Home stretch

What an exciting week!  Five days from now I will be considered full term and if I go into labour I will be allowed to continue with the birth at home.  We will also take delivery of our birthing pool on that day (stay put baby until after then!)  As I sit here typing my mum is on a flight somewhere between Melbourne and Singapore (almost in Singapore I should think), I’m really excited to pick her up from the airport tomorrow morning.  And tomorrow is Matt’s last day at his current job.

There’s not much other news to tell.  Baby is continuing to be a strong kicker and slowly moving downwards, giving mama a very sore back and pelvis (I bought a maternity support belt yesterday and it gives me some relief).  I woke up with feet digging into my ribs this morning and a shoulder digging into my hip, not the most comfortable way to wake up.  I’ve got a few things left to get on my list but nothing particularly urgent.  So now I can just relax, rest and enjoy the last few (?) weeks.  Would be nice if my back would let me do a bit more, but perhaps there’s a reason for that…

Belly bump at 36 weeks, 2 days:

Lady of leisure

Today I finished my final assignment for my course and since I have emailed my clients telling them I am on maternity “leave” until November, I am now a lady of leisure.  And my social calendar is filling up – coffee tomorrow, lunch on Friday, pedicure on Monday… nice!  All with pregnant women / new mothers of course.

We’ve had a pretty exciting week or two, though exciting may not be the right word for it.  Matthew has just over a week to go in his current job and has continued to search for something new.  He has an interview on Friday so perhaps we’ll have more news on that later.  The tenants in our St Kilda house had a big falling out a couple of weeks ago and suddenly left the house one night, notifying our agents the next day so they’ve been looking for someone new.  We didn’t know about the fight until a few days ago, we just knew they had given notice.  Luckily they have found a new tenant for us but it’s been a bit painful trying to find out what’s going on and worrying about finding a new tenant.

There was a big sailing event on last week/weekend – Sail Amsterdam.  It’s a huge annual event.  We didn’t go to see the actual sailing event but there were lots of interesting boats on the Amstel outside our apartment (including one with a brass band) and a big event at the hotel opposite us.  We also got to see fireworks from our window two nights in a row and watched on TV a classical concert held on the Prinsengracht.  Funny how we still feel like part of these (regular) events even though we don’t actually attend them.

We finally made a trip to Ikea over the weekend, after talking about it for weeks.  Our mission was to buy a sofa-bed, a commode for the baby and a plastic stool for me (for in the shower!).  We managed to get we wanted (though we spent more on the sofa-bed than we thought we’d have to) and the only other extras were two toys for the baby and a spare sheet/doona cover set.  The toys we bought were an abacus and a stuffed animal that Matt couldn’t resist – the first toy he’s picked for our child.  We placed our order at 4pm on Saturday and in true efficient Dutch style they were delivered to our home at 8pm.  Matt had a long day on Sunday as we  assembled the bed the bed in the morning and then he went clothes shopping for himself and then to the gym (while I pottered) and then we spent the evening (yes, the evening!) assembling the commode.  At least the baby’s room is almost complete now.  I was dreaming all Saturday night of how it would look all put together and I’m very happy with it.  It felt like I had been buying loads of stuff for the baby but when I look at it now, it doesn’t look like much at all – which is good, I don’t want too much clutter!

I’ve had two midwife appointments since my last post (should have been one but there was a mix-up with timing), all is good.  The baby’s head is partly engaged, which explains my discomfort and s/he is a little under average size but the midwife is not worried because so am I.  We’re attending a workshop tomorrow night all about water birthing (I’ve ordered a birthing pool), taking yet another big step towards our home birth preparations!  As long as the baby stays put and I have no problems in the next two weeks, I should be able to get the natural home birth I’ve been hoping for!

Well, that’s it for now.  This weekend will be our last weekend together as a couple (before my mum gets here) – scary thought!

Latest belly pic:

Mid-August…

I didn’t know what to call this post since nothing significant has happened lately, it’s really just more of the same.  But the days and weeks are counting down very quickly until we finally get to meet our little one.

So what has been happening?

We had visitors over the weekend, a friend/business associate of mine from Melbourne and his friend. They have both on separate tours around Europe and decided to meet up in Amsterdam for a couple of days so we put them up and they took us out for a nice dinner on Monday night.  Funnily enough they were here for a very wet weekend which also happened to coincide with the Gay Pride Festival so the city was very busy.  Now that they have gone I can turn my attention to setting up the spare room for the baby and also for my mum’s arrival in just over 3 weeks.

A couple of my yoga friends have given birth this week, one of them two weeks early, so that’s exciting but it’s also made me realise we better get a move on with preparations just in case our little one decides to arrive early!  Things like washing the clothing and sheets, preparing a hospital bag (just in case).  We have decided to hire a doula, which gives me some peace of mind and next week I will organise a birthing pool to be delivered to our home, which needs to be set up by 37 weeks.  We have our final antenatal class tonight (the doula is our teacher).

I’ve been feeling pretty good the last couple of weeks, better than a month ago.  I continue to have pelvic pain but there’s good and bad days, my yoga teacher is really helping and I’ve ordered a book that is specific to this problem.  Like me, the baby has active and quiet days and seems to enjoy when I play Michael Jackson (or Mozart)!  The baby’s position hasn’t changed in about 6 weeks – head down – so I’m hoping that s/he stays that way and starts to engage (that may already be happening because I do feel more pressure in my sacrum these days). There’s definitely less room in there now, I feel all the little wriggles, stretches and hiccups!  I have a midwife appointment tomorrow so I will know more about how things are progressing.  I also need to ask her about a lump above my belly button which I suspect is a hernia.

In other news we had a bit of excitement yesterday evening – a car exploded on the bridge close to our house.  The noise was tremendous, we thought that a crane had fallen over or something (from the rebuild of the bridge on the other side of us).  It turns out something in the boot of the car exploded (the speculation is something to do with it being a souped-up BMW) and the two occupants ran away unhurt.  The bridge was closed off and crawling with police for hours.  We couldn’t see the car because of a tree blocking our view, but we could see the resulting activity.

Matthew is now looking for another job – his company is not doing as well as they’d hoped and they can’t really afford him so after some difficult decisions it was decided that he would serve a months’ notice.  This works out quite well because he was already looking for something closer to home so that he could spend more time with me and the baby.

The weather has cooled down a bit now, which has been nice – not too hot and not cold, though it has been quite humid.  I don’t mind the rain, but the humidity is very uncomfortable!

That’s about it from me.  I have submitted my second assignment and now about halfway through my final assignment so I’m almost finished with my course. I’ve also had some work to do lately – not a lot but enough to keep me occupied. I’m looking forward to the end of the month when my mum is here and I can rest without guilt (I do get plenty of rest now but feel I should be doing something!) and focus completely on resting and preparing for the baby.

Latest belly pic:

Two months to go!

Yes, that’s right… Baby is due two months from today – 62 days!  That is both very exciting and a little scary!

Not a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, which is why I haven’t blogged.  I’m continuing to feel heavier and more uncomfortable (and dealing with the pelvic pain of SPD), though yoga does help.  I’ve been making friends with other pregnant women from my yoga and antenatal classes so I’ve had coffees, lunches and a pedicure filling up my diary, which is really nice!  Everything is going well with the pregnancy, baby’s head is down and s/he is even more active than ever (sometimes painfully so!)  Also, I’ve been working on my second assignment for my course – three news articles – which has included preparing and performing interviews, doing research and the writing itself.

In other news… well, there isn’t any.  The next few weeks are all about me finishing my course, the two of us preparing for baby (physically and mentally!), my mum arriving and getting plenty of rest (does coffee with other pregnant women count as rest?).  I’m also thinking of one or two craft projects to make something for the baby which I’ll start when my course finishes and my mum is here.  In the meantime, other than antenatal and partner preparation classes, as well as some baby-gear shopping, it’s pretty much business as usual for Matt (though he is helping out more in the evenings, encouraging me to rest).

Here is the latest belly pic:

Sometime in early July…

It’s been 2.5 weeks since my last post – where did that time go?!  I guess between study, assignments, work, yoga, antenatal classes, World Cup Fever, etc. we’ve been pretty busy.  Summer is finally here so we’ve been quite warm (for some reason if feels so much warmer than Australia) and enjoying going for walks.

If I provide a blow-by-blow account of the last couple of weeks I’ll be here all day so to summarise:

• We watched Australia and then England bow out of the World Cup and were surprised to see Holland make it through to the semi finals (this coming Tuesday).  Well, we didn’t SEE them actually as we were at a wedding
• Our antenatal classes have started, we’ve had one together and one girls only.  They’ve been really good and the other couples are really nice.  In fact, I’ll be hosting a girls’ catch-up in 2 weeks at our place and might also be having lunch and a pedicure with a couple of them this week
• I’ve developed SPD (Symphisis Pubic Dysfunction) which means I have a sore pelvis a lot of the time and so have had to give up ballet, to my dismay.  However, as the weather has now warmed up it’s probably a good thing because the ballet studio is like an oven, I’d probably be passing out in class.  Between yoga, rest, a fit ball and light walking I’m managing it but some days it really hurts to stand on one let, turn over in bed, etc.  Other days it’s not so bad.
• Matt’s Dad was hospitalised with gallstones and is now waiting on surgery so that hasn’t been good news and we’ve been a bit worried about him and Matt’s mum, who has been quite stressed about it
• I received my “birth package” (kraampakket) from my insurance company containing lots of stuff for a home birth (cotton wool, birthing sheets, navel clamp, maternity pads, maternity undies, mattress protector and a toy for bub) and also a ‘happy box” (blije doos) from one of the major stores here (newborn nappies, a romper, bib, dummy, baby wipes and a couple of magazines) – it’s like Christmas!  Also we’ve been buying a few things including sheets, a cot mattress (we are borrowing a cot from friends), a bouncer and a play mat and I finally received a few orders including the baby bath and some Aden + Anais swaddling wraps. Now I feel like I’ve got things under control and can take my time a bit more with the rest of the stuff.
• We attended the wedding of a Dutch friend on Friday – he came to our wedding in Australia.  It was 30 degrees that day and I was sick in the morning so it wasn’t very comfortable but we really enjoyed the wedding and got to meet some new people, practice our Dutch, catch up with some colleagues we knew 10 years ago and experience a Dutch/Latin American wedding.  The wedding took place in a really cute village in the north (Middenbeemster) and the after-party was at the groom’s parents’ house in Purmerand, very nice places.
• My study is going well and I have my first assignment due on Friday, I am going to go over it one more time and then submit it and get onto the next one, which promises to be more difficult as I have to write three articles and interview people for each one (face-to-face)
• My parents have booked their flights to come over here, my mum gets here on September 4 – I can’t wait to see them!

I have my next midwife appointment on Wednesday – I will be 28 weeks pregnant on Tuesday – already into the third trimester.  It’s going very fast now!  I can’t wait to meet our little one.  Matthew still comments that I’m “getting big”, which is now true!  Out of all the women I know from yoga and antenatal classes who are due around the same time, I am the biggest – or at least I look it.

So here are the last two weeks’ belly pics:

World Cup Madness

Sorry, can’t post now, the World Cup is on… Well, it is pretty distracting!  We’ve been watching the games most evenings and all of the ones on the weekend.  Matt’s worked stopped on Friday to watch the Dutch game and on Saturday we went to an old favourite Italian restaurant at Rembrandtplein where they were showing the England vs. USA match on a projection screen – the atmosphere was great and I was happy to finally have some lamb cutlets (haven’t had them since leaving Australia!)  We stayed in to watch the Australia vs. Germany match on Sunday night after an afternoon at the movies, and were glad we did as it was disappointing.

So what else is news?  Let’s see – North Melbourne had a good win (and I’m at the top of our tipping competition!), Mark Webber came fifth in the Canadian Grand Prix and the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics will have to play a 7th game in the finals series for the first time in a number of years (16 according to Matt).

Oh wait, yes there is more to life than sport, though sometimes it’s hard to believe in our house at the moment!

Seriously though, not a lot has happened this week.  I’ve been plugging away at my studies – writing haiku and sonnets and reading a novel that I want to review.  I’ve had a little work and a number of enquiries about further work.  And I’ve started to make a dint in the preparations for our little one now that there are some good sales on.  Matt joined a gym, finally, and has been trying to fit that in and we’ve been trying to organise a cost-effective way of sending over some of our belongings from Australia.

We had our first Active Birth Partner Preparation class last night.  It’s all about preparing the body for birth (basically what I do in my yoga class but this is with partner interaction), and also positions to use and breathing while in labour, which the partner can help with.  It was 2.5 hours but it went quick, even Matt was surprised.  He was a bit nervous I think but then realised it was all just exercises together so he relaxed and I think he got a lot out of it.  There was one exercise the teacher made the men do to feel “pain” and breathe into it which was to hang over with straight legs and try and touch the floor and then the wives had to support them with massage – well, it seems I had the most flexible husband there as Matt’s hands were flat on the floor with no problem.  He only had to come up when the blood was rushing to his face! hehe.  We have one more of those classes which is more about labour and birthing positions.  I’ve also booked us in for a series of antenatal classes which are all about the other practical aspects to do with having a baby.  I think the first one is next week.

I’ve been feeling generally great, though I’ve had a few stretching pains and sore, crampy feet (have bought some Birkenstocks today to try and support my arches).  So with that said, here is this week’s bump pic – and woohoo, I didn’t grow much this week!

Monsoon season in Amsterdam

While it seems Melbourne has had it’s first cold snap for the year, we seem to be having a monsoon season.  The weekend was lovely but since then it has rained on and off – but not just light rain, heavy downpours as well as some thunder and lightening, and it’s quite humid and reasonably warm.  The sun is forecast to come out again tomorrow for 21 degrees – just right.  I had to wade through some rather large puddles this morning so hopefully the forecast is correct.

It’s hard to believe it’s Wednesday again – we’ve obviously really settled down now!  I finally received my password for my study system last Thursday and so have been getting stuck into the course material.  I’m really enjoying it so far.  I made a start on the first assignment yesterday – four different pieces of writing.  One of those pieces is a haiku so I practised my haiku writing yesterday and ended up waking up in the middle of the night making up new ones! They were about the baby, who was kicking me a lot last night.

We didn’t do a lot on the weekend.  On Wednesday (much to my surprise) we took delivery of the pram which I ordered the Saturday before (expecting it to take 5-6 weeks) and it came with a voucher for 90 euros to spend in the store.  So on Saturday we went to Bilmer – where Amsterdam Arena is and also some large stores, including sports stores and an electronics store – to check it out as they had a sale on and also a friend of ours just gave birth so we needed to buy a present.  We didn’t end up buying much there but we did go to MediaMarkt and get a printer/scanner we’re pretty happy with.  We didn’t realise it at the time but Holland were playing a friendly (soccer) match against Hungary in the Arena while we were there and we only just managed to get out of there before the sea of orange supporters hit the train station.  We did a bit more shopping on Sunday (though again, didn’t buy much except for maternity shorts for me) and caught up with our friends.  We did do a lot of walking around the city though so I was exhausted in the evening. On Saturday morning I had a video call with my niece and nephew, which was really nice as I hadn’t seen them since Australia Day, they were so excited!

As usual, there is always something going on here.  Today the country votes in their national elections and waits with interest to see how many seats are won by the well-known anti-Islam party (the PVV).  On Friday the World Cup begins, with Oranje’s (the Dutch team’s) first game on Sunday.  Already there are flags and penants all around the city.  Matt couldn’t help himself, he had to join the frivolities and purchase a Heineken “pretterpet” – a ridiculous orange hat with a horn that apparently follows the tradition of such hats in South Africa.  Photo to come, I assure you!

I saw my midwife again today.  Everything is going well, though I have been told to take it easy on the walking and dancing and take naps when I need to (I’ve been very tired).  My uterus is measuring at 25 weeks – not sure if that’s just my uterus or if it means I’m going to have a big baby, but I certainly look larger than 24 weeks!  See photo below.

Next week I’m sure I’ll have more World Cup news.  Until then…

23 Weeks

It’s been rather a dull week – not much to report.  The weather on the weekend was terrible so we didn’t do much other than watch the Turkish GP (Formula 1) and do a quick trip to the shops last thing on Sunday.  Matthew has worked from home Monday and Tuesday but he’s back in The Hague today and thankfully the weather has begun to warm up and brighten up again – sunny with 20 degrees today!  I should have started my studies but have yet to receive my username and password for the online system so I’m impatiently waiting for that.  Other than that, World Cup fever is growing and we’ve watched Oranje and the Socceroos play a couple of friendlies in preparation.

On the baby front – the little one was quiet on Saturday so I got a bit worried but has more than made up for it since.  I don’t think s/he stopped for a rest for most of yesterday and spent the evening using my bladder as a trampoline!  That must have worn him/her out so I could get some sleep!  I went back to ballet on Monday after taking a break to let my foot heal (it’s fine now) and was exhausted afterwards, it’s getting harder and harder so I have to take it as easy as possible and though I feel like a hippo, there are no professionals in class so I’m still technically better than pretty much everyone else, which helps my confidence (and that’s not to brag, it just seems people like to do more advanced classes than they are ready for here!).  In other baby news, there was a big sale on the weekend at one of the baby stores, including their online store, so I ordered a pram – our biggest baby expense yet!  I’ve also ordered a Sleepy Wrap and am now thinking about how to decorate the baby’s room – not easy as it’s a tiny room with no wall hooks and we can’t exactly paint it.

So, with nothing else to report, here are this week’s pics (yes, I’ve had another growth spurt!)

The Amstel Hotel

This morning I awoke to a dull day, as it often is here in Amsterdam, hurriedly dressed and put on my waterproof jacket, just in case, and rushed out the door to my Friday morning prenatal yoga class.  Two hours later, feeling invigorated and light, I emerged into full sunshine.  What a difference two hours can make!  And the day continued to improve – so much so that I decided early in the evening to take a photo of the view from my desk.  If I’m not careful, I’m going to end up like James Stewart in Rear Window, spying on the residents across the river – luckily my lens is not that powerful and I did get out of the house today!

First weekend away – Düsseldorf

Gee the weeks are flying by now!  I can’t believe it’s Tuesday already!  It probably doesn’t help that we had another public holiday yesterday (though I’m not complaining).

Not much happened for the remainder of last week.  I had coffee with a friend and some ladies from the International Women’s Committee (my friend and I were the youngest there by at least 20 years!) – it was a lovely morning sitting outside in the sun chatting with other expat women.  I also went on a bit of a shopping spree to add a few staple items to my wardrobe for spring – thank goodness for H&M as I did really well in terms of value for money.

With a great weather forecast for the weekend, Matt and I decided on Friday to make that trip to Düsseldorf we’d had in mind for a couple of weeks so I quickly organised train tickets and booked a hotel through Wotif.com on Friday evening.  We had to get up very early on Saturday morning to make the 8.04 train but then had a nice and relaxing 2 hours watching the world go by (or at least I did, Matt slept!).  Dusseldorf was lovely and the weather was amazing, we both got a little pink.  We first went to the centre, which has some great shopping (both high end and high street) and Matt managed to pick up some bargains on work clothes which he wouldn’t have got in Amsterdam, so we were happy about that.  After a really nice lunch at an Italian cafe/restaurant, sitting outside, we wondered to the old town and along the Rhine.  There was a jazz festival on in the city so we got to soak up some of the ambience.  We had a break along the river promenade (and a nice big icecream sundae) before heading back to the hotel for a rest – all that walking had worn me out.  After a decent nap we headed back into the old town for dinner and found a restaurant / pub with a nice outdoor terrace in a busy square.  The streets were buzzing, probably partly due to the jazz festival and partly due to the Champions League final that night (Bayern Munich lost to Inter Milan), though I got the feeling with that many bars and clubs that it’s always fairly busy.   Our meals took quite a while to arrive but we enjoyed the atmosphere and Matt tried some local beer.  The food was very good, simple but tasty German fare and good value for money.

On Sunday, after a bit of a sleep in, we ate a hearty breakfast at the hotel and headed back to the old town for a wonder before we had to make our way back to train.  Unfortunately I woke up to a very painful foot with no idea of the cause, so I basically limped everywhere and had to rest a lot.  We were back in Amsterdam by 3.30 and the weather continued to be nice for the rest of the day and Monday.  I didn’t leave the house on Monday (Matt did some shopping without me!) because of my foot but it seems to be slowly healing now.

For some photos of the weekend, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/melalouise/tags/dusseldorf/.  Matt particularly likes the one of me with the sundae (which he helped me with by the way!) and the one of him next to a poster with the name Uecker.

On the pregnancy front, all is good – 22 weeks today.  Our little one seems to be testing the boundaries of his/her home, kicking harder than ever, and very regularly – just about every time I stop moving.  I have now made a list of things we need to buy/borrow/conjure ready for the little arrival and have started to order one or two things – very exciting! I’m trying to get myself organised between baby preparation, work, household etc. as I will be studying from next week – my first subject of a Certificate/Diploma/Bachelor of Arts (depending on how far I go).  The first subject I’m studying is Creative and Professional Writing and I’m really looking forward to it.  I’m also excited that they are making an allowance for me to complete the major I wanted to do (Art History) as a certificate – it’s not supposed to be allowed but the wording on the website indicated that it is, so they’re going to allow me to do it and change the wording.  That’s great because it was the major I was most interested in.

Well that’s it for now, all that’s left is this weeks’ belly pics!