Thursday, October 31, 2013

happy halloween!

Happy All Hallow's Eve everyone! Despite the fact that Halloween isn't a big deal here in Australia, the hubs and I love it and always enjoy decorating our house and having loads of lollies ready for any kids who come knocking! Lucky for us, the area we've moved to seems to enjoy it as much as we do! We've had loads of little kiddies (adequately supervised by adults, thankfully!) come a-knocking, all dressed up, and a number of people in the street decorated their houses.

Exciting for me, as a Mama, was that this was Livie's first holiday! So of course, I couldn't resist dressing her up, even if we didn't leave the house...Enjoy!

Happy Halloween Everyone! Love, Olivia Grace xx

Saturday, October 19, 2013

baby Olivia's birth story - Part One!

Wow. It's been a while since I wanted to sit and write this post but we're still settling into our new way of life over here and writing a blog post tends to be a little further down the "what to do while baby is sleeping" list and generally doesn't get reached! But at the moment I have a sleeping babe on my chest (the only time she has managed to fall asleep today thanks to some horrible wind!) and I thought I'd take the time to get started on our story...

As I've mentioned previously, we had some concerns that little miss was going to make her entrance quite early - at 36 weeks we had some contractions and the hospital advised me to finish up work as she was ready to come at any time (of course, we didn't know she was a "she" then!)

While lots of rest and couch time prevented her from coming that early, we did experience a lot of pre-labour work in the following weeks and it's here our story starts. On the Friday prior to Livie's birthday, I actually had consistent, working contractions from the early hours of the morning until about 5 pm - we were convinced we were going to meet our little bean that day! I was feeling really good about how everything was going and dealing with the pain well, but then all at once, I got this complete wave of exhaustion and need to lie down...and I listened to my body. Sadly, everything pretty much stopped at that point and we came to the realization that it was just more intense pre-labour work and it wasn't going to progress further.

40 weeks according to our scans - 2 days after our false start & 3 days before labour started
On the day labour actually started (Wednesday, 25th of September), we had a check up with our midwife at 8am, then my mum (who had stayed at our place for a few nights after the Friday false start...she couldn't help herself, she felt she was going to miss out if she went home! Hehe) and I went shopping in the morning for a few hours. It had been a while since I had been out and about for that amount of time and it was nice to go shopping for a while! However, it meant that later that evening, when the hubs and I decided to go grocery shopping and I started to feel a bit achy and have a bit of pressure, I just put it down to my unusual amount of standing/walking that day...and soldiered on! (I remember getting out of the car and saying to the hubs - "I might be a bit slow tonight because I'm a bit sore, so please be patient" :) )

As we went about our shopping (around 6pm), it became apparent that the pain I was getting was coming every ten minutes or so...and was getting to a point where I would physically have to stop walking and wait for it to pass. I had been reluctant to say anything to the hubs, since we had had so many days of pain that led to nothing, but at that point I turned to him and said, "Hmmm, maybe we should hurry this up a little..." He suggested just leaving then and there, but I convinced him that we should finish - we were expecting family over for dinner that night and if it turned out to be nothing, we needed to have food ready!

By the time we got home (the shopping centre is literally a 2 min car ride from our house!) the pain was coming every 5 mins and I had told the hubs that I thought he should call his sister and dad and tell them not to come. By the time we (and by that I mean he!) unpacked the car, the pain was 3 mins apart. It escalated pretty quickly and I rang my mum (who had decided to spend the night at home that night... of course!) to let her know that I thought that night, of all nights, was the night she should probably come back!

I should note here that one of the reasons I had not thought I was really in labour was because of how different my pain was - I felt absolutely nothing in my stomach and only had intense pain in my pelvis/hips/back. I should have known something was up then... but hindsight is a wonderful thing!

By the time my mum arrived, we had spoken with the on call caseload midwife (ours was of course off for the night as she was working the weekend!) and advised her what was going on and had planned to stay home as long as possible... however not long after Mum arrived we made the decision to head to the hospital because the pain had gotten so bad I felt I wouldn't be able to get in a car if we left it too much longer!

So, we did one last trek around the house, trying to think of anything we had missed that we would need, locked up and headed to hospital...

Part 2 coming soon!

39 weeks, 6 days according to our hospital due date. last shot before heading to hospital!
 

Thursday, October 10, 2013

dear baby

Dear Baby,

I can now call you by your name, sweet little Olivia. I'm so excited to have finally met you, to know that you are exactly the person I thought you were, carried inside me all those months, and yet, you are completely new to me! Daddy and I simply cannot believe that today you are two weeks old. Where have those 2 weeks gone? They have been a mix of snuggles and endless feeds and little sleep...the most precious time we could imagine and yet they fly by so fast!

Already you have changed so much, in such a short space of time. Your cheeks are getting chubbier (and I'm so proud that I can say "I'm doing that!"), your eyes are getting bluer, your smiles are getting more and more real...and our hearts grow more and more full of love for you. And for each other.

You are the most amazing gift that anyone could have given to us and we are both amazed and terrified that such a tiny little person is all ours. We cannot wait to see you grow, see your personality emerge and see who you look like (and whether you get some dimples!) but right now, I want you to stay teeny and squishy for a good while yet...as terrifying as that can be it's almost amazing to feel your warmth against me and know that right now, you are all ours. The world has not yet touched you and you are perfect.

Welcome to the world little Livie. You just became ours.

Love, Mama xx

Weight: 3340 grams, 135 grams above her birth weight

Keep an eye out for Olivia's birth story, coming soon!

Saturday, October 05, 2013

40 weeks...and introducing Miss Olivia Grace!

15.09.2013 - 22.09.2013


How far along? 40 weeks!

I feel I should make a disclosure here, since I am marking this post as 40 weeks! The dates I have been using at the top of our bump dates are based on a due date of the 22/09/2013, which is the date we were given at all of our scans. However, based on various elements, our hospital had given us a due date of 26/09/2013. So while Olivia's birth falls out of the dates I have given on the blog so far, she was born on her exact due date by hospital dates...so we'll go with 40 weeks ;)

Baby Size: 7 pounds, 1 ounce (3205 grams)

Total weight gain: 12 kgs

Bump measurement: 102 cm

Maternity clothes? I have been released from the world of maternity clothes and have entered the world of loose pants and feeding tops currently!

Stretch marks? 2 teeny tiny ones in an inconspicuous spot...and none on my belly! Yay! I am waiting to see if I get any as my bump deflates though :(

Sleep: It's so nice to sleep without any pain or heartburn! Now I just wake to my gorgeous little bubba girl instead :)

Best moment this week: I think this one is pretty self explanatory this week! Seeing my little Olivia's face for the first time...parred with the tears on her Daddy's face as he held her

Miss Anything? No. My world is amazing and all wrapped up in my little family

Movement: Miss Olivia was a little wriggler right up til the end...and wriggled her way into the wrong position! But more on that in her birth story...

Food cravings: Indulged in some yummy strawberries right til the end...and after she returned home I craved choc chip cookies hehe

Anything making you queasy or sick: Was getting heartburn right up til the end - including through contractions!

Gender: A BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL :)

Symptoms: Are now allllllll gone thankfully.

Belly Button in or out? It stayed in! Looked like a sad face towards the end, all stretched out, but didn't pop out

Wedding rings on or off? Managed to wear them the whole time, but I have a lovely indent when I take them off these days and they were very tight the day we went into labour!

Mood: Over the moon!

Looking forward to: Watching our little Livie-Bug grow and learn and love...

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

...our first wedding anniversary...

Yes, I'm a few days late with this post...but I think I have a pretty good reason -


Whatcha think?? :) But more on this little love bug real soon, because today's post is about my husband....

My wonderful, amazing husband. On the 29th of September we celebrated one year of marriage. One whole year already!  And while this year marked a very different day to last, and we were battered, bruised and sleep deprived, nothing could be any better than the day we had - loving on our new baby, a physical representation of a love that has grown over the last year and will continue to do so.


I wished my husband a happy anniversary in the best way possible, with our daughter, and thanked him for the best present in the world - our baby girl and the love and support he gave me to get her here. We needed nothing more.

I can't wait to see where our future leads and look forward to many more anniversaries celebrating what started this little family of ours - our love.

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