9 weeks & counting

9 weeks & 5 days into the pregnancy and what a ride it is! After battling morning sickness for about 3 weeks, I've had a bit of a reprieve. What's really helped is taking a week off work to a) rest and b) do a bit of personal studying. I've really enjoyed being able to wake up in the morning without having to rush anywhere! I start the day with a morning meditation, have a healthy breakky and then spend the morning studying. It's what my body & mind desperately needs right now!

I've discovered that salty potato chips & lemon cordial work a treat for keeping my quesy stomach settled. However, the salt & sugar combined with my newfound hormones mean that my skin is a little worse for wear. I feel like I'm going through my teens all over again! Every morning, there's a new zit in the mirror to greet me! Oh well... the joy of it all.

I swear that my taste-buds seem to be flashing back to my childhood. For example, last week, I had a craving for cocoa-pops & Bundaberg Sarsparilla. Thankfully it doesn't take long for my adult sensibilities to kick in and reign in my childish whims! I still treat myself to a small treat now and then, but all in all, lots of fruits, vegies & protein.

My family are so excited about welcoming Baby Dragon into the world. There are already bets between my sisters Erin & Siobhan as to whether it's a boy or a girl. Apparently, the loser will be dishing out 15min massages. I have a strange feeling that someone is going to be doing a lot of massages!! I keep getting quizzed about when my baby bump will appear and I've promised to take photos for the family. Frankly, I'm more concerned with getting new bras for my growing bustline then clothes for a baby bump right now.

Craig and I have also been busy organising for Fixes around the house. We've procrastinated for over a year about fixing our fence so finally, we're biting the bullet and getting it taken care of. Funny how a baby makes you suddenly proactive about securing your home. Must be the instinctive need to protect & nurture kicking in.

So all in all, so far so good. As I'm fast discovering, the hard part of being pregnant isn't just going to be labour. It seems there are already trials & tribulations, preparing both Craig and me for the months & years ahead. Wish us luck!

xoxo Demi & Craig.

Afternoon Tea at the Umbrella Tree

 

This Afternoon, Craig heard a lot of squabbling coming from our backyard and upon investigation, he discovered that once again, the rainbow lorikeets had returned and this time, they were feasting on the dark red fruits of one of our umbrella trees. Now Meg had told us that the lorikeets were fond of these fruits but this was the first time we'd actually seen the lorikeets feasting. Craig managed to take some snaps of one of the lorikeets. There were three others but this one was a bit greedy and seemed intent on chasing its mates off. Needless to say, its looking rather pleased with itself!

Much like the lorikeets, we've had a pretty lazy Saturday. Actually, its the first day of the week that I've been able to put my feet up and just unwind. It's 7 weeks into the pregnancy and I can barely get through a full working day without feeling exhausted. I have to squeeze in catnaps whenever possible! Also little Dragon has unfortunately brought other friends - the morning sickness kind. While I've not actually barfed yet, I constantly feel like I'm standing on a boat on rough seas.

It's amazing the variety of advice and stories you hear about pregnancy. I had someone sympathetise with my plight, only to tell me that they themselves had morning sickness for 8 months. I even had a sales rep tell me that his wife had morning sickness so bad, it only stopped 2 hours prior to her giving birth and also that she'd been vomitting so much that the acidity rotted her teeth...

Comforting stuff, eh? Anyhow, little Dragon is now the size of the blueberry. I brought an prenatal yoga manual as I'm determined to try to be as fit as my body will allow me (respecting the morning sickness & fatigue of course) so I can keep us both healthy. Have you got any morning sickness stories to share? Let us know.

xoxo Demi

We're expecting!

Dear Family & Friends,

Craig and I are going to be parents! I'm six weeks pregnant and at the end of September, we will hopefully be welcoming a new member into our family. As this will be our first child, needless to say, we've hit the ground running. Our first discovery is that the news has brought nothing but smiles to the faces of our family & friends.

Before visiting my family for Chinese New Year, I was debating what was the best way to break the news. I considered buying a shirt and rocking up with it on. Did you know there are infinite t-shirts with lots of crazy maternity slogans on them? Take for example the following shirt:

 

There are millions more like this but to be honest,  my heart is actually set on one of Hayley's shirts. As soon as my bump shows, I'll be proud to sport Hayley's artwork on my bump!

Anyway, back to the story... so I was trying to figure out a creative way to tell my Mum & siblings that I was expecting. Then I came across this gorgeous Beanie Kid.

 

A few years ago, my Mum started collecting these teddy bears that were dressed up as various animals. She collected them to represent each immediate member of our family and the respective chinese animal zodiac signs that we were born into. As soon as I set eye on "Sizzle, the Chinese Dragon", I knew this was how I'd break the news to my Mum! I was planning to tell my family at breakfast to see who would figure out the puzzle first. However my plans had to change since my family (being typically busy and rarely idle during Chinese New Year) were leaving the house at 4am to do Chinese Lion Dancing at the airport. Therefore, I figured I might as well tell my Mum that night.

My good friend Mel had kindly picked up Craig & myself from our very late flight in from Brisbane. So I let Mel in on the news. We got home and gave Mum lots of hugs, as she rapidly updated us on what was happening during the Chinese Street Festival. That's when I pulled out the Beanie Kid and told her that this year, Craig and I wanted to add a "Dragon" to her collection.

Now my Mum has spent the last two weeks staying up late every night, frantically sewing decorations for Chinese New Year. Naturally, she was a bit sleep deprived and it didn't immediately click. She kinda wasn't overly excited by the Dragon teddy as she'd thought that I'd brought it just because 2012 was the year of the Dragon. The next thing you know, Mum's gone and pulled out the entire collection of beanies and started rattling off which person in the family the Beanie represented and proudly showing it off to Craig & Mel.

"Yes, I've got this collection of teddies... see I'm the Tiger, and Dad's the Goat... and the Monkey is Sharlene, and the Rabbit is Mickey... and oh the rat is Demi and the Horse is Aidan....-" (at this point, Craig, Mel and I are exchanging glances, rolling our eyes, waiting for the penny to drop, as my Mum continues...) "Oh and Erin is the Pig and Siobhan's the Ox!"

She's looking very truimphant as she manages to list everyone in the family, while looking at the Dragon rather indifferently, if a little vexed by its unaccountability. Finally, I said to Mum, "Yes but Mum, whose the Dragon?" I raise my eyebrow, waiting as she still looks confused but then, the cogs begin to turn and she glances at my stomach, glances at the Dragon  -  then erupts into ecstatic screaming. (Meanwhile, Erin has heard this from her room and despite wondering what on earth is going on, decides with typical 16 year old teen logic, that it can't be all that important and rolls over and goes back to sleep!).

My Mum is beaming at the news. She even did a spontaneous jig (I swear I heard a brief playing of fiddles & bagpipes) before following up with an congratulatory & very enthusiastic hand shake for Craig. At this point, Mel and I were mostly pissing ourselves laughing! It's definitely a great story to tell our lil Dragon when he/she enters the world.

Anyway, despite a week of fighting nausea and disgusting fatigue (turns out that Dragon gets first dibs on all the nutritional needs while I just get left overs!) I was rewarded on Friday with my first glimpse of Dragon. My ultrasound shows that all is going well and Dragon is doing fine, with a strong heartbeat of 115 beats per minute. Craig was very relieved to hear that all was going well. I didn't realise it, but he was just as eager to hear that everything was okay. (Duh!) I took a video for him of the flickering heart beat just so he could see that our Dragon bean was settling in with no problems.

On that note, I'll leave the update at that. Although I will add that I've discovered fresh air & water are my new best friends. It's the difference between "I'm okay... I'm okay" rather than *projectile vomit*!

So until next time, it's love & kisses from Craig, Demi and our little Dragon!