed the other and far more sensible was that they were going to tell us that any form of alcohol was "FORBIDDEN". Well it wasn't quite that bad, good ole Louise then explained how and when we can drink whilst breast feeding. I listened very intently, must get that right I don't want you all drunk and falling down at such a young age.
Daddy grabbed the Breast Pump, a hideous looking contraption that will cause RSI in the wrist and I am sure would be like milking a cow but worse, it would be like milking ME.
There were some other fun topics that came out of the items handed around, the colour and regularity of poos you will do in the first 4-6 weeks, the difference between formula fed babies and breast fed and the all important nutrients of breast fed babies.
Oh the pressure of breast feeding, it will make you smarter and have better teeth and have better eyesight and a great immune system. Daddy wasn't breast fed and he has perfect vision and is very smart and has great teeth and all the men on his side of the family all have a full head of hair at old age, if you are a boy lets hope you take after his side, my family has male baldness issues.
Another item to crop up was an ice cube tray, apparently this has 2 uses, 1 is for freezing water into ice to use for soothing engorged breasts or making bourbon and coke, the other is for storing breast milk for use at a later date. Lets hope the bourbon and milk drinkers don't get their ice mixed up.
Louise then whips a box out of the cupboard and hands us your stunt double, a rubber baby, naked with moulded boy bits and asks for us to assume the position of breast feeding, I whilst trying to juggle the extra piece of cake I got from the break we had just had was very confident that I could manage the eating of cake and juggling of "Stunt Baby" into the assumed feeding position. Mission accomplished, there were the 2 types of holds, the standard baby across the belly and then there was the Football hold where baby is tucked under your arm and attached to the nearest boob, whilst Jamie comments "should you put your arm out to defend off any attackers" as per rugby. There was a little snicker around the room from his comment.
Louise prattled on, I lost a little bit of concentration, because I had Stunt Baby to play with, so I was moving legs and arms, patting Stunt Baby on the back, which Louise must have seen because she said they don't teach the patting on the back technique for burping anymore because of an increase in "Shaken Baby" cases that have happened in recent years, it is a simple rubbing on the back, no back slaps, baby is not choking. My mind wandering yet again, thinking of wine drinking strategies and how funny it would be if Daddy mixed up the milk cubes with the ice cubes and then "Stunt Baby" leaps from my hands and falls to the ground with a thud, there was a few gasps of horror as naked rubber baby bounced around the floor and landed in the face down position, more than 2 dolly steps away from me. Loudly I stated "oh dear" and promptly waddled the 2 steps and groaned to bend over to pick up "Stunt Baby" off the ground and the entire room burst out laughing, including Daddy and I.
I was close to going into hysterical uncontrollable laughter and was soon silenced by my thoughts of what if that was my real baby. I am soooo not ready for this.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny........ socks

Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Dear Peanut
Initially we had to go around the room and introduce ourselves, tell them all our name and 1 thing we like and 1 thing we dislike, of course I sat on an end and had to go first, "My name is Rachael and I like Pizza, and I don't like mushroom on my Pizza" and so it began the stupidity coming out of my mouth. Well we had just had Pizza for dinner and when put on the spot I couldn't think of anything else. Daddy he likes Paintball and dislikes bad drivers, this was probably top of his mind as well due to a traffic jam around the corner from the hospital and then followed my terrible parking in the dark and rainy carpark at the Hospital and my comment on thinking my driving is getting worse, I was way better when multi-tasking, like driving while smoking and eating a cheeseburger and talking on the phone, almost all at once. Of course I don't condone smoking and you will be in serious trouble if you ever start.
After our initial round of introductions Louise starts to ask us what we want to get out of these classes, I kept silent for fear of embarrassing Daddy, trying not to be the loud and annoying person in the group, and to my delight someone else took that role, she had a comment for everything, I think she was reading my mind and probably that of everyone in the room but she was the 1 who kept asking stupid yet relevant questions.
Louise went through the stages of labour, early contractions, timing, what happens to the cervix during dilation, she demonstrated the cervix with the little dolly that represented a baby and the knitted hippy type hat that represented the Cervix, she asked the question to the group "how do we measure the dilation of the cervix", I was ready to pipe up and say "der with a ruler or tape measure" and thankfully kept my mouth shut and was so wrong, she actually pokes up her pointer and middle finger spreads said 2 fingers apart and them whips them out for what I would say in engineering terms is a very inaccurate measure of how dilated the cervix actually is. Apparently they have been using this method for years and appears to be working for them so, I say lets run with it.
The next part of labour we were to learn was the transitioning, this is where the nice little mild contractions that I thought were going to break us in 2, actually get WORSE, and me your beautiful eloquent mother turns from nice mummy into Psycho Beast with turrets syndrome (you will probably meet her when you are naughty at some stage throughout your life). I fear this could be when daddy leaves the room and starts running screaming down the hallway, when in actual fact his job is to get up into my face and try to calm the BEAST. I hope he makes it, I believe he made attempts to warn that he may have to slap me across the face during this time, I don't condone domestic violence but will go so far as to say I may well need it at this point.
Next is the calm before the storm, apparently once the cervix is ready to go I get a 20 minute reprieve from the pain of the past 4-48 hours depending on individual circumstances, before pushing you out. Apparently once you pop out you are tossed onto my bare naked body for some quality skin to skin time, all gooey and slimy and you have to hang out there until you work out how to handle the sustenance of my engorged bosom. During all of this I have to also give birth to the Placenta which has been keeping you alive for the last 9 months, again the loud 1 in the group asks if this is painful, good ole' Louise says, no that is the easy part as it has no bones in it, charming I say. Whilst I get a whisper from Daddy who says "it will come out like a goon bag down a hallway", to which I almost lost my shit and tried to keep from laughing hysterically.
I won't be allowing you to read any of this until you are of the age when you won't have to ask me what a placenta or cervix or "goon bag" is, I might have to put a "goon bag" into your time capsule as I fear these may not be around for ever, they could get replaced by something less practical that will not turn into a party pillow or pool flotation device once finished.
Anyway we then got to sit through a video of about 4 different women giving birth to demonstrate all that we learnt tonight. Now this video must have been made somewhere Circa 1980, 1 of the caregivers or midwife had a hairdo that resembled the brunette out of ABBA, the harsh cut fringe and straight long hair and then the Pis ta resistance 1 lady was wearing nothing but leg warmers, WHAT THE. Well I need to go and get me some of those as that is standard birthing outfit.
Well only 5 more weeks of classes before your impending arrival in 9 weeks time, can't wait to meet you my little Peanut.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Peanut Update
I told him I was concerned that this pregnancy is going all too well, does that mean I am going to have a horrific labour or feral child. He reassured me that the good pregnancy should mean a good birth, he made no comment on the feral child comment. I guess that could be up to me, lol.
Baby Shower
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Peanut got soooo many presents, some that Mum-2-be aka Me had a little difficulty working out what to do with it.
Some big thank you's for the day - Lisa for making the cutest little nesty birdy cake and cupcakes, mum for her always delicious sausage rolls and butterfly cakes, Colette for her famous Quiches, Checka for yet more cupcakes, Kim for her healthy platter (personally I never ate any of it but I heard it was go
od) and also for taking some photos for me and Kristy and Sonia for the help with set up and clean up and everyone else for coming along and especially from Peanut thanks for all the wonderful pressies.A special mention to the Nanna's-2-be who weren't going to buy anything but wait til after the baby shower to see what we still needed and both ended up buying a truck loan of little bits and pieces, i can only imagine the horror (I mean delight) of how much stuff will come when Peanut finally arrives.
So with only 10.5 weeks to go is anyone game to bet on Boy or Girl?
Monday, June 29, 2009
Bring on the Weekend
This all started with Take-away chinese on Friday night for me and Jamie as we watched a bit of Masterchef (am totally loving that show). Then for lunch the next day was leftover Chinese.
Sat arvo I decided to bake the Scones I saw on masterchef, date and lemon scones. Kim and Cass came over for a spot of scrapping about 3ish in the afternoon and we proceeded to each a few too many scones with a cups of Tea (and I wonder why Jamie calls us nanna's). For dinner we ordered a reasonably health delivery of Thai food. There was (well for me anyway) a lot more chatting than scrapping, but who cares it was good to just chill out and relax. The scones were a hit and they will be making an appearance in the family or favourite recipe book I am making.
Sunday we headed up to Sydney to catch up with Adam and Checka some friends of ours and we went to Yum Cha at Blacktown, it was delicious as always and I rolled out of there feeling VERY full.
On the way home we had to pick up Jamie's sister Ria who had been at the Pink Concert the night before and had stayed in the city with friends. She got a lift back to Campbelltown so we picked her up from there and headed over to mum's for a quick visit and a spot of afternoon tea (more eating) before heading back down the coast to drop Ria off and then home. It was quite an exhausting day and I headed for bed about 9.30 and proceeded to snore the house down (aparently).
I must say though my throat was a little sore this morning so perhaps he was telling the truth.
Well all I can say for my fellow scrapbookers at Camp this coming weekend is SORRY. If you wonder why there are earplugs on your pillow, take my word for it you are going to need them.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Long time no Post
I have been sooo busy at work I didn't have time for morning sickness, and thankfully was only a little nauseaus and as long as I ate regularly I was pretty good. It was a weird feeling, not feeling 100% but not sick enough to stay home, doh.
Mum has offered to take me shopping to buy whatever I need and I suggested we wait until after the baby shower to see what I didn't get.
Peanut says Hi-5.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
1st Wedding Anniversary

Sunday, February 15, 2009
Big News
Our parents and family are really excited, it wouldn't surprise me if my mum has been out shopping already.
So life as I know it is about to change beyond repair.
Heaps to Tell
30th Jan - I headed off to the Hunter Valley to celebrate my friend Nicky's Hens Weekend. We had a great time starting at Potters Brewery and heading out to 4 different wineries and cheese and chocolate factories and had a really nice afternoon wine tasting and making a few little purchases. Then we headed back to Potters and had a swim with some more wine and cheese'n'crackers. Then we spruced ourselves up to head into the restaurant for dinner, followed by dancing and drinking all night in the nightclub. When the disco closed it was still stifling hot
so we finished up swimming in the pool til about 3am. It was a great weekend and Nicky had heaps of fun and I can't wait to see her on her Wedding Day.

7th Feb I had organised the Cumberland Classified Reunion for people who worked there around 1990-2000. It was a great night with about 50 people coming to catch up with old friends, everyone had a great night even though it was really hot, I guess that was the excuse to drink a little more, haha, to keep cool. It was great to catch up with old friends and I couldn't imagine finding everyone without the help of Facebook, it made it sooo much easier.
I have been really busy at work over the last few weeks, hence no time for blogging, heaps of enquiries from First home buyers, it has been really frustrating because I have been submitting a lot of loans however some of the banks have been so slow getting an answer for my customers has been like bashing my head against a brick wall. Also my new assistant Kylie had a week's holiday scheduled so I was solo for 1 of those weeks. She is back now and it was a relief being able to hand over some of the workload. I am expecting that these enquiries will continue to flow in.
