Wednesday Randomness

Happy Wednesday people!
I have no good stories to share so I am writing a bunch of random things down.

I just finished reading this post by Kelle Hampton. I like all her posts, but I especially loved this one today. Her simple ideas for making the most of celebrating. Love it!

I have Tuesdays off at the moment and I LOVE it! I cleaned our bathroom and boy did it feel good when it was done! I don't think it's been that clean ever!

I am very excited. These arrived in the post on Monday!

My baby's butt is going to look so cute in them!

That's all. Short and sweet ;)

33 Reasons

Today is Dave's 33rd birthday. Happy birthday to my best friend, my husband, my baby's daddy. I love you more than I can say!

To celebrate Dave, I have come up with 33 reasons I love him!
1. He loves God
2. He loves me so well
3. He loves our baby so well already it is incredible!
4. He has the best work ethic - it's almost too good
5. He strives to provide for us
6. The way I wake up some Saturday mornings to a completely clean kitchen
7. The way he encourages me with his words
8. For setting up the baby's cot already
9. For making dinner when I can't be bothered
10. For being ok with me not cooking for nearly two months while I had morning sickness!
11. The way that he prayers over me and the baby
12. His care for his family
13.The way he loves my family
14. When he plays his guitar
15. Listening to him worship all by himself down in the spare/music room
16. His generosity
17. When he washes my car!
18. His laugh
19. His fashion sense - he picks better clothes for me than I do!
20. When you read books I recommend
21. Watching him read the Bible
22. Knowing what an incredible father he is going to be, and already is!
23. Going on road trips together
24. Your desire to better yourself and grow in God
25. His kindness
26. His patience with me when I vent
27. Knowing he loves me unconditionally
28. Hearing him talk to the baby
28. Knowing he supports me in everything I do
30. The way he perseveres through anything
31. For introducing me to cherry lollies
32. For proposing to me and sharing life's great adventure with me
33. That he is all mine!

Heartbeat

Unless you've had trouble with your heart, your heartbeat is probably not something most of us give much thought to. Yet it is what keeps us alive, pumping blood and oxygen around our bodies.

It's incredible what hearing our little baby's heartbeat does to me. We got to do that again at our midwife appointment yesterday (which went really well, by the way!) His or her little heart was beating strong and steady again yesterday and Dave was able to record it. Although I don't think our little one was too impressed with the wand being pressed over the womb because he moved away from it, and when our midwife found it again he gave a little kick that she was able to pick up in all the sounds coming through the microphone!

Hearing the baby's heartbeat for the first time was incredible, and hearing it again yesterday was just as emotional. It tells me my baby is healthy in there, is growing and progressing and doing what he or she should be.

I am beyond blessed.

16 Weeks/ 4 Months

Baby's size: 11.6cm long and weighs about 100 grams

How far along: 16 weeks exactly

Sleep: Still not having any trouble sleeping

Maternity clothes: Not yet. I can still do up my jeans!

Food cravings: None yet, but I have started to eat more foods over the last week or so, thank goodness. I was getting sick of all the white foods!

Food aversions: Still lots of things - red meat, cooked vegetables.

Symptoms: I can sometimes feel some pulling in my lower abdomen if I move to quickly, or twist funny and sometimes when I stand up too quickly from sitting.

Midwife's appointment: Tomorrow afternoon I have my second appointment with the midwives clinic. I'm still waiting to hear if I got into the MGP (Midwifery Group Practice, where I would get the same two midwives the whole way through, instead of having a different one each appointment and then having whoever is on duty when I go into labour). I'm praying I get in MGP.

Movement: Nothing yet that I've noticed, but I am trying to keep really still at different times throughout the day just in case I can feel any flutterings. I have read that often first time mothers don't notice anything until around the five month mark, but I figure if I keep being patient I might feel something sooner!

Gender: Still don't know yet, and I'm still undecided as to whether I want to know or not.

Best moment of the week: My first Mother's Day two Sunday's ago. And realising that I AM A MUMMY! And having a girlfriend tell me she is due with her second baby less than a month after we have ours! Little friends!!

What I miss: Having a normal diet

What I'm looking forward to: Feeling baby movements for the first time!

Update: I got a phone call today at about 2pm, from my new midwife saying I got into the MGP! Praise God!

Stuff for Babies

Things for babies. Walking into a baby shop, while so much fun, is also a little mind boggling. There is so much stuff and trying to decide what is an essential, what would be nice to have, and what is really just a gimmick (that will sit in the bottom of the closet because it seemed like a good idea at the time but really was just a waste of money) kind of makes my eyes roll back in my head. And then I go on a rant about silly companies making all this crap to scam money out of us first time parents by making us feel like our child will be missing out if we don't buy their item - even though we're not entirely sure what it does...

Now we all know that there are some non-negotiable items like the pram, crib, and the car seat. But as far as everything else goes, what are some good items to have and what are a waste of space?

Change table or change pad on top of dresser or chest of drawers?

Carrier or sling?

Designated baby bath station, bath insert or plastic tub that you can put anywhere?

Should I have a bassinet or is it just an added item that will only be used for a short while and then gather dust while taking up space?

What about high chairs? A full size one? One that is a booster style seat, or one tat clips onto the side of a table?

Have you ever seen a weirder looking high chair?!

Monitors: video, or just sound?

Breast pump - manual or electric?

Bottles. how many do you buy if breastfeeding? What size nipple do you get for them? Is a steriliser necessary?

Is a rocker handy to have around?

Are these walker/roller/toy unit things any good?

And this one I have been curious about for a long time. Is the Bumbo actually useful?

I haven't even started looking at all the stuff for mama. Breast pads, nipple creams, pillows for feeding and sleeping. I'm tired just thinking about it. I might go lie down.

What, if any of these things have people used and found useful? What did you find you didn't need? Is there anything not on this list that I shouldn't bother to get? What items can't you live without?

All images source here.

Baby Room Inspiration

With a little one on the way, we have started to get things together for the baby's room. My parents very generously offered to buy us the cot and we found a beautiful cot on big time sale in a shop that is closing down. We picked that up a couple of weeks ago along with a portable cot and a few small items. So now comes the fun part - deciding on some ideas for the room!

This is our cot, although the colour of ours is a little lighter.

Here are some of the rooms I have found online (good old Pinterest) that I like. Boys and girls rooms, because we don't know what we're having yet! We also rent, so changing the paint colour is probably not an option at this point.

I started with pinning images of rooms with similar coloured beds.

I Love, love, LOVE this room. Love the colours, love the simplicity and I love the little creative touches; the ribbons on the wall, the ruffled pom poms, and the bunting above the little reading nook.

This room is so cute with the elephant mobile! And you could easily change up the accent colour.

I love that this room is based around very neutral pieces. The wall colour and the furniture are all simple and classic. Once again changing up the accent colour would easily make it suited to a boy.  

This last room is another one that I LOVED the moment I saw it. The cot is white, but I just love the colour combination that has been used in this space.

So these are a few rooms that I really love the whole feel of and are a nice starting point for gathering ideas for creating a space for baby Timberlake!

Two Embarrassing Rooms

With baby Timberlake on the way we need to do little room re-arranging. we have two spare rooms, one that has been our gym/study/music room and the other has been a craft room/junk room/dumping ground. We need to combine all the stuff from both rooms into one so baby has it's own space.

(oh goodness the shame...)
The stuff from here...

Needs to go in here

I think it's safe to say that I have quite a job a head of me. Especially since Dave has been threatening to take a week off work and drive a trailer up to the front door and just empty everything into that and take it to the dump!

The thing that is even more embarrassing to admit is that the second room photo was taken after some sorting and reorganising had already been done.

Wish me luck!

Mother's Day

My sweet husband gave me flowers and a cute card he made yesterday morning, celebrating my first Mother's Day.

We also celebrated by having breakfast with my mother (and dad and sister) and my nana and grandad. This was our fabulous view to go with our buffet breakfast. It was topped off with a rainbow as we drove to church.

To be honest I don't think it has really sunk in that I am a mother. I am a MOTHER!!! My child might still be in the womb, but I am already his or her mother. And that is an incredible thought.

House vs Home

I'm not sure if it's early signs of nesting, but I am wanting to get our house cleaned up and organised and decorated a little nicer, and not just in the room that will be the baby's.

When we first got married we had planned on being in our own home by now (we rent) so I think that subconsciously I decided that there wasn't much point in going to overboard in making this house our home, putting our own stamp on it. We just brought in furniture and a whole lot of stuff and I never really decorated at all. Of course over time we have accumulated more items and I have made a little more effort to make our house more homey, but we don't even really have photo's up around. In fact I can only think of three photo's that we have framed! That's quite shocking when I think about it.

It's quite strange really that I haven't done a lot with our house, because when Dave and I first came to look at it we both felt like it was "home" the moment we walked in. And it is home, but I hadn't put up a lot of homey touches until about six months ago. Now with a little one on the way, I am really starting to think about how we can really make this our home.

14 Weeks

We are 14 weeks along with Baby T. Here is a little of how we are tracking!

Baby's size: Baby is about 9cm long and weighs around 43 grams.

How far along: 14 weeks. Yay for the second trimester!

Maternity Clothes: I haven't needed maternity clothes yet and I can still do up all my pants, jeans included, but they are starting to get tighter, and when I sit down I undo them! I might have to start thinking about getting a few more singlet tops and basic shirts that I don't care about stretching.

Food cravings: I have gone off pretty much all food, so I haven't really had any cravings yet. There have been the odd moment when I feel like something in particular, but I wouldn't call them cravings just yet!

Food aversions: I still have a very limited diet, although over the last week I have added a few more foods to the "things that don't make me want to hurl" list.

Symptoms I have: I get nauseous if I don't eat regularly, and if I wait to long between snacks I sometimes start to dry retch - nice I know! I can feel a lot of the stretching that is going on in my lower abdomen too, and when I sneeze I have to hold on to my stomach!

Doctor’s Appointment: I had my first midwives appointment last Thursday at the hospital where we were asked a whole bunch of questions, given a heap of pamphlets to read through and asked about our preferred birth options. I'm hoping to get into a program where I have the same midwife the whole way through, but I'm still waiting to find out if I'm in or not. It was at this appointment we also had the first ultrasound and got to see baby T for the first time!

Movement: Nothing yet that I have noticed.

Gender: We don't know yet. Dave wants to find out, but I am undecided at this stage.

Best moment of the week: Seeing little baby T last week on the sonogram screen, and hearing it's strong heartbeat. Just incredible!

What I'm looking forward to: Planning a nursery for the little one and starting to get together all the bits and pieces we will need.

What I miss: Poached eggs. I don't know why, but I would really love a nice runny poached egg. And a soft serve sundae. Not necessarily at the same time! :)

Baby T's First Picture

Dave and I had our first hospital appointment with a Midwife yesterday. After filling out countless forms and answering a ton of questions, we were taken to another room and I climbed up on a bed and lay down next to the ultrasound machine.

I hadn't admitted to anyone, not really even myself, just how worried I had been that when the image of my womb came up on the screen, it would be empty. Or the baby wouldn't be the size it should be, and that it would have stopped growing weeks ago.

I don't know if I can do justice to the moment when the scanner moved across my abdomen and a very clear picture of the little life inside appeared on the screen.

As I stared at baby's little profile, his or her tine nose and little hands, and watched the heartbeat flickering inside baby's tiny little chest, tears began to stream down the side of my face and into my hair. It was without a doubt the most magical moment of my life.

A Little Something Cooking

Yes, the little something cooking is a bun in my oven! Little baby Timberlake will be joining us around early November!

As you can imagine we are very excited and have already been making plans. In fact we purchased a cot only a couple of weeks after finding out we were expecting!

We have our frist appointment with a midwife on Thursday morning to talk aver all our options and to also, hopefully, have our first ultrasound and see our little one!! We cannot wait. Only two sleeps till we get our first view of the little miracle growing in my womb! Incredible! Praise God!