sausage dogs

the first week.

Gus has been in the world for a whole week. It feels like he's been here forever and only moments at the same time.

Our first night home was a baptism of fire - I went home not really able to feed poor Gussy, and my poor boy was hungry and upset the whole night, and his parents were confused and distressed for him. I don't think I've ever felt so hopeless as I did the following morning when I was unable to give any food to my poor babe. I was reduced to a puffy-eyed sobbing mess. Fortunately I had wonderful help from my mother-in-law, and then the child and maternal health nurse, who sorted us out in a matter of minutes. I was a completely different person by the very same afternoon.

Since then things have been on the up and up, and the rest of this week has been lovely. Gifts and cards in the mail, bleary sleepy nights, friends and family bringing food, a room full of flowers, tiny clothes hanging on the line, marathon feeding sessions, sweet kisses and cuddles, the sound of his little squeaks and cooing from his cradle, getting the hang of nappy changes - all in sunny spring weather. He's a contented little guy, and we love caring for him.

On hearing of our rather traumatic start, friends and family have been sharing their experiences of their first week - the good and the bad. Aunts whose children are now grown-up can recall with full clarity what it was like for them, as have friends with babies who have messaged me with words of understanding and encouragement. It made me feel a lot better that I wasn't alone.

For all the mumma bears reading - what was your first week like? I'd love to hear.

Tomorrow is my first day without Tim here to help me (damn teachers and their rubbish paternal leave policy). I'm feeling a little cautious, but looking forward to it at the same time (I can photograph Gus endlessly, hurrah!).

Gus.

he is here.

Gus finally arrived on Saturday afternoon after a rather long journey, weighing 4.3 kg. We love him beyond words.

... and you'd still be wrong.

10 days over and ... it's still me and Masaki hanging out together all day (and check out what great company he is, he very rarely leaves that mat). 

My hospital has a policy of 10 days past due date, but my obstetrician has given me a deadline of 14 days. Whilst I'm a believer of not rushing these things and letting baby come in his/her own time, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!

Oh well, I'm so very close now, just impatient to meet this little wriggler.

If you came here to see a cute newborn, check out Lauren's instead, love that fuzzy hair!! Eeeee!!

if you thought the brief silence meant baby has arrived...

... unfortunately you'd be wrong. Baby apparently isn't quite ready yet. So instead of having a baby I made a cat with a bow-tie.

Behold:

11.11.11

A very catchy date.. Sunny Spring weather.. the perfect day to be born yes? Apparently not.

But that's ok, I'm very thrilled with this little baby. I'd been rather gloomy all week after my obstetrician bandied the "Caesarean" word about at our last appointment, because baby's head was not engaged and didn't look like it was going to. Anyway, I jotted down a million questions for my appointment yesterday but needn't have bothered - baby is now locked and loaded! Nice work.

Except now I've really got nothing at all to do.. except be the personal doorman to this guy who likes to come in/go out about 50 times a day (and lets you know if you don't respond quickly enough!).

So then I did something really insane:

I know. Wrapping Christmas presents in November isn't normal behaviour. But that's what it's come to.

I did get a pleasant surprise this morning - this is what happens to your blog stats when gorgeous Jodi from Che and Fidel mentions you in her post (wow, how did she get here?) :

I was most confused for a while! Thank you to all those who visited, and who left comments, I now have lots of lovely new blogs to peruse, instead of being a crazy lady who does Christmas wrapping in early November.

waiting.

I have completed my epic list of pre-baby tasks. So now there's not much to do..

..but float along and scare other beach goers with my giant belly (we went to Sorrento for the weekend which was just bliss),

..and do some bonus unnecessary baby craft.

The freezer is stocked with pre-made meals.

And the hospital bags are packed.

So now it's time to rest, relax and wait. 

(another) baby quilt.

So about a week ago after I made the bunting for baby's room I looked at the leftover fabric and thought "I definitely need to make a quilt out of this". Thus began the quickest quilt I've ever made - 8 days in total. (Please excuse the random spade in photo).

I only had enough leftover fabric to make a rather small quilt - so I added a big border out of natural linen.

I also added the really cute "kids playing with toy horses" fabric by Heather Ross. I liked it so much I put a big band of it on the backing. When I went to buy more yellow spotty fabric for the binding, the women in the shop asked when I was due. They thought my response of "in 4 days" was pretty hysterical.

But I finished it in time. So that's it baby, you can come out now!

lovely prints.

My favorite book illustrators would have to be Anna Walker and Oliver Jeffers. Our baby has a sufficient amount of artwork already, but if I had more walls I would add these..

From Lost And Found by Oliver Jeffers, print available here.

From I Love to Sing by Anna Walker, print available here.

From The Miggy Tree by Anna Walker, print available here.

40 weeks.

Well, here we are and I can't believe it! The past 9 months have both flown and dragged at the same time.

I'm grateful to have had an easy pregnancy - no sickness, dramas or too much discomfort. I kept reading ahead in my Up the Duff book and thinking "uh oh, it gets bad soon" but it never did. Sure I've been a bit puffy (the wedding ring hasn't been worn for a while), sleeping has been much more interrupted recently (but if I can't handle that then I can't handle a baby!) and the constant heartburn is uncomfortable, but I've found the whole thing exciting and enjoyable. 

I'm certainly not at the "get it out of me" point yet, and there's apparently a theory you need to feel a bit like that to go into labour - I don't know how true that is. Also, the baby isn't locked and loaded ("engaged") which apparently it should have by now. My obstetrician even threw out the c-word at my last appointment (caesarian you dirty bird!) which I was a bit surprised by - he said I could go a week over and then that's what we'd need to think about. Hopefully it won't come to that, but either way, I'm not holding my breath for anything to happen right away.

... but I could be mistaken! Whatever happens we are so close to meeting our little bebe. And even though I've had 9 months to get used to the idea, I simply can't imagine it! 

(I do have a head, and I sometimes wear clothing that isn't grey.. occasionally).