He's here!

Yes, it's a boy! And his name is Darcy George.

Here are all his stats:
DOB: 18/9/2014 11:13pm
Weight: 3.18kg
Length:47cm
Head Circumference: 36cm

Born at 37 weeks on the dot. He had us all scrambling and his Daddy missed his birth.

But I'll tell you all about it later. We just got home from Perth so I am going to enjoy my surroundings and my new squishy baby.

Pregnancy Update: Weeks 32, 33 & 34.

Well I certainly go behind in my pregnancy updates, didn't I!? I'm 35 weeks now and thought I better get the missing weeks documented asap before I'm down in Perth and possibly without internet access.

Now just to remember what the last 4ish weeks have been like... Well I've been losing my mind that's for sure. I'm forgetting everything, calling the dogs the kids names and calling the kids their siblings names and giving Caden his sisters pink lunchbox... just to name a few.

I'm sure I would forget my head if it wasn't attached to me.

This whole pregnancy I've felt pretty good though. Up until last week that is, I've hit a wall and I am just so so tired and sore. By mid-afternoon I have a duck waddle down pat and my feet have ballooned out to resembled footballs and not feet. But apparently my blood pressure is still normal so that's a good thing. It feels a little surreal to be at this point in my pregnancy and not doing weekly blood pressure checks and giving urine samples. For my previous pregnancies I've either had high blood pressure by this stage or the early stages of pre-eclampsia. But it looks like I might not have either of those things to deal with this time around.

Bubs is also starting to engage, hence the duck waddle. And my braxton hicks are getting more frequent and painful.

I thinks that's really all that's happened in the last few weeks, well apart from Ethan asking if we are going to Perth today EVERY. SINGLE. MORNING.

Hopefully I'll be organised enough to share a 35 week update in a few days time.

Finding Peace

Like I've said in recent weeks, I'm have been on big ball of anxious but I'm finding my way through it at the moment and I'm slowly coming out the other side. 

I've been coping by doing a few things. 

I've been writing to do lists and actually crossing things off them, I've been reading a few mum related books, I've been spending time talking to the kids about the next few months and I've been going to bed as soon as I feel tired, even if it is only 7:30pm...

One such book that I've been reading is The Happiest Mom by Meagan Francis. I've had it in my bookcase for a while and I flick through it occasionally reading the snippets that I need to at any given time.

And you know what? It's been helping, I don't want to spend my impending days with a newborn thinking the mantra 'this too shall pass'. I want to savour the moments with a newborn, because they may just be our last. 

Yes, I am going to be tired and yes the house isn't always going to be clean. But we will be a family of 6 and that's just what we wanted. 

One of the chapters of the book is called 'Aim Low and Go Slow'. And well, that sounds a good enough mantra for me for the next 3/4 months. 

The kids will be loved, fed and wearing clean clothes. But those clothes might not have come from their wardrobes, but instead probably the clean washing pile. They might get breakfast for dinner occasionally, but that's cool too. 

So whilst, I can't say that I'm not completely freaking out about how I am going to manage it all. I am looking forward to being a mama to 4 very very much. 

Pregnancy Update: 31 Weeks

31 weeks, well it started out well then went downhill pretty fast. I really don't want to seem like I'm complaining all the time because I really am very very excited about this baby it just seem the last few weeks have well, kinda sucked. 

On Saturday night I was struck down with a particularly nasty gastro bug. I was that bad by morning that B decided to call the hospital about me. They told him to bring me in and well, we were are all glad he did. I was already severely hydrated and had started having some contractions. 

But the contractions stopped after I was put on a drip and one bag of fluid was safely inside me. I then was on some medications and fluids for the rest of the day. I would like to say that I was able to rest while I was there, but hospitals aren't exactly the quietest places on earth. But I did leave feeling better then when I arrived so that is the main thing. 

And whilst I still don't feel 100% I am pleased to say that after having a very quiet day on Sunday, the baby has been kicking up a storm since Monday morning. 

The above photo is from Friday night BEFORE the gastro and the one below is from this morning. Recovering from gastro and totally wishing that I could have stayed in bed but the kids needed breakfast and to get ready for school. Thankfully all kids were at school today so I did get plenty of rest this morning while they were all at school. 

 Here's to hoping that the next 7-9ish weeks are smoother than the last few days.

Pregnancy Update: 30 Weeks

Yep, 30 weeks and I've lost my mind. B's been working A LOT lately and it's really getting to me. I'm just tired and starting to get anxious about having to leave town and travel to Perth to have the baby.

I really don't want to have to leave town, but I don't have a choice. Regional health in Western Australia really does suck. I mean, they kick you out of town at 36 weeks and give you very few options for health care.

I could go to Port Hedland, but the price of accommodation for ONE MONTH there is just ridiculous. I mean, we could go on an overseas holiday for the price of staying there. And what on earth would I do in Port Hedland for that long?? So Perth seemed like the best option. I mean I do have family there and there is plenty of things to do whilst I'm down there twiddling my thumbs waiting for baby to arrive, but seriously I just want to be able to sleep in my own bed every night and see my kids every day.

I'm going to miss Caden's 8th birthday and I think that is what is getting to me the most. I shouldn't EVER have to miss any of my kids birthdays, but because WA Health in all their wisdom have decided that you can no longer have babies in this town I have to miss his birthday and be away from the eldest two for at least two weeks.

And I really just want to be with B in the final weeks of this pregnancy too. Not 1600kms away!
All of this is messing with my mental health and I'm really starting to worry about what this is all doing to my chances of having PND again.

I'll be speaking to my GP when I see him again in 2 weeks, but there is nothing he can do about it. It would just be silly for B and the kids to come down with me at 36 weeks because that would mean that he would be wasting his holidays. It would be better for him to use his holidays for when the baby is actually born.

Oh and images like this are freaking me out too. I know I've done it all before be jeepers something that big coming out of there? It's equal parts amazing and OUCH.

So I guess that's 30 weeks.

Pregnancy Update: Week 29

29 weeks! I had a check up with my GP and boy did that check up put a smile on my face all day! My BP was fantastic and even thing is going along great. That may not mean much to some, but with my history of pregnancy induced hypertension AND pre-eclampsia I'm ecstatic!
He did mention that I am still measuring big for my dates and upon checking the baby's position declared that this baby might be my biggest yet! The baby is also head down too.

I'm not to worried about the size, I've had the same comments for all three of my previous pregnancies, although I'm thinking about requesting a growth scan at my next appointment...

Pregnancy Update: Week 28

I fell behind AGAIN! Infact this is the first post I've written in a week. You would think that now that school holidays are over I would have more time, but sadly no. I'm chasing my tail more than ever.

Anyhow a not much happened in week 28 anyway...

I needed an anti-d injection since I have a negative blood type and B has a positive one. I had to take Ethan and Mahli along to the hospital for the injection. They thought it was hilarious that I didn't get the needle in my arm... They couldn't stop talking about it for days afterwards.


Now lets see how long it takes me to post a week 29 update seeing as I am already 29 weeks...

Pregnancy Update: Week 27

In the past week I've had several people say to me WOW, I didn't know you were pregnant... What you all just thought I was eating A LOT of cake this year? 

Anyhow, last week I ended up at the hospital for an iron infusion as my iron levels came back really low from my last blood test and the doctor was concerned that tablets wouldn't bring the levels up fast enough, so an iron infusion it was. 

The infusion itself wasn't that bad, just the putting in of the cannula. But that's never pleasant anyway. But once I got home from the infusion I was hit by an overwhelming wave of tiredness, I convinced Ethan to have a sleep with me and then Mahli ending up having a sleep too. Good thing they both did because I slept for 3 hours leaving Caden to his own devices. It was also a good thing that I'd been making freezer meals for the past few weeks because I woke at 6pm and B was just about to walk in the door and there was no dinner to be seen. Dinner was served by 6:30pm though thanks to the microwave. 

I felt so bad about leaving Caden unsupervised for 3ish hours, but he told me he was fine playing lego. And if he needed me he would have woken me up.

I'm now halfway through my 27th week and we are busy planning flights etc for when Ethan and I go to Perth and when B and the other two will join us. I so wish I could just have this baby here! Rural health in WA is a joke!!!

Pregnancy Update: Week 26

26 weeks already! Yay! Actually I'm closer to 27 weeks now...

Anyway, I've been feeling tired and teary for weeks and it seems that I actually have a reason for it besides being pregnant. My GP called me this morning and told me that I'm severely anemic and I have go to to the hospital this week for an iron infusion. Fingers crossed it all goes well and I will feel awesome after it. 

The good news is that the same results also indicated that everything else is fine and that I passed my GCT test with flying colours. Yippee.

As you can see from the above photo, I've been trying to get the babies room sorted. It's a mess in there but it is certainly getting there. Hopefully I'll be able to share some progress shots of it in the next few weeks.

That's all for this week. 

Pregnancy Update: 25 weeks

So I'm almost up to date with my pregnancy updates so I thought I better get my 25 week photo up before I tick over to 26 weeks.

I feel a bit bigger this week compared to last week and some clothes that I was wearing comfortably last week are a little tighter so maybe I am.

I also weighed myself this morning and I am now about 2.5 kg's heavier than when I fell pregnant. I'm pretty happy with that as I have some healthy fat reserves to dip into anyway.

Today also marks 100 days to go until my due date! Time is just flying by. I think we have our baby names sorted, but who knows we might change our minds between now and then which had pretty much been the case for my last two pregnancies. Ethan had no name for two days after he was born.

Now to just get the nursery sorted and sew ALL the things I want to get done before the baby arrives. Well at least before I head down to Perth at 36 weeks to wait for the baby make it's appearance.

Can you suggest any baby names incase we haven't considered all our options?

21, 22, 23 AND 24 weeks

So where has the time gone? I meant to do weekly updates after 20 weeks but time just got away from me.

Things are going well here though. I'm actually feeling pretty good and I had an OB appointment recently and things went well at that. She did express some concern over me spending any time alone in the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy with just Ethan since his birth was rather fast and she doesn't want me delivering this baby alone with just Ethan around.

But my blood pressure is still great and everything looks perfect with the baby. Well apart from the fact that it is measuring a week a head. I'm starting to freak about delivering a big baby, but that just my silly overthinking mind talking. I'm sure everything will be fine.

And as at 24 weeks I have gained 3kg's which I am happy with. Since I already have plenty of fat to share around I want to keep my weight gain to a minimum.

Anyway, now for some bump photos!

 My 24 weeks bump photo is of me in my PJ's sans bra... so I don't think I'll be sharing that here.

I'm more than okay with sharing messy hair and no makeup. Even PJ's would be fine, but the no bra is the deal breaker for me. I'm sure you would all agree.


Now let's see if I can keep up with the weekly updates from here on out.

At risk

{via we heart it} 

I've talk about this before and to warn you, I am probably going to continue to talk about this as this pregnancy goes on. But the fact of the matter is that I am at a higher risk of having postnatal depression because I was lucky enough to suffer from it in the past.

I have been speaking to my GP about the risks and also B and I have talked about it too. It's not something we are shying away from and I am certainly not embarrassed by these facts. Some people have been shocked when I do openly talk about my PND, but they need to realise that it's not something that I am or should be ashamed about.

It is just a part of my past but it could also be a part of my future. It's something I need to be aware of and something that I am not afraid to talk about openly. No one should be afraid to talk about their issues with depression. And people that do think that people should be ashamed to talk about it, well they should be ashamed of themselves.

20 weeks- We're half way there!

We are finally at the halfway point of this pregnancy and it's all becoming very real. I can feel the baby move very regularly and others have been able to feel the baby move from the outside also.

Mahli felt bean move over the weekend and you should have seen the look on her face. She was so excited.

We had our 20 week scan last week and everything looked great. We were in there for a while as bean wasn't co-operating at first, but after a few trips to the toilet and some jumping up and down the sonographer got what they needed. We did get a few photo's but the quality was pretty bad.

I'm hoping to get a 3D scan in a few weeks when we are in Perth because we only ever get a few print outs when we get the scans done here. But I'm not complaining, the scans are bulk billed so that one good thing considering we have to travel to Perth to have the baby. It just makes no sense with the demographic of this town that they won't provide those facilities at the local hospital.

Now I'm just hoping that these next 20 weeks go as fast as the last 20!

18 weeks

I've not been blogging a lot lately, life has been busy and this little bean growing in my body is sure taking it out of me. Not to mean the 3 bigger beans growing outside of my body, those kids just keep getting busier and busier!

Anyway, I'm 18ish weeks now and can't believe I'm almost at the half way point. We've started pulling all the baby stuff out of storage as we go on holidays soon and need to know what we need before we go away as we will have to buy it all while we are away. That's the joy of having no shops anywhere near us.

But it has been great going through all the stuff with the kids and watching them get excited looking at their old clothes and the shocked looks on their faces when they realise just how small they once were.

Ethan has been getting a bit cranky when finding and remembering some of his old things and realising that the baby will be using them now and not him. But the happiness he shows when we talk about the baby puts my mind at ease that he will handle the addition of a baby to our family well.

I've also started a mini scrapbooking album for this pregnancy. I've never done that for the other kids, but after being inspired by Talia's posts over at ASWC, I thought I would give it a go.

So whilst things have been busy here, things have certainly been anything but busy in real life! Things will probably stay a bit quiet here over the next few months, but I hope to pop in now and again to say hi.

5 Fun Facts About Being Pregnant

1. You will test your pelvic floor muscles a lot during your first (and probably second trimester) when morning sickness strikes and then in the third trimester you will be testing them all over again because the size of your bladder will shrink dramatically due to the humungous baby pressing on it.

2. A simple task like brushing your teeth will probably set your gag reflex off and you will commence vomiting all over again. Say goodbye to fresh breath...

3. Your skin will think it's a teenager all over again.

4. Your sense of smell will have superpowers and you will be able to smell weird smells from miles away.

5. Every man and his dog will ask you if you know what your are having, these questions will commence as soon as the world knows you're pregnant.

What would you add to the list? 

Scared

If you've been hanging around here since the beginning you might remember my struggle with post natal depression after Ethan's birth.

I struggled for it for a while but with the help of counselors, medication, a great gp and not to forget B, I overcame it. There were times there when I did want everything to just cease to exist and I am scared that I will go through that again.

But I have to remember that there are several factors working with me this time.

• I know my warning signs
• My family knows my warning signs
• I'm better equipped at dealing with low moods to stop them in their tracks
• Because I know my warning signs I am able to ask for help at the first signs of them

Even though I have the above points helping me, it still scares me that it could happen again.

But I have several months up my sleeve to put everything in place to ensure that it doesn't happen again. But some things are out of my control and I have to remember that.

The things that are scaring me the most are the fact that I have to have the baby in Perth, 1600kms away from home. They don't deliver babies here and you have to leave town by 36 weeks. That means that Ethan and I will be leaving town early September and B and the other two will join me when school holidays start just after I reach 38 weeks. It also means that I'll be away from Caden for his 8th birthday and it'll be the longest time period that I have been away from any of my children. But it's the best thing otherwise they will miss too much school.

You'll probably see my writing about this a fair bit over the next few months as I work my way through these fears. But the thing I am trying to focus on the most is just how overwhelmingly happy we all are that our family is growing this year.

Yes, we do own a TV

Telling people that we are pregnant with our 4th child leads to some pretty funny reactions.

So far I have had:

So you must like kids then?!
You'll be busy!
Haven't you figured out what makes them yet?
Don't you own a TV?
And a few other random comments.

But thankfully a large majority of friends and family have just said congratulations and were simply happy for us.

And I am so grateful that people can just be happy for us. I was a little hesitant to tell certain people as when we announced we were pregnant with Ethan (our 3rd) they just assumed that he was an accident because we already had a boy and a girl, so why would we want another baby.

Those people never congratulated us and I still remember those conversations over 4 years later.

Have you ever had any negativity when announcing that you are expanding your family? How did you deal with it? 

There is a reason things have been so quiet

And it's because I've been suffering from morning sickness for the past few months.

Yep, I'm 12 weeks pregnant with baby number 4! The kids are super stoked, as are B and I.

And I'm hoping that since we are getting past the 12 week mark the nausea will subside and I wont be as tired anymore.

It also means that I'll most probably be crafting a lot of baby stuff in the coming months.

And also trying to figure out how to fit 4 kids in a very small three bedroom house... anyone got any pointers on that?

Or tips for helping morning sickness (all day sickness!) I've never been this sick with the other kids and it is driving me crazy.