my-speck

i'm pregnant and it's going to be a rollercoaster

exercising … and thinking about buying baby stuff (though just a little bit – I’m not obsessed yet – really, truly) January 7, 2009

Good morning Speck,

How are you today? Hopefully not too shaken up from the frisbee work-out last night?? I’m a little bit tender in some slightly unusual places, but otherwise feeling pretty good.  Did I mention that I bought a heart-rate monitor so that I can monitor how I’m going with the exercise and not exceed the doctor’s recommendations??  Well, I did.  And I’ve used it a bit on my bike (which is now as you know set-up with the stationary bike trainer in the lounge room – it rocks), where at first I found it impossible to stay in the target range of around 140 bpm but have since worked out you can only just peddle a little with low resistance (so I’m aiming for longer at less intensity).   But was hard to use at frisbee because really I€™m reacting to what is happening on the field, and its not necessarily easy to focus on what my heart rate is doing.

Last night:  total workout time 1 hour 45 minutes with an average heart rate of 162.  I think that is a little high, I saw the monitor peak at about 184 a few times, but I really don’t know how you can exercise without getting your heart rate up.  And my resting heart rate hovers around 92 upwards to 100 anyway.  I figure that as long as I feel ok myself, and don’t push it too hard, you should be all ok.  If you’re not getting enough blood or whatever, then I’m sure I’ll be feeling pretty crappy too.  And I felt fine.   So.  Hope you enjoyed it.  My back is surprisingly fine this morning.  Last time I went it was a bit achey the next day.  I am famished today though.  I have just eaten a huge serve of spanakopita for breakfast but still need something else.  Forgot to chuck more fruit in my bag for work this morning.  I brought a bunch with me yesterday but seem to have eaten it all already.

What else is happening?  Well, since I went last to visit B & M at Bellingen/Repton, I’ve been doing some more investigation on the type and make of pram I think we’ll be after.  Not that I’m obsessed with buying baby stuff – in fact I would almost say the opposite – no big urges to go out and get stuff for you yet, but I am starting to think about it with some encouragement.  In the pram department, Mountain Buggy is looking like a winner at this stage – your dad was convinced from the get-go, especially seeing how well it handled with a fully grown adult in it at B & M’s house!  I’ve used one over rough ground with M at the markets, and it was easy to steer with one hand over gravel, and we both are pretty active, so it sounds like a go.  Went and looked at them at DJs the other day, and compared to a few others, and we both liked the Mountain Buggy the best.  I went shopping last friday in town and stared intently at all the prams going by, and watched how easy they were to use, what the people using them had draped over them to keep stuff on, whether they had storage, whether they fit on the escalators, and all that stuff.  I chatted to a few people while trying on shoes and the like to get their opinions.  All good stuff.

urbanelite_blue

At frisbee last night out of the 5 girls on my team who were there, three of the other 4 apart from me have little babies, and all of them have mountain buggies and couldn€™t speak more highly of them.  I think that such volume of positive accolades is a winner.  Now your dad and I just need to decide whether we need some of the accessories like the bassinet etc.  Again, everyone I€™ve spoken to about it who has had it says that while its kinda expensive especially as you€™ll only use it for a little while, it was really fantastic when they had it.  So we€™ll see.  And I think as we€™re going to New Zealand for a wedding soon, we might be able to pick it up a little cheaper, and I think they sell some attachments there that you can€™t get in Australia, like the car seat clip thingy that allows you to attach some brands of baby seats straight from the car into the pram bit.  Might be kinda handy.

singlecarrycot_blue

So.  As you can see whilst I don€™t obsess about baby goods and the like, get me started on a path and I can become quite excited and interested and no-doubt bore those around me to tears on the subject.  I€™ll have to keep that to a minimum if you€™re to have a sane mother with rational, normal friends and family (read €“ non-baby obsessed and living in the real world) to help her through the first bit of when you come along.  Otherwise they all might run screaming very quickly.

Anyway, hope you€™re well.  It€™s a little cooler today (hopefully) so maybe it will be a bit more comfortable for you down there.

Love mum

 

I told work that you were on your way today… January 5, 2009

Hi Speck,

I had to go back to work today :(.  Your dad stayed at home playing house husband when I dragged myself out of bed in the morning and made the trek over the bridges (but yes, I cheated and drove) to the office.  But it wasn’t too bad!

And I told them all about you – and it seemed to go pretty well! yay! yay! yay!

I was a bit worried about telling them that you were coming (I figure that now is far enough along that you should be ok, and not just before I go on holidays which wasn’t perfect timing), but I did it.  And my boss was fantastic – he seemed more excited by the news you are coming than worried about anything related to work.   We chatted for about 15 minutes about you etc after which point he eventually said, “oh yeah, I guess that means a different plan for the work” that we were sitting down to discuss.  I take that as a good sign.  My work is pretty accomodating, but I was still slightly worried about the whole thing – it doesn’t go well for everyone, I’ve read a bunch of news reports recently about discrimination in the workplace against pregnant women which is apparently unfortunately still really common in Australia…  Not that I thought that my work would be like that – they are generally really progressive which is one of the main reasons I still work there! But, it does mean a bunch of changes to the way I work for them, including us deciding to move back to Brisbane to have you come along, which does affect my ability to go to the office in a rather large way.   All in all, not sure how it will turn out, but first indications are that my boss is happy for me and sounds like we can be pretty flexible, and try to make sure my workload cuts down a bit by April this year but keep on working after that.  I’m sure we’ll talk more about it as time goes on and we’ve both had time to think about it a little more, but first indications are that I’ll be able to keep working and we’ll try to work something out.  Which I’m pleased about!

The other exciting part of what seems like finally (though its really only been a matter of weeks since we found out about you it seems like much longer) telling my work is that I can now tell some of my friends from work-related circles.  And surprise, surprise, there are some other people I know who are having babies around the same time as you’re due to join us.  Its almost plague proportions actually!  So that is exciting too!!!

Going to run as its really hot today and I just feel like lying down.  I went for a walk to the shops with your dad when I got home but it was so hot I got really overheated and flustered and had to have a break at the shops for 10 minutes as I felt really awful, then had a cold shower when I got home.  I’ve started exercising on the bike set-up in the lounge room but it was too hot for that too.   I might have to postpone my daily cycle until later tonight when its a lot cooler.

Hope you’re well, and as your aunt & I are now saying, grow, grow, grow

love mum

 

Happy New Year! (and Happy 15th week of gestation) January 1, 2009

Good Morning and Happy New Year!

We had a GREAT New Year’s eve and New Year and new year’s day so far!  It was beautiful, relaxing and fun.  We started off by packing and then went to the ferry with a little time to spare.  After waiting for Mike to arrive (which he did with 2 minutes to the ferry arriving), we lined up with another 15 people and all their luggage and waited excitedly to get on.  Cockatoo Island was in plain sight and a 3 minute ferry ride away.

Alas – the ferry was full!  At this point with one car and a LOT of stuff, all the roads in Balmain closed (it was just after 3pm), we were kinda stuck.  We figured the next ferry would be just as full so it would be tricky to get there..  So close yet so far.    I phoned all the water taxis and alas, all booked out.  After a half hour wait with really no options luckily some others on the wharf with us managed to get a water taxi to arrive and we amazingly managed to cram 14 people with a lot of luggage onto a little yellow boat…  I wish I’d taken a photo but with really no room to fiddle around it didn’t happen.  But we made it!!!

We got to the island, found a spot for our tents and set up camp.  Then got a nice grassy spot overlooking the harbour bridge and right out in front of the mid-river barge, got the food, table and chairs out and settled in for the afternoon/evening.

And it was lovely! Lots of food, fireworks, chats but generally a very relaxed way to bring in the new year.  There were a lot of families around, and there was heaps of space for everyone to spread out as much as they liked.  The fireworks were amazing, with lots of lights up close and far away.  We were so close to the barge that we were getting black specks from the fireworks all over us.  Your dad wanted to know what you thought of it all – it was really really loud. We figured you could definitely hear it in there.  Hope it was fun and not too scarey!

Anyway, tired and watching series one of Dr Who with your dad.

love you

mum

where we were