They say the last couple of months rush by ... they're right

We had an appointment at the obstetrician this morning for Meeks' regular check up and to get the results from the liver tests from Wednesday. Apparently Meeks' liver function is down slightly and her bile slats are slightly above normal (only very slightly) which is where the itchiness is coming from. Apparently there is an increased likelihood of the condition in South American people and also Scandinavian people. The doctor has prescribed a medicine called Ursofalk which should help with that. The doctor said that in his experience the condition is unlikely to cause the baby distress which is good news. The internet very helpfully gave us some fairly dire statistics about it. He said a lot of the tests are based on incidences in South American where there are a bunch of other factors involved.

The other news is that it means that we are looking at the increased likelihood of an early delivery, even as early as 36 weeks. This is caused by the above problem and also Meeks diabetes. We have another set of liver tests and an ultrasound next week and that decision will probably be made next Friday when we have another appointment.

What that all means is that we could be parents in as little as 3 weeks. That freaked us out a little to say the least. It looks like we could be having an April baby instead of a May baby!

Itchy, itchy, itchy!

Meeks is going through a bit of a nightmare at the moment with itchiness on her belly and palms and feet. She thought she was going mad but then found out it's quite common, there's even a web site!

www.itchymoms.com

Apparently it can be quite normal and could be caused by the body not handling the extra oestrogen in the blood. Alternatively it can be something quite nasty called Obstetric Choleostasis but that only occurs in 2% of pregnancies. It has something to do with pooling of bile salts in the liver (mmmm ... tasty) and can be quite serious for both the mum and the baby and will likely mean having the baby delivered early if it gets serious. Meeks had a blood test today to see if it is the nasty variety or just the common one. She should know by Friday. Either way, it is causing a lot of trouble especially at night and Meeks finds it very, very hard to sleep.

Last night we tried Phenergan (an antihistamine) but that didn't really work so about 11pm last night we were driving around trying to find a 24 hour chemist to buy some calamine lotion. You would think there would be one in Hornsby (or Pennant Hills or Epping). Not a chance! So we went home and Meeks suffered through the night only getting a couple of hours sleep. Not the way she would have wanted to spend her birthday!

Tonight, we're going to try an upped dose of Phenergan and calamine lotion.

Please pray that it's not the nasty one and that we can find a solution for the itchiness.

The Nursery Part 2

Ok so I have been a little tardy, but here goes!

First up, Meeks' new favourite chair in the world.

Next a picture of the cot and the change table near the window. Meeks' old Big Ted is just minding the cot until the baby comes.
A closer look at the change table. It's in the "chest of drawers" mode at the moment. The top folds down to become a change table. When the baby doesn't need a change table anymore the top becomes a little shelf. Isn't Ikea clever! It's all stocked up with nappies and ready to go. You can also see the pram folded up on the left of the change table - nice and flat! Ellie the Lime Green elephant is hanging out with the Johnsons baby powder.

This is a little book/toy shelf and a little toy chest down on the floor. Raffy the Giraffe is sitting on the toy box. He is a gift from Anna.

And a closer look at the shelf. Meeks' mum has been extremely generous in giving little toys so the baby has lots to play with. With Ducky and Teddy and Paddington and Lamby and Monkey Boy and Sheepy (and Ellie and Raffy and Big Ted) to play with, the baby will have more than enough of little friends. There are a couple of books for story time too.

Nursery

Still not quite there with nursery shots, been lazy and busy! Here is one that was in my phone. Not bad quality for a shot with a mobile phone. I was not trying to be arty, just trying to fit in as much as possible!
You can see the cot and the wardrobe and just part of the arm of the arm chair. More to follow!

Finishing work, and U2 postponed!

After finding it harder and harder at work the past few weeks, Meeks has decided she's had enough so she will be finishing work at the end of next week (17th March) which is two weeks ahead of schedule. She's looking forward to doing a number of little things around the house and resting. I guess that means we don't have to compete for the shower in the mornings any more :)

In other BIG news, if you don't already know, U2 has postponed the Australian leg of their tour. This could potentially be a disaster as depending on when they postpone it to, we might not be able to go! There were tears I can tell you! Hopefully it is either a short (less than a month) or long postponement (more than 3 months) because otherwise it is going to be very tough to go. There are rumours floating around about the concert being postponed to a November timeframe which would be great, but they're only rumours at this stage. Thanks to those who have already generously offered to baby sit when we go to see U2!

That's all the news for now, I promise I will get those nursery photos online soon (sorry Mum - although she could just come and visit. We don't live THAT far away!).

30 Week Ultrasound

We had our 30 week ultrasound this morning. All looks well and the baby appears normal. The baby looks like it has chubby cheeks, and it had it's leg up near it's head - very flexible! The lady doing the ultrasound said the baby was larger than average (which Meeks was obviously thrilled about - not!) but aside from that all was well.

In other news, Meeks is having some back pain and some stomach pain and occasionally difficulty sleeping which is all no good, but it seems this is part of being pregnant. She has cut down to 4 days a week at work and is currently due to finish on the 30th March (only 14 "work" days to go!). She may get told by the obstetrician to stop earlier if the back pain etc keep up which she'll be terribly disappointed about (again ... not) if that happens! Fortunately, she has some sick leave stored up so that should be okay.

We have a pram

After a very extended period of looking and being confused and frustrated by lots of choice we finally found ourselves a pram. Hurray! It is a Mountain Buggy Urban, which we found to be a bit more expensive than some of the others, but after having some practice getting heavier ones in and out of the car, we decided it was the go. It is mostly black, but has a couple of bits of detail so it's not alllll black. It was apparently No. 1 in a Choice magazine test of three wheelers. It folds nice and flat and fits in the back of the car nicely.

In other news we've sort of decided on a car seat as well. The Safe and Sound Compact in "Kindergarten", which is kind of a dark grey/charcoal colour because Kindergarten doesn't really mean anything in a colour sense ... well at least to me it doesn't. We decided on the compact after seeing how big the more "normal" sized ones are. We might just have to confirm that they handle the same age children as bigger ones before we finalise our decision. Unfortunately they didn'thave one is stock today so we'll have to go back later on on get it.

The Entrance and other news

Sorry I haven't added much in the way of news lately. What can I say, we have been busy! A couple of weekends ago we had a weekend away up at The Entrance. Just a time to relax and hang out together before the baby comes along and takes away all our free time. They have pelican feeding everyday up there, here's an action shot.


The Pre-Natal classes are almost finished. We have our last one this week. The last couple have been on parenting, which has so far been looking at breast feeding and last week we got to see a real baby being bathed and settled. Fortunately it was a good baby so did all the right things, we can only hope our baby turns out like that!

We've finally got all the bits for the nursery which is a relief. I just have to put up a shelf and it's all done. Next time it's sunny I'll take some pictures and post them here. Getting the stuff on Sunday was a bit of a nightmare, to summarize it's 2:30 we're at Homebush, I have to be at music rehearsal at 3:30 and we've just discovered the arm chair doesn't fit in the back of the 4 wheel drive we have borrowed. Fortunately after some brief panic, a few occy straps and a bit of good ol' fashioned Aussie ingenuity, we managed to get the arm chair home and me to practice on time, not the best preparation for leading a church service - I don't recommend doing it that way to anyone. Thanks to Michael for his patience and help.

More nursery news

We managed to get the rest of the nursery furniture together without making too many mistakes or resorting to swearing and violence. Now we just have to figure out how to arrange it all. We made a cardboard cut out of the shape of the wardrobe and arm chair and put them in the room to try and get a feel for how it will all fit. After that there was an extended period of mentally moving things around so:
a) they all fit
b) they provide some sort of functionality; and
c) it doesn't look like the baby feeding-changing-sleeping production line that it is.

We both think it is all very cute and are really looking forward to when there is actually a baby to live in it. I think if it was a bit bigger I'd come home from work and find Meeks asleep in the cot.

So only a few things still to do and the nursery will be ready for the little one. Hurray!

The Nursery

We went shopping last night for nursery things. We had already decided to get the cot and a few other things from Ikea, so that wasn't too hard. It's really exciting and fun putting the little things together and thinking about how our little baby is going to sleeping in them, or storing their toys in them, or putting their little clothes in them etc. The only thing we wanted but wasn't in stock was a little wardrobe which is part of the Diktad antique stain collection. We have to go back later to get an arm chair (it wasn't going to fit in our car) so we'll pick up the arm chair in a couple of weeks when the wardrobe is back in stock.

Here is a link to the stuff.

We only had time last night to put together the little toy chest we bought for the babies toys. You would think it would be pretty simple. There were only about 6 pieces and some legs. Unfortunately we got the back and the front upside down and didn't realise until too late so we had to pull the whole thing apart again to put them right. Eventually we got it done :) It's very cute. It has all the little toys that the baby has already accumulated - quite a few given he or she is still a few months away!

So now we have a nursery with a bunch of cardboard boxes and a toy chest in it. I'll post photos when we have assembled the rest - I fear how we will go with the more difficult bits considering how badly we did with the simplest!

Meeks' belly

When we got pregnant we had this plan to take pictures of Meeks belly all the way along so we could see it growing, etc. Obviously that hasn't happened, however, we did take a photo today, so here it is!

We're 25 weeks on Monday, so only 15 weeks to go yay!

Ante-Natal Classes and other news

We started our ante-natal classes last night at the hospital. First up was a brief discourse on the phases of labour or "The Mechanisms of Labour" as it is more correctly called. No videos yet, but apparently we have 3 further weeks of classes on labour, so there is plenty of time for that yet. The more I learn about the process, the more I'm glad I'm not a woman and the more guilty I feel for putting Meeks through it all! I hope the little baby realises what mum has to go through to bring him or her into the world ... I realise that of course that is not likely for a number of years ... probably until it is an adult itself.

After the labour classes there is a few more on parenting. So washing, feeding, nursing, etc.

For me, the classes are valuable because they are opportunity an to learn what is going to go on during labour. I think knowing a bit of what is going on will help me not to freak out when the time comes and not stress about it in the lead up.

In other news, Meeks has had some discomfort while sleeping and occasional cramps which is no good, but the baby is doing well and kicking around more frequently. She is 23 and a bit weeks now.

We have to buy curtains for the nursery and Spotlight was having a sale. We worked out it takes less time to get to Spotlight West Gosford (35 minutes) than it does to get to Dee Why (40 minutes) so we had a bit of a drive up the coast Sunday morning. Unfortunately Spotlight Gosford didn't have much in the way of the curtains we were looking for. We'll try Ikea when we go and get the cot etc which we are buying from there.

Meeks' Mum and Michael get back from several weeks overseas today. They have been to London, Prague, Austria, New York and skiing somewhere in Utah (from memory). It will be good to see them again.

Great mysteries of the world

Why is that when the baby is giving Mum's insides a working over by doing the Riverdance, as soon as Dad puts his hand on the "dancefloor" he or she stops?

A niece!

Lilly Ann Clark was born to Mike and Amanda on 29th December at 5:58pm.

Mandy had a 20 something hour labour but the little one still wouldn't come due to various complications and eventually Lilly was delivered via caesarian. She was 3.8 kg (8 lb, 6 ounces) and is 53 cm long (which is very long).

She is very cute .. there are some photos attached with a couple of happy grand parents.


Mother and baby are doing well ... Michael is okay too.

Kick, kick, kick

Meeks and I felt the baby kick or move or something for the first time last night. I was able to put my hand on her belly and feel it kicking around. Apparently it went on for quite a while! That was really exciting for both of us.

Amanda still hasn't had her baby yet. It's a few days over due, but doesn't look like it is in any hurry to come out.

I hope everyone had a good and restful Christmas and are looking forward to a Happy New Year.

20 week ultrasound pictures

Here are a couple of pictures of our baby.
First picture is the classic profile. We think the baby has Meeks' nose.

The second picture is a hand and foot.

A wonderful Christmas present!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and the news is all good. We got to see the little one's hands and feet and face and heart and kidneys and brain and stomach etc. Everything was normal and healthy. This is obviously a huge relief for us and wonderful answer to prayer. Thank you to everyone praying for us.

We didn't want to find out the sex, so we don't know if it is a little boy or girl. Whatever it is, it is very cute - it riggled around a lot and at one point straightened it's leg out. We got a few little pictures and a video of parts of the ultrasound so I'll be posting the pictures some time tonight.

Obviously, we are thrilled. Half way there!

On a different note, my brother Michael and his wife Mandy are due Christmas Eve. Apparently the baby is engaged, but is quite comfortable and has more room to grow so they don't expect my little niece or nephew before the due date. In any case, he or she will be the first grandchild in the family, so when it decides to make an appearance it will be another great Christmas present.

We have the technology!

Now that we have a camera, we can actually put pictures on the blog. Yay! Here is the 7 week ultrasound. I know, old news, but still cool. The baby is 1.37 cm. Very tiny! You can kind of see an arm bud too! Okay so maybe it just looks like a big eye.

Video killed the radio star

We bought a video camera yesterday (it's a Panasonic NV-GS150 for those who like the details). We bought it through an online company called camerastore.com.au which I can highly recommend. It was 30% less than what you would pay in Retravision, Bing Lee or Harvey Norman. I ordered it online, they rang to confirm the details 15 minutes later and it arrived the next day. Overall a very positive online experience.

It will be fun learning to use it! As well as recording video, it takes 2.3MPixel still images which are really easy to download onto the PC so we will actually be able to get photos on this blog. I'm very excited about that. Unfortunately to do video editing we will need an upgrade of the computer, nothing major, just new operating system, new hard drive, more memory, DVD burner, USB 2.0, and Firewire card ... okay maybe we'll just have to get a new PC it is 5 and a half years old after all! Depends on the finances I guess!

Baby and Christmas shopping

After securing our U2 tickets we went baby furniture and Christmas present shopping (we had the day off - yay!). We started at Ikea and saw a nice single seater couch for the baby room as well as a cot, change table and cupboard which would fit well in the little one's room. After that we went to a couple of other baby places and despite being overwhelmed by the variety and prices we managed to retain our sanity and not actually buy anything - it was really only intended as a bit of a fact finding mission - just to see if our budget was going to be adequate.

I guess the scariest thing is prams - you can spend $900 on a pram! Is it just me or is that ridiculous? Needless to say that one isn't on the list. Most of them seem to be in the range $250-$500 or so dollars for the three wheeler ones. I guess we'll get one somewhere in the lower range. Does any one have any advice out there? Feel free to leave comments!

The other bizarre thing is baby seats, they all seem to have this incredibly plush dark material in them. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't baby vomit white (at least initially) and therefore will show up even more, not to mention the fact that being dark fabric is going to make it incredibly hot in summer.

Aside from being concerned by prices, we had a fun day shopping for baby stuff and finished our Christmas shopping, so that is a relief!