"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Okay, so even though I just wrote all about Thanksgiving - we decieded THIS was THE weekend to put up the Christmas Tree. I had been waiting 7 months for this...b/c once the decorations go up....that means the baby comes out - yay!!! And the house HAS to smell yummy, so I baked some cookies for the decoration night.

Did you hear that baby?.....the tree is up, so now you can officially come out! Come out, we can't wait to see you! Hmmmm....I don't think it's working....



A bit harder to bend over when you got a belly full of boy! This year we also had several of Grandma Rosie's decorations to add to our tree, and will pass these down through our new family when the time comes. We even had a Christmas CD playing in the background - but it was a poor quality burnt CD and kept making strange crackling sounds. After our eardrums couldn't take it anymore, the xmas music was replaced by Simon and Garfunkle...the next closest thing to Chirstmas music?!
James sorting out the lights. Oh! Did I mention that we got our pregnancy photos proofs back? They look AWESOME - I mean, so gorgeous. Now we have to sort out which ones we want to get printed. It's the first time James and I have had professional photos taken with each other - and can't wait to do it again. The photos almost had me in tears - yeah, that sounds super cheesy, and perhaps it's the hormones, but they just look so good. I'm glad that I got them taken a few weeks ago, b/c now that there's only 4 WEEKS LEFT, I'm feeling really big and yucky. I didn't feel like this until I saw some photos James took of me tonight. He keeps saying that it's just baby, and it's normal....but I don't know...I'm looking pretty fat right now (I'm obviously not showing you the FAT photos). So I think I'm going to try and be careful what I eat the next few weeks.
This is called a pahutekawa (spelling?) tree. They call it the 'NZ Christmas tree' b/c it blooms around the holidays and it bright red and green. They actually look quite cool. This week we've got an ultrasound - had to push it back a week, and also a Dr's appointment. Can't wait to see what our son looks like - and hopefully they will be able to tell me how big he is. Don't want that head getting too big now...

Thanksgiving Weekend - gobble gobble

Friday was Thanksgiving in the States - Dad rang me from the St. Louis Thanksgiving celebrations - sounds like all the family got together to have a big meal, and I could hear lots of people (and kids) in the background. As you know, Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here, and I do tend to miss the holiday - after all Pumpkin Pie is like my all time favourite food, ha ha! James and I celebrated our own mini Thanksgiving by going to a new resturant that we had been wanting to try out. We had a great meal, I got the chicken (they don't really eat much turkey over here. I thought that b/c it was a bird, it was close enough to the real deal), and James got steak. It was a cute little cosy candlelit resturant. We even had apple pie and ice cream afterwards!....well okay the dessert was from the McDonald's drive through but it was still a special treat for us. The reality of romantic dinners out will soon be a task that will require babysitters, so we are trying to take advantage of the next few weekends of being babyless.

The rest of the weekend was good - really good. The weather has been gorgeous (I heard it was snowing in St. Louis?!) and although we had no plans we got a lot accomplished. We cleaned the house, painted the fire surround, attended a few BBQ's, packed the D Day (delivery day) hospital bag, etc....I'm dreading work tomorrow. I'm just not into it anymore. It's been hard to focus when I 've got other things on my mind, and to be honest...I just can't be bothered anymore. I'll be glad when the 18th of December roles around - that's officially my last day but James thinks I should take off a bit earlier. I'm beginning to think he's right, but just have so much to do at work before maternity leave starts.

So I said the weather was getting warmer - well it's been amazing, has REALLY lifted my spirits. Random people off the street keep saying...oh, goodness you must HATE this heat being so pregnant (okay...it's only about 20 degrees celsius....I don't know perhaps that is 80F?) Funny people think it's a heat wave or something. Ha! I'm loving it. It makes me wonder if pregnant people just complain all the time. Am I supposed to be moaning about the heat? My swelling ankles, and fingers? The fact I can barely reach down to turn on my computer in the morning? The sharp pain last night that felt like I was being stabbed in my side? I admit it hasn't been all peaches and cream, but generally I'm feeling good. Haven't been sick, and have had a smooth pregnancy. I'm just wandering if I'm supposed to be complaining more or something. Oh, well...guess I should consider myself lucky:-) And for the record...no the heat isn't bothering me (but those poor poor people that are really big and pregnant in the middle of the Florida summer....now THAT's another story!)

Oh, here's a photo of Karlyn and Mois deck...it's just about completed and they hosted a big bbq for everyone tonight. Looks good, doesn't it?

35 Weeks!

James and I made these cookies a few weeks ago for our antenatal class and also the baby shower. Well...I baked them and we both decorated about 100 of these things. Kinda cute, eh? Onesies, stars, and bears. It was the first time James had ever decorated cookies before, and we made a Sunday night out of it.

35 Weeks - we can count the weeks left on one hand now...CRAZY!

We are seeing the Dr every two weeks now, and went in last Monday. He seems to think all is going well, and the baby is head down in the right position. We will be doing another scan this week (yay!!!) to see what he looks like, and also to get some more measurements done. James thinks that we are actually a bit earlier than Dec 23rd - so perhaps the scan will give us a different due date. We'd love it if our boy came a bit earlier - but guess we just gotta be patient.

Tonight I attended a 'modern cloth nappy' exhibition at someone in my antenatal groups house. These nappies are all the rage in NZ - more cost effiecient and definitly better for the environment. After listening to the sales women and all the other expectant mothers for about 2 hours....I'm not entirely convinced that they are the way to go. Don't get me wrong, I'll get some to try out on our boy when he's a few months old, but there's no way I'll be using cloth from the get go. I think our lives will be hectic enough without washing nappies everyday. Oh, my goodness....I'm saying nappies instead of diapers...(that's a NZ term).

Many of you know our friends Karlyn and Moi who had their twins at 24 weeks (this is REALLY REALLY early!) They've been in the Ronald McDonald house in Wellington for the past 3 months while Jaycob, their son, was in the Neonatal ICU. They have just come back to Palmy this weekend. To make a long story short.....James and I organized for all of their friends and family to chip in money so that we could build their dream deck. We thought it'd be a great homecoming gift, and make their lives a bit better this summer or whenever they can bring Jaycob home. It's been a massive fundraising effort, and with the help of the army, friends and family.....the deck has started! It wasn't completed by the time they came back home, but it should be finished soon. It's a massive deck - this is only 1/3 of it! Moi and Karlyn where totally blown away. It feels good to organize something like this for our close friends. They've had a pretty tough few months, so this was the least we could do for them.

Hopefully for the next post, I'll have some new ultrasound pics to post! 35 weeks (give or take some...I can't believe it!!!!)

Baby Shower!

This picture was taken last weekend before James and I attended opening night of a local theatre production...look at the sensible pregnancy shoes...no more high heels for me!


Two big highlights for this week...


On Friday James and I got did a pregnancy photo shot - hopefully we'll get at least one good photo from the lot - which we'll frame and hang up in our house. The photographer does some amazing work - we'll definitly be taking our little man to get his first photos taken at the same place. James isn't a fan of having his photo taken (which is why you don't see all that many of him on this website....but me on the other hand....well I admit...I'm a bit of a cheese when it comes to having my photo taken!) but he did extremly well at being a 'model' for the camera.



The other big highlight.....


THE BABY SHOWER!


I was a bit down about not having a traditional shower with family and friends back in the States, so with the help of my mother-in-law to be, Jo, we threw a pretty cool shower. You see, showers aren't big in NZ. In fact most people that were invited to the shower had never even been to one before. I was suprised at how many people showed up - about 24 in total. Lots of co workers, and friends of mine and Jo's. Thanks for sending the gift Mom (here I am opening it!) LOVED the goodies...wish you were here with us!!!

It was all women, but James came at the end to help open gifts. It was nice having him there to join in on the fun. Prior to the gift opening we had a lunch with lots of champagne (punch for me!) and played a few silly games, while a beauty therapist friend of mine went around giving everyone massages and eyelash tints. Jo and her friends did an amazing job with the food - it was divine. We also asked all the guests to bring an item for the baby time capsule...which we'll give to our 'grown up man' at 21 years old.
We got lots of cute baby clothes and gifts - I can't wait to dress up our little boy in all his new clothes! The weather turned out to be really nice, and everyone sat outside. It was a fantastic afternoon, and everything went really smooth.
Oh, yeah...we also found some really nice but inexpensive furniture for the baby's room - we got an insurance payout for something else and had a bit of money left over which paid for the changing table (which is actually a dresser) and a nightstand. So....the room is almost complete. Will post a few photos when we are finished...probably another few weeks or so. We are on the lookout for an inexpensive rocking/feeding chair. The new ones seem to be so expensive!

All in all, a fantastic weekend. We can't believe we only have 6 weeks left. I'm still feeling okay, although I'm starting to feel a bit tired, and well....big.

Pregnant Elf - 33 weeks

Yeah, I know...it's a little early for Christmas! This photo is from a retail promotion called Shine on Palmy that I created to get the CBD retailers to do a bit of joint promotion, and make our city a bit more festive around the holidays. City Council Elves and the mayor (he's the one in the red tie) went around visiting shops delivering scrolls and gifts of white lights to the shops. Community voting will occur for the best window, and the shops can win thousands of dollars. I've got the radio and newspapers also involved. I was so exhausted after the promotion launch - walking around town delivering boxes really wore me out!

Last Monday our anetnatal class did the hospital tour. It was alright - was good to see where it was all going to happen. It was a bit crazy b/c a women from our class was actually IN labour as we were doing the tour...she's about 1 month ahead of the rest of us. The strangest thing about the whole hospital visit was thinking that the next time we pull out of the hospital there will be a little one in the backseat with us! Well....at least we thought so.

We made an unexpected visit to the hospital tonight (Saturday). I've been having these really bad pains today, so James made the call to go to the ER. We were immediatly wisked to L & D and hooked up to machines and stuff. Good news is that all is well and they think it was just Braxton Hicks (fake contractions that the uterus does to prepare itself for the real day). Baby's heartbeat is healthy and it looks like all is okay. At least we got to make a practice dash to the hospital. James wants to time out all the different driving routes!

Not only is baby okay, but we even made it out of the hospital in time for the our opening night theatre tickets that we had. We'd like our little boy to arrive early...but not this early. We still got 7 more weeks to go (where is the time going?!)