Saturday, January 29, 2005

Gettin' busy, nervous & ready

Well, I'm getting busy with POSI after an article appeared in the local paper. Hope to have enough people to start the group very soon. Also nervous about the article appearing in the paper -- it was scarey to see my picture there.

In amongst all this preperation for POSI, I've made time to pack bags for hospital for both Toby and myself. I'm about ready to go, at this point. Now I just have to wait for him to turn up! Bending is getting harder and I'm feeling stressed at certain times of the night. Sleeping is getting difficult too. Tired of the aching hips. Quite sick of being pregnant. A strong feeling of wanting to "get on with it" has been a definate theme in the last week or more. Nothing else to add, I think.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

Getting Organised

I've been stressing to the point of panic attacks about getting things ready for Toby's arrival. With Ryan, my waters broke at 35.5 weeks and I am feeling very wary of "another boy" doing the same thing. So I made all these plans to move furniture around the house and get a bit more organised. I've thrown together a box of linen and clothes that I either can't wear anymore or haven't fitted in a while and now there's a space for Toby. The cradle is in my room, his bag for hospital is more or less packed and now I have to work on my bag. I feel like I'm getting there slowly but surely -- its hard work at 31 weeks pregnant though. At least last night I slept well, not rushing over details in my mind at 3 am as I have been doing. So, I'm feeling much more relaxed despite the remaining "mess" around the house. There's a couple more things on my "to-do" list preparing for Toby, but they'll have to wait a little while. Toby's just going to have to fit in with it all, I guess.

The hot weather has been making me snappy. I'm not dealing with it very well at all. But I knew I wouldn't. Feels like my belly can't get any bigger, but I know it will! Can feel Toby moving all the time now, the slightest little thing. Its been very wearing and I'm getting used to it. Need to get on with some needlework and things I can sit back in my chair to do. Will see how it all goes.

Organising POSI: perinatal outreach, support & information; have a meeting next week with Hospital people to try and arrange a venue and some support during group meetings. Hope it all goes well!

Saturday, January 08, 2005

posi: peri-natal outreach, support & information

Well, its begun... I've met with the local member and she's keen to see POSI start up. I've been working on it pretty solidly, but now I need volunteers. And a second-in-command. I so hope this works! I really want to see it spread wings and fly! Estimating startup costs at the moment and need to figure out how much it will cost to start a resource library. Costs are to be kept as minimal as possible and the group is not-for-profit. Lots of work ahead, and Toby objects most of the time to being cramped up behind a desk and keyboard.

Doctor's visit at the hospital showed Toby is rather large, or my fundal-height is rather large. But what do they expect! Third baby and all. Bought him a cute little Pumpkin Patch outfit and his first hat the other day. All my kids get trained to hats early and its paid off, so Toby gets to continue the tradition.

Keeping my mind occupied with POSI is helping allay any depression, but it tends to mean my thoughts race at inappropriate times of night. Got to figure out some other relaxation techniques I can do in the dark. Other than that, everything seems okay except for a couple of panic attacks, one at night a month or more ago, the other at the shops this week. Will keep a watch on them.

Monday, January 03, 2005

Teeth, travel & tsunami

Time is a precious comodity at the moment. I can't remember feeling so rushed and yet having such moments of complete boredom which seemed to stretch forever. Did my Christmas cards, which I felt was an achievement.

Managed just about everything except Christmas Day. Caitlyn decided to spend half the night crying on Christmas Eve and it wasn't until about 4 am that we figured out we should give her paracetamol and see if that helped. We've decided she must be getting her 2 year old molars -- its only taken us 3 weeks of nap-time and night-time dramas to figure this out. Paracetamol sooths the savage beast. So Christmas Day all of us were tired, grumpy and generally out of sorts. Kids enjoyed far too many presents, and by about 8:30 pm, all of us were in bed and asleep, I think.

Visited Canberra and my Mum and Grumpy-George. We left them a day early so they could recover; Mum said she'd need a week. All in all the kids were actually pretty good and we finally got them both sleeping in the same room which was just bliss for Darren and I. Was relaxed about the whole thing mainly, but Toby decided to make his presence felt in a huge way and my belly ached for an entire day with lots of lower abdomen pains. Mum suggested he was turning head-down. I can only hope.

Feeling a bit numb -- helpless, tragic, terrible, unbelievable -- about the tsunami situation. Its amazing -- the world entire stopped when 9-11 happened and just 6000 people died. Something like 200,000 in Asia and life goes on with pitiful amounts of money being donated by governments prepared to spend billions on war. A friend has said there's a crate of stuff going over within the next few weeks -- clothing, sheets, towels, toys. A good excuse to cull my stuff severely and get rid of a whole heap of things I haven't used in 4 years. So I now have a deadline. At least this way its going to go to good use for someone and in a very small way I can help.

Thought I'd be really bad this Christmas, but I've been pretty level -- Mum and I missed Dodie. Hope tomorrow isn't too bad -- 16 years since Dad passed away.