Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Reflecting On Being Pregnant

The weeks have been rushing past and we are already entering week 12. Just the other day Peanut was only two stripes on a stick and now he/she is as big as a lime. Speaking of lime, my favorite things to eat and drink at the moment is lemons and limes. I cannot get enough water with ice and lemon juice, or Dry Lemon with ice and fresh lime slices. Or lemon juice squeezed over fresh salad and fish... Yummy... Anyway..

The nausea and most of the early pregnancy symptoms have passed and if it wasn't for the fact that none of my pants fit me and when I check to see why, I can clearly see my protruding tummy, I would have thought that this has all been a figment of my imagination. That, and of course, the fact that I am happy. Not a goofy, bouncy, jump on the couch Tom Cruise style happy. Just happy inside.. content.

Living and facing rejection for 5 years was hard. Every month when we were not pregnant or every day when we did not get "The Call" I felt rejected. Forgotten. Not good enough. It killed a little bit of my soul. At the end of it all I felt hollow. I cried and begged and wished and waited so long that there was nothing left inside. Only a tiny bit of hope, but even that was fading. On the 1st of December last year as I was starting my period, friends of ours told us that they are pregnant. She went off the injection after 7 years and within 6 months they were going to have a baby. That broke me. I was done, ready to give up. I think that somewhere, Someone noticed and created our little Peanut 2 weeks later.

I cried a bit since then. But it were all happy, I cannot believe that this miracle is happening type of cries. I cried because I now know the expression on my husband's face when I told him that he is going to be a dad. I cried because I could phone my mother and tell her that I'm pregnant and that we can now share stories about how it has been when she was pregnant. I cried because our family and friends are happy for us, talking about the baby and not tip-toeing around the topic any more. I cried because I am given the opportunity to grow a life inside of me, a life that was created by love and that I will have the opportunity to properly plan and prepare for when this little person enters our world.

On Friday we will be going for our second sonar scan. As we are driving out of town for this we have clubbed together with the friends of ours that told us on the 1st of December that they are pregnant, as she is also going for her scan at the same doctor.

I am blessed and it is awesome to be pregnant...

Source

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Nesting

I am aware that it is probably a bit soon to start creating our little baby's nest, but we have A LOT to do and I do not want to leave any big jobs until the very last. See, our house (which is a 1900 cottage) does not really have a very family friendly layout. It has 2 bedrooms, which are on opposite ends of the house. The walls which are about 40cm wide does not carry sound very well, so having a nursery at the one end of the house and our room on the other will just not work. And having to get up in the middle of the night, navigating my way to the nursery also does not appeal.

So we have come up with the perfect solution. We will be switching our room with the living room (which is adjacent to the spare bedroom). The spare bedroom will become the nursery. This will thus mean that our room and the nursery will be linked and "separate" from the rest of the house.
We will then incorporate sleeper couches in the living room and any guests sleeping over will be accommodated there. We are working on fixing up an old caravan to use as a quest room, but that has moved down on our list of priorities.

The rooms which will be the 2 bedrooms still have the old cement floors, so the first course of action is to get these tiled. I am usually very indecisive when it comes to choosing things like tiles where you have a vast variety to choose from. Luckily we were in Bredasdorp over the weekend and popped in at Tile World where after walking twice around the showroom I made up my mind. Hubby will usually let me do the choosing as he believes that as long as I am happy, he is off the hook!

So we chose the tiles, but unfortunately they did not have any stock of the specific tile that I wanted, so they suggested another one - which they did not have on display at the time. It is perfect! The tiles are much longer than wide and have a wood-like appearance which gives the impression of wooden-floors when laid.

I got the delivery today and cannot wait to see the end result. We've taken some leave next month, so will have this done then. Very exciting!


Thursday, February 06, 2014

First Peek at Peanut

So yesterday we went to meet our doctor and have our first ultrasound done. I've spend the morning with a friend whom I did not see in a long time and we had a good chat. She is a pharmacist at a state hospital and also a mother of 2 beautiful little ones and I got some very handy tips and advice from her.

I was a bit nervous before our appointment. I did not know what to expect and were so worried that there would be something wrong. The doctor was called out on an emergency so we had to wait a while before seeing her. But she turned out to be very nice indeed and the scan was over in a jiffy - although I could have easily spend an hour staring at our little baby on the screen.

It was wonderful to see the little one. We could make out where the head and the body is. Saw the little arms moving about and the precious little heart beating. The doctor is very happy with what she saw and says everything looks healthy.

We are truly blessed.