So! I'm pregnant! Thought this might be a nice idea so all of my friends and family can keep up with my daily thoughts, feelings and goings-on during my pregnancy.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Needles

Today and yesterday I've been jabbed with those nasty needles I hate so much. Yesterday I had to have routine blood tests to check my haemaglobin and stuff and also get tested for gestational diabetes. That meant I had to drink this glucose solution and then wait an hour before they drew the blood. The glucose solution wasn't too bad and tasted like flat lemonade. At least it was nice and cold so it was easy to drink. The pathology lady, Julie, was really lovely though and when I told her I hated having needles she was really good and reassuring. I think it also helped that I had eaten just before having the glucose stuff so I didn't get woozy or anything.

Today I had to have my first Anti-D injection. Basically this is because my blood type is RH negative I have to have these injections so that if my baby is RH positive it doesn't get any positive blood mixed in with my negative blood. If that did happen it could mean bad stuff during my next pregnancy. The lovely nurse at my GPs, Virginia, did it for me. She's a real card and made me feel very relaxed too. I had to have the needle in my bum - I have never had to have needle in my bum before so this was definitely a new experience. It stung quite nastily when it went in and for a while afterwards, but not so much as I couldn't sit down. I can still feel it now (6 hours later) but only as a bit irritating, not really hurting at all. I've still got 2 more to go - one at 36 weeks I think and then another after baby is born from memory. My GP also checked me over and all is fine. My BP is normal, I don't have swollen ankles and the baby's heartbeat was nice and strong - still love hearing that heartbeat, brings a smile to my face every time. Booked in for my next appointment in 4 weeks.

In other news, it was my last day as a full-timer on Monday. I am now officially a casual. Woo Hoo!! My first shift at Kippa-Ring is tomorrow from 9am-2pm. Then I work all day Friday and Saturday (although shop closes at 4pm I think) and then 10am-3.30pm on Sunday. I also found out that I am getting my final pay-out with all my leave and everything owing to me this week, even though I'm not officially taking maternity leave until the beginning of September. We're actually going to open a separate savings account to put all this into so we don't spend it straight away - we might need it after the baby arrives we think!

Last Saturday was the release of the new Harry Potter book so we had a huge day at work. We all dressed up and I ended up looking like a pregnant school-girl. Everybody thought I looked really cute but also a bit odd! We had an early start with all of us getting there about 7am. We had a staff meeting at 7.30am to make sure everybody knew what they were doing and at what time things were to happen. We opened the doors at 8am and let the people in who were already waiting to line up. We had quiz questions and cake and other people had dressed up and it was a lot of fun. At 9am we started the 1 minute countdown (for those of you who don't know, the first box was not to be opened until 9.01am EST or there would be big trouble). We got the first kid in line to open the box and then it was on! We think we had heaps of people in line before 9am and they just kept coming in all morning from then on. It died down again about lunch time but for a while there we had people everywhere! It was great fun but a really long day. We sent the four casuals home by lunch time and us four full-timers stayed the rest of the day. By the time we cashed up and left if was after 5.30pm and we were all knackered! We had fun though!

Baby is still very active and loves moving around just as I go to bed. This is really quite comforting and Daniel loves putting his hand on my belly to feel this too and talking to B just before we settle down to sleep. I think I've got a bit rounder recently too. Some people have noticed I seem bigger and some days I feel heavier. I'll get Daniel to take another picture of me soon. Now I'm officially into my third trimester and I've only put on about 8-9kgs - I'm pretty happy with that!

Monday, July 11, 2005

Big Decisions

Well, it has been a big week! We've been doing a lot of hard thinking and made some big decisions. After my dramatic day last Saturday (see post titled Emotional Stuff) and the consequences one bad day had to my store, I have decided to drop back from being assistant manager to casual much earlier than I planned. My manager and I have had a few discussions this week about my performance over the last few weeks and we both agree that I'm not as focussed on the store at the moment as I need to be. Work had already advertised my position and applications were to close on Friday. The position was not due to start until mid August but now I think they are going to close applications early and try and interview people as soon as possible. It may still take a couple of weeks after that for the new person to start because they will most likely fill my position internally and therefore have to find a replacement for their job too. I'm not sure how many hours I will get as a casual but I also have the opportunity to work in other stores besides Chermside if they need me. The pay rate is also a bit higher so hopefully we wont be missing out too much in the long run. I have been getting quite stressed at work which is certainly not good for B or for me. So when it started contributing to me losing sleep Daniel and I decided something needed to be done sooner rather than later. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and also feel much better about having to maybe do a few more weeks as assistant manager. Going back to casual doesn't affect my maternity leave except that for the next few weeks I won't get paid sick leave if I can't come in and I don't work up any more annual leave. I think these are small sacrifices as I hardly ever take a sick day and I've already got about 26 days annual leave owing which will be paid out when I go on maternity leave. Overall I'm happy with the decision and I think Daniel is too.

When discussing me cutting back my hours and therefore my income, we had a think about where else we could save some money. We have a friend who is a mortgage broker and invited him over tonight to work out if we could save money if we changed our mortgage. It turns out we're with a really good bank (BankWest) and what our best option is just to change our home loan to another one that they offer. This will give us a better rate and therefore reduce our weekly repayments and cut our monthly bank fees for having an offset facility that we really don't use effectively. It also saves a lot of hassle of having to change banks with everyone. So that's pretty exciting too and we're getting the paperwork tomorrow.

In other news, you'll all be glad to hear that my skin is doing a lot better since I got my new cream. It hasn't been itchy at all and the rash itself is clearing up nicely. So it was worth forking out the $125 to see the specialist to give me a prescription my GP could have given me. Well at least I'm not scratching till I bleed!

Finally, in some very exciting news, our dear friend John who moved to Canada a few years ago achieved his dream this weekend. His barbershop quartet WON the International Barbershop Convention in Salt Lake City. This is the highest you can go in the Barbershop world. Daniel and I have known John a very long time and are extremely proud of his achievements. I know he reads this site regularly so I just wanted to publically say congratulations once again!

That's all for now.

Monday, July 04, 2005

B's Big Bed



Here is the new cot with the side up...





...and one with the side down.

Emotional Stuff

If you've read Daniel's blog recently you'll already know that B is being quite active now. Especially when Mummy wants to settle down to go to sleep! Daniel is really excited to be able to feel the movement inside me and so am I. Where as before B would only move a little and I couldn't feel it for long now it feels like it's having an all-night party sometimes! I'm sort of used to it though and find it really comforting.

We're all very excited today as we're going to pick up B's new cot! We found an excellent buy in Target yesterday at Chermside but they didn't have any left in stock. So Daniel and I are going up to North Lakes to get one this afternoon when Daniel finishes work where they have one on hold for us. I think it's a Baltic timber colour and meets all the Australian safety standards and was as cheap as a good second-hand one! Target has had a three day sale on nursery stuff and we just happen to be there on the right day. We still have to buy a mattress for it but we would have done that anyway if we'd bought a second-hand cot. I'm sure we'll be putting it together tonight so we'll take a photo and post it as soon as we have one. We've done a bit of research into using the port-a-cot as a full-time cot and there are a few safety issues with it. It would also be hard on the back once B was able to sit up as we wouldn't be able to use the bassinet part then. This Target cot has an adjustable base so it can be higher when B is little and lower for later on (so B can't climb out).

In other news, I had a very emotional day on Saturday. Every little thing made me burst into tears. The worst thing was I was at work! It started with me realising that I had told work that I had an appt with the Dermatologist on Wednesday night at 5.50pm so we had arranged for a full staff meeting at 6pm on Tuesday night. When I was checking my diary on Saturday morning I saw that my appt was actually on Tuesday! Doh! It was my job that day to ring all the staff to tell them about the meeting anyway so I thought we could change it to Wednesday instead. Then I was reminded it was the final State of Origin football match that night. Probably not likely to get all staff to turn up then! So then I rang Jody to tell her the great news and she said she'd get back to me. In the meantime I had tried to ring the Dermatologist's office to change the appt but being a Saturday they were closed. I also had a cranky customer on the phone which normally I would have been fine about but I burst into tears again as soon as I hung up from her. Then, to top it all off my Mum rang. This is usually a lovely surprise and would have put a smile on my face for the rest of the day. However, I realised at that moment that it was her birthday and I had said I was going to ring her first thing and forgotten completely. This still wouldn't have been the end of the world except that I had already forgotten to even send a card! I was on the shop floor when I answered and asked her to hold while I transferred the call to the back office. I closed the door again and picked up the phone. I tried to be strong and sound happy and apologise for not ringing but in stead I just burst into tears again! Poor Mum. She was very good and tried to cheer me up. It's really not want you want to deal with on your birthday - or any day for that matter. I was still talking to her when Paula stuck her head into the office and said Jody was on the other line for me. I said bye to Mum and started talking to Jody. She said that we would still have the meeting on the Tuesday night and I should try and change my appt on Monday when the office was open again. She could tell something was wrong too and I ended crying AGAIN on the phone to her. Blah! Stupid hormones. She told me to go outside for 10 minutes and sit in the sunshine and get myself together. Which I did and it did help. I was fine for the rest of the day at work but still a bit teary when I got home. My wonderful husband was the best though. He gave me lots of cuddles and even made a chocolate pudding for dessert to try and cheer me up. What would I do without him?

Well, nothing else to report for now. Ciao!