In Gisborne

Am in Gisborne with Mum, staying at my grandparents' place. Quite hot. Want to go surfing but Mum hasn't taken me yet. I wish I could drive. Dad is still in Auckland but he rings every night. I will see him on Christmas Eve. I haven't decided whether I will be good or bad when he arrives. I will see how I feel. Have been sleeping quite well but some nights, when I don't feel like sleeping, I like to make a big fuss so I can spend more time with Mum. She's great.
- Milo

Milo yawning - tired not bored

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The first photo

Click here for more photos of Milo

First weekend in October

Had a lovely send off from work and lots of warm wishes, hard to believe I won't be there for close to a year.

This week has gone well. A couple of poeple from our ante natal class have had their babe's and all is well. We had a scan on Tuesday and things are looking just fine, 3.4kg already with a couple of weeks to go. Ruth has been away for the week, catch up with her again on Wednesday this week.

Have been speaking to Mum nearly every day, lovely.

Portia is 10, how the years have flown. Looking forward to seeing everyone in December.

Nothing more to report, still feeling a lot of movement, although I am sure our babe has a much reduced space.

One more week of work

This is my last week of work for some time. Feeling pretty good although getting tired, walking 3 or 4 days a week makes a big difference and I will keep that up for as long as I can.
Poppy's birthday yesterday and we had a lovely catch up. Lou, Rich and kids are back from Fiji this week and hope they had a lovely break.

Luke is turning 4 this week, and I can hardly believe the years have passed so quickly....on the lookout for a super present.

Visiting my midwife weekly from now on..nothing unusual to report. The wardrobe in the nursery is finished and Ed has done a superb job. Spent the weekend sorting out loads of boxes and will unpack baby's clothes this week.

20-22 weeks

20 week scan went well from an anatomy point of view, our little one has two arms, and two legs and all the other bits he needs, in terms of getting any decent photos though it was quite hard. The radiographer was in a rush to get all the measurements she needed, the most important thing is that he looks great and is growing well.
We flew to Melbourne on 8 June and spent a wonderful few days with Margie, Ally and Olivia (and Zorro, the greyhound) and a lovely afternoon with Campbell and Helen and their family. Melbourne was terrific, I had had a really stressful fortnight at work before we went away, so it was good to completely relax. We had lovely dinners at home and out, went to the Tan (a walk around the Melbourne Botanical Gardens), to a great film 'My best friend' and spent a day in Central Melbourne shopping. Margie and Ally, you made my birthday really special and memorable and we loved spending time with you, as we always do.
Darbie is coming to stay next week for a few days and we will go to see my midwife on the day she arrives and hopefully we can hear the baby's heartbeat, I think that will be quite special.
I haven't felt any movement yet, hopefully in the next couple of weeks.

The month of May

We have had a busy month. Ed's mum came up early in the month and we had a lovely time together. Louise bought us a beautiful Persian rug for our living room and we are feeling very grown up.
Ed and I met my parents in Kinloch last weekend and had three great days together. The house in Kinloch is wonderful, thank you so much Louise and Jim. Taupo is a great meeting point for family trips and keeping in touch.
We know definitively that the bump is a healthy baby boy! Ed and I are both pleased, we have a name lined up and it will be revealed soon, around about 21 October.
Ed has made huge progress on the wardrobe in the nursery today, without any inimidating knocks on the door from disturbed neighbours.
Twenty-week anatomy scan coming up this week, to check everything is developing well. We will load some more photos later in the week.

Catch up

A lot has happened in the past few weeks. I was terribly sick with a cold for a few days, then went back to Gisborne just before Anzac Day and had the most wonderful time. I completely relaxed and was totally taken care of my Mum, Dad, Chris and Justine who were all really excited about the baby.
Justine has been wonderfully generous and is lending us a whole lot of gear, from cot sheets and blankets, to slings and a front-pack that was Louise's, monitors and breast pumps and loads of lovely wraps for swaddling and general baby daily business. I did manage to catch up with Louise over lunch before I flew out and it was great to share the news with her too.
Ed made a great start on the wardrobe in the spare room and it should be well finished before the baby arrives.
We have discovered the wonderful world of online auctions and have already organised the cot, Moses basket, buggy and change table.
Everything is going well, I have more energy for exercise and baby should be going through a growth spurt over the next few weeks.
Went to see the Rotorua marathon last Sunday and watched a few friends complete a great run.

Chris, Justine, Luke and Jim in town

I had booked today off work to spend with Chris, Justine and Luke, who are up here at Starship, but instead I am home sick. I have been feeling lousy for a few days now, but today must have been the worst.. with no relief from the usual drugs, my cold is just drawing out for days.

Anyway the bump seems OK and I am looking forward to going back to Gisborne for a few days on Friday, and catching up with family. Ed saw Jim on Monday, who came up to Auckland for the day...they caught up for lunch and had a good catch up.

I went to Sarah and Simon Tallon's wedding on Saturday with friends, Mike and Micheel, and had a lovely time. Sarah was gorgeous and Simon was beaming, we had a fabulous night. Michelle's baby is due in June, so I was in good company.

I am seeing a new midwife next week..looking forward to meeting her. We have been trading furiously on TradeMe, and my heart rate has been taking some serious highs. So far, we have won a cot and lost out on several mountain buggies.. just as well we have plenty of time.

The bump

The bump is beginning to show.

Baking

I don't know what has come over me... I have developed a desire to bake! I made some banana bread and some peanut brownies. It must be a maternal instinct. Cripes! Where will it lead?

End of the long weekend

Monday afternoon, and the end of the long weekend. We have had a lovely time sharing our news and spending time together. I am feeling well. Have fitted in a bit of exercise; pump classes Friday and Sunday and swimming at the Parnell pools today. The pool was beautiful and it is a shame that this is the last weekend it is open for the rest of the summer, the weather is so nice.
Went to see Pan's Labyrinth at the cinema yesterday. I was quite dark and although filled with faries and magic and mystery, for some reason it was rated an R16 and had some unnecessary gratuitous violence running through it. It could have been a great film for children, but the back drop of post-Spanish Civil War in the mid 1940s, made for quite a different film,and excluded the entire audience group under the age of 16. I would recommend it, but cover your eyes in the scary parts.
Back to work tomorrow for a short week and sharing the news with all our friends from work- looking forward to it.

Good Friday-Telling family

Today we shared our news with the family. Everyone is thrilled, Darbie cooed and Margie cried and Ed's Mum was extremely happy. We know it has taken a long time for us to share the news, but we wanted to be certain that things were OK and thought Good Friday was a perfect day to let you know. Thanks for keeping the secret Chris and Justine... I know it can't have been easy. It is great to be able to share our news, we have been hanging out to tell you all, and it makes it more real and a lot more fun to be able to talk about it with you.

First scan

Ed and I had our first scan today, and saw our baby for the first time. This is it, head down burrowing into the inside of me, we think it had its wee head stuck and was trying to back its way out. Ed is going to upload a few seconds of video later on so you can see it in motion. We listened to the heart beat, which was racing at 159bpm and apparently right on track.
The expected arrival date has moved by a week, now 15 October. The radiologist took a few measurements and confirmed that we are at about 12 weeks and 4 days, which is about a week further on than we thought.
I am hoping that the tiredness will start to fade a bit from now on.

Home during the day

Felt a bit queasy today and came home early, after a quick nap (well an hour and a half) felt much better and had a good evening.
Phoned my midwife because I had a feeling that I was expecting to have a scan on Thursday, but that might not have been her understanding. I was right. So now I am going to see the midwife at 10am, and then after picking Ed up from work, we will both go to the scan appointment at 12 noon in Mt Eden.
Went to the gym again this morning and felt good. Exercise has been a bit of a challenge for these first few months. Having been a good runner, it has been hard to balance the need and desire to exercise, with the concern for our developing baby and how much exercise is too much. I do feel that I have struck a compromise and although I haven't run for over a month now, I have been cycling on the stationary bike and also have a specific weight training programme. This should get me through the next few months at least.

Not long to go

It is so hard not to tell Mum about our pregnancy particularly when she asks if we have any news. It is hard to hold my tongue and not share everything with her but come this Friday we will be ready to tell our families.
I have been feeling OK this past week but still really tired and not feeling like eating at night or exercising in the morning. I am hoping this will improve at the end of the first trimester.
Went to Sylvia Park today, the newest biggest shopping mall in Auckland, to do our supermarket shopping. The supermarket was good but were told off by a security guard for trying to take a photo. Apparently photos are not allowed.
Ed got two blisters on his thumbs on Friday night from trying to replace the tyres on his bike. It took him over an hour and he still didn't get both tyres back on. He spent most of Saturday away videoing the Auckland Half Ironman. He got 60 seconds of footage shown on Sky TV at the not very glamourous time of one minute to midnight.

Our little secret

I'm now 10 1/2 weeks pregnant and feeling OK. No nausea to speak of so far, and at this time probably not likely to have any problems. I am happy, so nothing is bothering me too much. I have a little trouble sleeping and get quite thirsty and restless at night, which keeps Ed awake too.. not ideal for either of us.

I had some exciting news today, I hooked up with a midwife and Ed and I have made an appointment to see her next Thursday. We will have our first scan, and this will bring things to a whole new level of reality.

We still haven't told many people about our news, maybe 6 or 8 people know. But by the time we have the scan and get into Easter holiday (next weekend) we will be on the phone to our families sharing our news with them all. It is hard not to be able to share the news, because for me at least it is what I think of first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

Other exciting news tonight was Ed coming home with our tickets for a week-long holiday to Port Douglas at the end of July. We decided a few weeks ago that we ought to book a holiday to somewhere quite exotic before baby comes along. Well, Port Douglas is not that exotic, but we thought a Pacific Island could be a bit nasty for a 7 month pregnant mum-to-be. I'm going to be looking forward to it for months and the thought of going away will definitely get me through a long, cold winter.