Still in one piece

Yes, here, still "intact".

My new deadline is 4.15 this afternoon - that gives me a chance to see 'Salina after school, V to finish work YET STILL gives me an out to not go to the school concert.

Yes, I want to see my daughter perform.

However, performing a routine where they all wear black, have one glove on and to a song and performer that I really never could "get" - I start to quibble.

Watch 9 performances of varying age groups to the same performer who, frankly, doesn't have a great deal of differential in the material on offer? Teetering on the "do I have to whine".

All of the above and present a speech in my official role as head honcho of P and C?

Well, if they are of the calibre of speeches I have been pondering for the last hour or so, I am sure the 150 odd families who can be bothered to attend a school concert but cannot be bothered to be interested in anything to do with the P and C except whinge about what they don't do would wish for me to be anywhere but also.

It appears I may be getting grumpy.

Not into overtime - yet

Got a shock yesterday, finding out TODAY is actually the due date for the unborn. I had been working on the premise that I still had a day - or two - up my sleeve.

Not that it makes a huge difference - it is not here, but it is a day closer.

Having got my head around the fact that there WILL BE a baby here, I am okay with that set of facts.

In fact, I think it would be cool if it decided to start around 11.45 this morning - that would kybosh any further P&C official activities for the year yet allow me to rush through all those Christmas gifts that I have not yet bought (which is approximately the total amount of Christmas gifts I have to get this year less 2).

However, if baby comes through on that order, I am scared for my future. I would not know what to do with such a compliant child!!

If not, I have until next Tuesday to talk sternly - otherwise the doctors are threatening to do the talking for me, and I really don't want that.

So anyway, you will be kept updated.

Bathing - the adventure of a 39 week 2 day pregnant woman on a Friday night.

There was nothing on the tv, and after a harsh morning cleaning (the tuckshop) and the overwhelming (olfactory) urge to bathe, a decision that the black hole in entertainment between 'Salina's bedtime and Outrageous Fortune coming back onto Free-to-Air television in Australia (to see what that may mean to me, I have a thing for Outrageous) (oh, and if I were in Auckland I would definitely do this) would be best filled by running the tub and submerging.

So the bath was filled (yoga positioning required. Lean forward and gently toward the taps, hoping desparately that the centre of gravity would remain in the legs section of the torso and not suddenly tip into the leaning bit - gravity truly sucks sometimes), using the occasional dabble of the right foot for temperature control. There is a conscious thought process on the advisability of adjusting the temperature too finely, as the above step of balance is to be taken seriously with every nudge of the taps.

Getting in to the bath is itself convoluted and requiring several steps.

First, ensure that you are far enough from the plug end to allow room for the eventual placement of legs after lowering - this also means not so close to the slopey (sp?) end of the bath that the tailbone may impact above the bend.

Once correct positioning has been reached, attempt a squat - as you pass the point where your knees may get close to collapse, take the weight off one leg and try to extend it forward WHILE balancing on the other and extending your arms to catch the side of the bath. Continue the downward trajectory until such time as gravity takes over and you plummet.

The "getting into the bath" stage should take place when the water level is not going to be too adversely affected by the Archimedes principle under pressure.

Once in the bath, you are able to use your right foot to adjust the water temperature and turn off the water once the plumb line has been reached. This is a good thing, as there is a very non-pregnant chance in Hades that you would be able to reach down to your ankles and adjust manually.

Now the bath has been run and horizontalish as been achieved, soaking, reading and wallowing may be contemplated. Ignore the water temperature, as once the water is off there is no factor that can be influenced in that matter until removal of body from the bath. Therefore it is adviseable to stay in the water until 7 minutes before unbearable to take full advantage of all the effort that has led to this point.

Once upon a non-pregnant time, the deadline used to be 2 minutes to allow for 2 minutes ablutions before arising, effortlessly and Venus-like, from the waters.

At 39 weeks 2 days pregnant, washing is not the mindless activity that thence it was. You will need all of the 4.5 minutes you allocate for this task just to attempt to reach all frontiers with soap - rinsing is somewhat easier, as you can throw water in the general direction.

With the last 2.5 minutes, exit strategies must be used.

First, sit up.

(ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha)

Please use whatever handholds the bath offers to achieve this - there is no pride available in this step.

Next, cross legs - again with the yoga, I know, but it is a step that is required when your ankles have no flex left and you have to get to vertical somehow.

Now, grasping the end of the bath, try to twist your legs around to one side of your body, hopefully ending up with both of them facing the same way and in correct order. You may need to rock a bit to achieve this, as momentum can be your friend but can also get you stuck if your timing is off.

With both legs to the side (left is my preference) you then need to attempt to raise your torso enough to get said legs to a position approximating beneath you.

Now, lean forward to place your palms on the bottom of the bath and raise yourself onto all-fours. Move through whatever tortures are required to get to Downward Dog and, using the sides of the bath, bathroom fittings and whatever furnishings within reach until vertical is achieved.

Congratulations!!

Still here...

So here is the 39 week picture...

The bump probably didn't appreciate the steam burn I gave it last night (note to self - time and motion strategies must be employed in the kitchen with proper workplace health and safety regulations... or don't try to hold a vege steamer under one arm against the bump when bending down to get some tongs out of drawer).

I was at the school most of the day yesterday (and the day before) - my hips have started to mention that it might not be the best idea to stand up for most of it.

After today and tomorrow, that is IT for the volunteering at the school. I am meant to be at the official graduation of the Year 7 class on Tuesday and the Concert is on Wednesday where I am meant to do a speech, but that is surely incentive enough to contemplate having the baby earlier than the end of term! Lesson for young players - find a post to hide behind when you go to P&C AGM meetings...

Late last week, 'Salina got to go to the disco at school. It was meant to be crazy hair day, but she has been blessed with a mother who completely forgot the "can I have some pipecleaners for my hair" request within seconds and so had to go the putting curlers in her hair.

I don't think it turned out too bad in the end - although she has been blessed with genetically straight hair that will fall into dead straight within minutes of being curled, so I don't know how "crazy" it was!!


V had a shocker yesterday - he didn't go to work as concrete was being poured on site, so he decided to be Mr Handyman. Its not a natural role for him, but he is stoic about undertaking such when he sets his mind to it (and has done all of the research and has the right tools).

First he decided to do the yard - snakes are turning up a bit too regularly in the cat's playtime regime. He and the whippersnipper had 10 minutes of joy together - and then the whippersnipper decided that a main part would just fall off.

So he then decided to concentrate on the plumbing. He had to dig down to the water mains, as the council apparently feel that 20cm of mud is ideal for covering such things. The second tap he went to fix the washers on decided that rather than unscrew where the screw bit was, it would far rather snap at the connection to the post - and do so right through the tap, indicating the tap was actually weaker than the screws holding it on (and indeed weaker than the thread)...

After a trip into town for another whippersnipper, new fittings and advice from the plumbing shop, he returned, fixed that and moved onto the upstairs taps. The kitchen washers are apparently very safe - behind the tiles and a good few inches behind the wall. There were 10 minutes there where I had to cover my ears.

He turned the water back on and all worked wonderfully well - except for the new fitting on the busted tap, which blew off immediately - and every time he tried for the next hour.

Luckily it eventually worked AND the new whippersnipper did enough jungle clearing out the back for him to be able to feel that some of his efforts weren't for nought.

'Salina and he did the Christmas tree last night (I have a "not until December" rule imposed in this house and I AM the Christmas dictator) and balance was restored in the universe.

And finally, Eddie has done nothing untoward since the last snake - probably because someone left him this comfy laundry basket to sleep in.

Of course, it is now alternately bucketing down and threatening to bucket down here which may kybosh swimming at school and therefore impact on the smooth running of our Pizza Day for the kids (we were going to have it so well organised, with only 1/2 the school there at a time... Wet day rules = ratty kids...) Rain also means that V won't be working today, so I might gently nudge the vacuum cleaner into his line of sight.

Baby is far better off in utero for another day or so (if it listens to its mother). We have organised for 'Salina (well, 'Salina and her friend have organised) a sleepover on Saturday night and then Mum is here from Sunday, so as long as I get my Christmas shopping squared away we are almost organised to have another child!!!

Do you DO mornings?

Most mornings, I wake up and I am AWAKE!! There are exceptions, but on the whole it is the approach I take to the day.

Be assured, it was not always so and I can do a fair imitation of the morning grumps.

(In fact, there are living witnesses - mostly related to me - who can attest just how real that imitation can be)

My father is a great believer in mornings. "Best part of the day" he bellows. He is no defender of the freedom of sleep-ins, and probably wouldn't know what to do if one were enforced upon him.

He always had a few strategies to get company for breakfast.

My bedroom was first off the hall on the route from his (and mum's) room to the kitchen. He had learned over the years to do his level best not to disturb Mum's rest (too much) and so would thoughtfully wait until he was outside my door before exploding into the HARRUMPHS, sneezes and coughs that cleared his airways.

I was not a big voter for his "best part of the day" bill when woken by such methods.

On occasion, it would be a requirement that we surface and face that day on Dad's timetable, and he would take delight in rousing his children from sleep.

There was no gentle pass into the world of wakefulness on offer. Instead he would come in singing "Oh what a beautiful morning" at top pitch - or "Good morning, good morning".

I KNOW there is nothing worse than a hearty morning person greeting a non-morning person with gusto and cheer.

If that did not work, he would get a damp (as in the pretty blooming wet end of the damp spectrum) cloth from the bathroom and bring it in to "assist" you in "washing your face" - because apparently a cold wash to get the sleepy dust out of your eyes wakes you up.

And yet he lives.

Over the last 20 years I have discovered my own morning rituals. Ones that DON'T involve singing or wet washers, luckily. Ones that HOPEFULLY are slightly respectful of those who like to slumber.

For some years, I was a workaholic. This entailed spending more time at my workplace than where I paid rent. To do this AND maintain my social life, hours were lopped off the morning rituals and I managed to develop first name relationships with several cab-drivers.

Then I moved on to temping (so as not to fully embrace my addiction) and often would have many miles to drive to start work at various places. Temping is a much more rewarding experience if you smile and are in a decent mood - it can be a bit of a minefield which workplace you enter, but then again, apparently hiring a temp can be a minefield in itself!!

When I had 'Salina, one of my sanity-savers was bundling her up in a sling and taking her for walks - long walks that often covered her wake-up at sunrise until about 8, when she would breakfast and have her first nap of the day. If P was at work, it eradicated the loneliness - and if P wasn't, it eradicated his bear-headedness at being woken by such chirpers.

As she grew into a toddler and I into a single mother, those moments in the morning that I could grab for myself again worked for my mental health. Even 10 minutes and a cup of tea can make the difference between dealing with a toddler and HAVING TO DEAL with a toddler.

V leaves for work between 5.30 and 7 most mornings. He is fairly good in the mornings - so long as he can follow his own rituals, which I can respect. 'Salina tends to rise early as well (of her own volition - I don't think I have ever employed the wet washer method) and so often - such as this morning - she has done all of her morning chores by 6.30am.

I have found that I tend to waken early without any prompting (I do occasionally dream of sleep-ins, but they are like lotto wins for me). It is a rare morning when 'Salina or V beat me to the punch.

Those few moments when I organise my day, drink my tea and have the world to myself - precious.

I used to fight it - now...

I have found that when I wake early, I can be quite moanful of the fact that it is so darned early - OR I can choose to get up and seize the day.

And do you know what?

The latter strategy does actually set me up for a much better day than the former.

What works for you?

Hold Your Hats

I know - posting twice in a week!!!

But that is because Eddie has done something twice this week.

---

The first was on Sunday.

'Salina and I had gone down to the beach for a swim. V finished painting her room and then came down to join us. As my burn threshhold is set to something well prior to theirs, I returned first.

(BTW - V's threshhold was about 1/2 an hour before he thought it was. 'Salina has inherited the sort of genes from either her auntie or her father that sort of only hits red in direst of circumstances OR under her eyes.)

(That was an aside. I have an "aside" habit.)

Anyhow, I returned to wash off some salt and sand, and about to head towards the stairs that lead to the back door, spied Eddie playing with something.

Something long and thin - and still moving...

I got close enough to identify "snake" (albeit obviously a baby, but I can be a bit of a baby about snakes) and then scarpered back to the front steps and locked all doors - Eddie has a habit of bringing his playthings in to the house, and frankly this is the sort of sport I would like to discourage - especially in this particular instance.

I was thoughtful enough to text my husband and child, warning them of the danger...

When they returned, we found Eddie had sported a fair bit of the play out of it (although not to death, so he isn't a felon - yet. Apparently snakes are all protected species)

I handed V the long-handled tongs and armed myself with the camera and the poor blighter was captured (in the laundry - enough incentive to neglect my new toy for a few hours) and released back into the wilds of across the road.

As you saw from my photo, I wasn't very brave in getting close-up shots!

---

So fast-forward to today. I was working from home, and V came home from work early. He went downstairs to grab some coke - and found Eddie in the garage with a new toy. Another snake.

This one definitely still at a far livelier stage of play, and at the appearance of V made a move to escape. The best hiding spot he could see was a pile of bags (containing 'Salina's worldly possessions, as her room is being painted and recarpeted) and so he scampered.

Eddie contemplated a chase, but V with a broom dissuaded him. Eddie eventually came to where I was (by now by the back stairs after a yell to "come hold Eddie" from V).

V - with trusty rake - started sorting through the bags. Finally, in one (filled with painting supplies and canvasses) he struck gold, and manouvred it to the front lawn. He upended the contents and the snake did an excellent job of hiding under everything until there was nothing left to hide under - so he turned to go back into the bag - rake stopped him.

Then her looked at what was holding the rake and decided he would chase that instead. (insert girly scream from wife here)

V did a dance with the snake and the rake until the snake saw a garden bed to hide in.

---

So - guess which garden bed will NOT be weeded this afternoon? And guess who WON'T be doing it?

See - that is better than belly stories.

---

oh, and for those who want asides - the first snake was - we believe - a yellow-bellied black snake - or for those who like their snakes less fancy, a common tree snake. Perfectly harmless unless you are a frog.

Today's snake was either one of them OR it could have been a whip snake. Potentially poisonous. V thinks the former - not for the venom aspect, but because the whip snake reaches only 80cm, and he thinks this one was HUGE!!

If it is the former - the fact that we have a nest somewhere for Eddie to forage freaks me out.

Oh - and if YOU want to freak out to local snakes, here is a link...

Guess What?

On the weekend we:

• got our new washing machine!!!
• 'Salina's team won 12-1 in softball
• went swimming at the beach
• came home to a present from Eddie
• ate well
• and didn't have a baby
  

I have nearly finished all work projects (and associated bookwork) so I am about to inform my boss I am going on maternity leave - I believe there is some nesting to do.

27ish weeks

Very, very, very, very, very slack, I know.

Didn't even get here on the right day for a weekly photo update.

Am meant to be slowing down and "nesting" aren't I?

Just that every day seems to fill up with those "few little things to do" and once I do those few little things, I hardly have time to contemplate my nest.

Today we are doing another push on painting 'Salina's room, buying (and hopefully receiving delivery of) a new washing machine, getting the baby's carseat installed, trying to fix a few little "improvements" on my last big worky thing (and being on call for their meeting if they need any questions answered), trying to fix a nasty gordonian knot in one of my last little worky things and trying to finish my other last little worky thing... Its a good thing that I have 28 up to 27 days (perhaps) to fit all that other nest stuff in, eh?

Anyhow - photo and sign out...

36 weeks - that is still a month to go!!!

Firstly - a big HOO-BLODDY-RAY I have finished the project that has been my life for the last few weeks!!

Only got a few tiny tasks to tie up before I am officially on maternity leave (ha ha ha ha ha - self-employed = doing sweet fa and getting paid accordingly) - and then I plan to:

• Rip up the carpet in 'Salina's room (which has been cleared of clutter in anticipation of this move for a few weeks now...)
• Paint and recarpet 'Salina's room (well - supervise V and 'Salina doing so)
• Rearrange furniture throughout the house so the office becomes the bedroom, the bedroom becomes the nursery and the spare room becomes the office (see above)
• Get carseats installed in the vehicles
• Clean the house, room by room (so that I can leave it another year - I am a blitz cleaner, not a housekeeper)
• Organise Christmas for the family
• Work out what I need for baby that may be missing from what I got
• Get fit (ha ha ha ha ha)
• Get my head around the fact that I am going to have a baby
• Pack a hospital bag
• Nest
• Rest

So you see, I am going to need all of that month.

You can hardly tell this is a pregnant woman, can you?

Still, very hard to get past me in a narrow corridor if I haven't lined up quite right.

The most agonising part of the whole body change thing I am going through.. (oh, and I did book a wax for next week so the fat legs above the cankles can shimmer instead of stun)

The one I prepared earlier...

This whinge is brought to you by the letter I

You would think, after a near all-nighter the other night and brain-drain yesterday, when I flaked in bed at 9.40pm last night, I would stay there, wouldn't you?

I mean, it is what NORMAL people do, isn't it?

But no, insomnia came along and whispered to me at 10.00pm. Yes, so tired I dropped off and got a whole 20 MINUTES before I woke!!

By 10.30, I gave up. The good news is that I got a heap of housework done and caught up on a taped show that otherwise would have been buried before watching.

I didn't turn on the 'puter, because I knew that my brain wasn't quite up to logicking and therefore worktime would be wasted.

I got back to bed at 12 - but not before accidentally leaving a window open to allow Eddie to sneak out.

That would mean that my Eddie alarm-clock had been deactivated for the morning, but unfortunately couldn't turn off the old sun one, which is now set for 1/4 to 5...

So today - I am still on this last job... It should be rolled so quickly, but then one little problem emerges and it can take hours to pinpoint.

I do have high hopes of finishing today - although of course I have to go out twice for school things and V is home, which is NOT conducive to coding (love him dearly, don't need someone to offer me a rub or cuppa while trying to figure loops and breakpoints).

Then all I have to do is rearrange the house, clean, get Christmas gifts, install car seats, finalise stuff for end of year at school, pack a bag and get my head around having another child - after that, the baby is allowed out but NOT BEFORE.

Might even try and squeeze in that whole get fit, get beautiful and organise world peace while I am at it!!!

(Speaking of which - BB sent me a pic of the well-turned ankle - see end of post...)

I think it has turned - kicks are in different part, but still fairly transverse. I caved and bought a few mangoes yesterday (still cannot justify to my inner miser the $2.50 price tag) and am going to dole judiciously. V doesn't like them - unfortunately I taught 'Salina good taste and so will have to share a little.

(Oh - and the greatest pain of pregnancy is the complete lack of footwear available in my cupboard that offer anything in the way of style - actually, that is a general problem but can blame it on pregnancy - gotta get the mileage.)