Thought I’d update what we’re doing, mostly for our family and friends “back home.”

Monte is very busy working. We have organised his home office a bit more and he is settled there, where he works full-time. An influx of work at this time, just before I go on leave, is convenient, but things are very busy for him and he has not had much time to work on the house. He has been moving lots of baby stuff into the house so I can immerse myself in a slow nesting process. Monte is great. He makes coffees in the mornings; he makes the lunches and he often cooks dinner. Mont is busy with meetings and internet conferences with clients and all sorts of things. It’s good.

I am pooped. I do not feel that great with morning sickness (still lasting all day) and insomnia making daily things a little more difficult. I feel big and baby feels big (is big) and I am having strong practice contractions that don’t really feel like practice contractions at all. I’m happy to move slowly and waddle around. Being tired and vague and slow at work makes it hard to feel professional. Students sometimes notice my tummy bumping and moving about, which is entertaining for them, but obviously a distraction they do not need! I find solace in knitting. The rhythm of knitting helps me to relax and unwind. It is fun to make stuff and I have a few friends having babies over the next few months, so I am making things for them. And baking is something I enjoy too much. I’m 28 weeks and have put on 3-4kgs this pregnancy. I think this is because chocolate makes me feel sick, so I don’t eat it. Most unhealthy foods make me feel like vomiting. It must be the body’s natural way to keep healthy (would very much like this to carry on past pregnancy and beyond!). Pink-iced donuts, however, are awesome. So are lollies. And orange juice. Cannot get enough of that stuff.

Georgia has settled into the new term very well. She moved back to her previous school and is very happy there. She has regular homework, which she loves doing each night and we have a lovely routine of reading together after school. She is performing well in school and complained to me yesterday about getting a word wrong in her spelling test. I just laughed it away; she need not worry about that sort of thing, yet (should she?). Deep down I want to find out which word it was so I can help her learn it! G loves computers. We have prettied up her bedroom and she finds an oasis there under her “princess canopy.” She loves getting dressed up and I am so delighted by her beautiful nature. She is also a lot like me: hot-tempered! We can clash for a moment, and then fall into a mother-daughter embrace that makes everything ok. With jui-jitsu, soccer and Girl Guides, Georgia is busy during the week. She loves her activities. She would love to do ballet but we are yet to find a ballet school that is both closer to home and running sessions at a time that we can actually get to without taking her out of school early.

Matthew is an awesome little dude. His hair has got a bit longer and is all curly. It is a gorgeous auburn colour. He is very handsome. He loves having his own room, still mentioning it to anybody who comes to visit. He often says: “I like our new house and my room and all the toys in my own room!” Wow. We put some shelves up in his room over the weekend and he delights in having his “special things” on display, “like Georgia!” Matty is writing his name and his drawings have recently taken on a new development. Instead of arms and legs sprouting from one round head/body, he is drawing figures with separate bodies and legs and even clothes! He draws cars with wheels and roads. I find the development of children’s drawings fascinating. He is looking forward to school (kindy) next year but the idea of him being such a big boy is daunting. Surely he is not that grown up already?

The drawings below were done by Matty on the iPad.

Baby is growing well and doing all the right things, like practising breathing (very cool to see on ultrasound!), sucking its thumb and doing somersaults in my belly (feels like an octopus is in there). I have come to look forward to the regular ultrasounds; having the reassurance of regular testing puts my mind at ease. All things look good and we get full points in the scans, whatever that means. I read: “Grossly and neurologically normal” on the reports and am satisfied, yet deep down I do experience the normal concern re the health of the baby. We’re getting the room ready, slowly. I have kept everything from my babies. This is great, because we don’t need to buy much stuff, but it is a big mess in the nursery at the moment and I am hopeless at lifting! We’re almost settled on names, but we’ll probably wait to meet the baby before we finally settle on the name.

As I am finishing up this blog, Monte is informing Matthew that the reason he calls the ironing board his ‘surfing board’ is that he has never seen mummy iron so naturally he does not know what an ironing board is. It’s true. I rarely iron and the fact that we even have the iron and ironing board in the pantry is just weird.