A Juggling Mum

Fetal development in pregnancy week 18:

We have two more ounces! Your “getting bigger-n-better by the minute baby” is already up to 7 ounces and 6 inches! This is a big week for their baby skin. There are now two distinct layers—the epidermis (or the surface skin) and dermis. Currently, their skin is covered with a greasy, waxy, cheese-like substance, known as vernix caseosa. Sure, it sounds pretty nasty, but this mixture of fatty secretions covering your little swimmer from head to toe is the best way to protect their oh-so-thin skin from bruising and abrasions as well as chapping caused by amniotic fluid exposure (and your little one is swimming in that stuff!). Still don’t like the fact your little darling is currently slathered in fatty cream like a greased pig? Well, you know the birthing process? Where you have to push something the size of a watermelon out a hole the size of a grape? That adorable little greased piglet would have a lot harder time getting through the birth canal without the vernix caseosa. Fun fact for momma’s with baby girls: it’s a uterus within a uterus! Your little girl will have developed a uterus and vagina canal by the end of this week.

And how’s mom doing?

POP! If you haven’t yet, you will soon be seeing the last of your inn-y belly button—until after you’ve pushed your little monkey out. If it’s getting difficult to breathe, you can thank your not-so-small belly for squishing your lungs—which will be more and more cramped for space as the pregnancy progresses. Not that this is surprising as everything else in your mid-section is getting properly squooshed as well. (What else is new?!!). Keep in mind that as you grow (and grow and grow) in size you produce more blood (for both of you), which lowers your blood pressure. So standing up quickly and/or occasional fast movements may cause slight dizziness or lightheadedness. This is totally normal, but means you shouldn’t be too quick to jump to your feet when your team scores a goal—better to just punch the air in excitement or clap gleefully. One more fun pregnancy symptom to add to the list: you are producing more melanin, which can cause dark patches of skin to occur on random parts of your body. Don’t worry—these dark spots (unlike your parent’s age spots) will retreat soon after birth.

Taken from http://pregnancy.baby-gaga.com/calendar/week18

A note from me: I am feeling good. The morning sickness is gone and I’m not big enough to be uncomfortable yet. I have a few aches and pains at times but nothing out of the ordinary.

I’ve been waking up at around 2 or 3am and staying awake for a few hours each night which is making me feel tired during the day.

I have been feeling the baby move at least once a day for the last couple of weeks, sometimes it’s more active and I feel it jumping around

I have my ultrasound next Monday which I can’t wait for. I want to find out the sex of this baby. I found out with my other kids so hopefully they’ll be able to tell me. I think it’s another girl, but I could be wrong!

Day 1

We left home around lunchtime and set off for Boomerang Beach. We expected the trip to take us about 3 and a half hours, which I wasn’t really looking forward to, but the kids were really well behaved, hardly any fights and no vomiting which I was really surprised about. It was lucky that they were so good because we took a wrong turn at Hexham and were driving for 30 minutes when we discovered we were on the wrong road. So we turned around and drove back again only to find the right way. It was so good to be back on track again.

The next part of the trip took longer than expected and we even stopped to ask at a garage but found we were still on track.

We finally arrived safe and sound just after 5pm. Yes that’s right 5 hours of traveling. The house was nice and really big for a holiday house. It had a Balinese theme throughout the whole house which isn’t really my taste but it certainly adds character to the place.

After unpacking we set out to find somewhere with food. We found a takeaway shop just up the road and were very relieved to find that we were there just in time, they were about to close, but we got to put in our order and brought home some fish and chips.

There was nothing else open so we had to wait until the following morning to go and get some bread and other supplies for breakfast.

After dinner I made up all the beds and organised the sleeping arrangements. I set up Caitie and Riley in a room watching Dora on my laptop while Chloe and Clare who were sleeping in another room lay listening to a CD.

Naturally Riley wanted me to lay with him, so I did that for awhile and then came out to find Rob asleep on the lounge. So I locked up the house, turned off the lights and sent Rob off to bed. Then I went and lay with Riley until he went to sleep. By 10.30pm he was asleep and I crawled into the huge king sized bed exhausted but it still took me at least 30 minutes to fall asleep.

Riley woke up at 12.30am and Rob brought him into our bed, which was fine because being a king sized bed I hardly noticed him. Naturally Riley was awake at 6.30am and wanting to watch Dora, so I set him up in his room with the laptop and went off to bed for another 30 minutes before I gave up any chance of a sleep in and got up.

Day 2

We were all up pretty early this morning and by 8.30am we were all dressed and ready to go to the little grocery store to get some food for breakfast. I picked up the essentials and spent $100 on 3 small bags of groceries.

We came home had some breakfast and then listened to the kids tell us how much they wanted to go in the pool. So after an hour of blowing up floaties and plastic rings, getting the kids into their swimming costumes and lathering them with sunscreen we finally got into the pool.

Chloe, naturally was the first in, wanting to show off her new found swimming abilities (she just finished a 2 week swim school course with her school). I put my toes in only to find that the water was bitterly cold, so I bravely jumped straight under……. Man was it cold!!!!

Clare, Caitie and Riley were happiest sitting on the step. It took me a long time to convince Clare that it would be more fun to paddle around with her floatie ring on that sitting on the step, and finally she was making her way around the edge of the pool and even braved paddling out into the middle a couple of times. I wasn’t able to convince Caitie and Riley that swimming was fun.

After our swim we all got dressed, jumped in the car and went for a drive to find Elizabeth Beach and see what else was around.

We came home, Riley fell asleep in the car (which we were hoping would happen), so I put him to bed, made us some lunch and then we got to relax. Chloe lay on her bed listening to her mp4 player, Rob lay on the couch watching tv, Riley slept, Caitie sat and coloured in a book and I stretched out on the Balinese day bed on the back deck. It was very nice shaded by palm trees at one end and a grape vine over the top of the deck.

Day 3

We went to Elizabeth Beach. The girls had a great time playing in the surf and the sand. Riley on the other hand didn’t like the surf but had a great time playing in the sand. He even helped Daddy build a castle around himself.

When we had all had enough sun we headed home, brought some fish and chips on the way and had lunch on the back deck.

Rob and I decided that we would head home that afternoon instead of the following day, so we let the kids have one last swim in the pool for an hour or so and then we bathed and showered. We put movies on for the kids to watch and we started packing up.
We set off home at 3.30pm. The kids were great in the car, the 3 younger ones slept for about 2 hours which was lovely. We stopped and got drinks and some McDonalds Fries (that kept them happy for a while after they woke up) and continued home. I was very impressed with them, there were only a few squabbles and on the whole they were really, really good.
We arrived home at about 8pm. Chelsea our cat was very happy to see us and we were all happy to be home.

Why is it that tradesmen think that it’s ok to not turn up when they say they will???

We got our carpet ripped up from the lounge, dining room, entrance way and hallway as well as the vinyl from the kitchen and got some nice timber look vinyl laid.

It was all meant to be done last Friday but the tradesman didn’t even show up. I called the office at lunchtime and didn’t get a call until 5pm. I was told to expect the layer between 7.30 and 8.00am on the Saturday morning. So I had all the kids up and dressed and fed. Only to be sitting and waiting for hours. Mind you we had no furniture in the lounge room and dining room and the kids bedrooms were jammed packed with furniture from the empty rooms, so we all spent the morning in my bedroom. Finally he turned up at 11am. I took the kids up the road to my mums, so that the kids could play.

The floor layer had trouble getting the carpet up and it took way longer than expected, so all he got done was the floor preparation. So we came home to concrete floors.

So he came back again on the Sunday, only to find that he was given two pieces for the dining room and kitchen that didn’t match up.

So he was here again today, finishing it all off. Then he tells me that he doesn’t have the right coloured joiners to put over the joins between the carpet in the bedrooms and the vinyl, so he’s coming back again tomorrow afternoon to fix them…… grrrrrrrrrrr! This was all meant to be done on Friday and now it’s Monday and it’s still not finished, it is soooo frustrating.