3 more sleeps...

Yep that's right were down to 3 more sleeps, I have an appointment with the hospital on Friday in case I'm still here, (which I think I will be) to book in to be induced. Once I have that date I think it will feel more real.

In the mean time were all sick, very yucky sick. I have almost no voice left and keep falling asleep, although I think that might have more to do with the fact I'm going to pop any day now! Michael had a sick day yesterday because he feels like hell and is having a second sick day today, this is a very odd occurrence he never has sick days when he is sick, only when I am sick! Anyway hopefully we will all be over it by next week and we can go to hospital and have our baby!

I keep talking about how much weight Michael has lost so I thought today we should take some updated pictures. So here is my man before he lost the weight and after. I can see it he doesnt think its that noticable! Thats 15kgs for you though!

Thats it for me today, I'm going to watch kids cartoons with my sick boys, and hopefully we'll all have a sleep and wake up feeling better! Yeah right!

10 Days To Go

I cant believe were almost in single digits!!

I have started daydreaming about the labour and whats going to happen and who he'll look like and how big he's going to be! I had a quick ultrasound at my last midwife appt and his head is only just engaged his spine went from my pelvis bone to my ribs and his feet were tucked around the other side of my belly. He looks massive!

My hospital bag is packed.

All his clothes are washed.

Nappies in various sizes bought and put away in the nursery.

We get Jack's new car seat out of layby next Friday (my due date) James then has Jacks old one and Charlie gets James, well until we get out the next layby anyway!

Mum will be here on the 6th, and doesn't leave til the 21st. I'm so excited.

Michael's starts his 'holidays' on the 4th and doesn't go back to work for 16 days. We've already discussed that its not going to be a holiday where he can drink 10 daiquiris and relax, its just time away from work so he can spend some time with the big boys and get to know his newest little boy. Also cook and clean and fetch me things, after all I am going to have a baby strapped to my boob 24/7!

Now all we need is for those 10 days to hurry up, I'm sick of being awake half the night for no reason, and I am so excited to sleep on my stomach again!

August.. Really???

Yep its August, I should be used to Queensland 'winters' by now, but they still shock me, Jack's first winter in Queensland I bought him 1 cardigan and some slippers, that was his warm clothes. Ridiculous! Winter is for fires and snow and 7 pairs of gloves because its so cold! Not here, we spent the weekend downstairs playing in the sprinklers, and I think I even got a bit sun burnt!

I'm not sure why but I need to see their tongues in every photo, and like all boys, one does it and the other copies thinking its hilarious!

The boys had a ball and we got our lawn watered all at the same time, cant complain about that! Michael promised them he'd put the sprinkler under the trampoline, I thought this was a little dangerous but no one got hurt and they wore themselves out jumping in the water and running through the sprinkler system that Michael has turned away from the plants and on to the lawn to make it grow even just a little before we move out.

The boys watching motorcross in "manland" aka Michael's boy spot under the house, lounges, TV, fridge, what else could you possibly want? Fascinated by silly boys doing jumps on their motorbikes, hopefully not getting any ideas!

Me and Jack, I know everyone keeps telling me how tired I look, but I didnt realise how tired I look til this picture. Oh well only 12 days til I'm due then I hopefully wont look so tired!

Losing My Baby..

Baby Jack 11 months old, still no teeth.

Well he's not a baby, he's 4 1/2 but he will always be my baby, my first born, my practice child as some say.

I had a great plan that next year Jack would go to preschool 2-3 days a week, get him used to being away from me and James all day and get used to other kids etc, and the year after he would be off to school.

BUT as he is 4 and will turn 5 before May if he goes to preschool next year and school the year after they will automatically put him straight into year 1, he will completely miss the first year of school, I can't imagine not going to the first year of school and having to somehow fit into year 1 with a bunch of kids that have already been at school for 12 months, I wouldn't do it to him, so next year my little boy is going to big school with no prior preparation, no days away from mum, nothing.

I am so unimpressed.

I blame Queensland, I know in NSW as long as your child starts school before they turn 6 (Jack would have turned 6 three months after school started) then that's fine.

I didn't want to have to be the youngest in the class, I wanted him to have a little bit more life experience up his sleeve before starting big school, and I know I sound like a whiny parent but I can't help it. I know he will do fine, he's not silly he had the alphabet figured out before he turned 3, can write his own name, can count to god knows how many, knows his colours, knows how things work, knows the birds and the bees story, knows where babies come from, knows the correct name of body parts, can ride a bike, can talk your ear off about everything and nothing. Oh I could go on and on! i know it will be me in tears not him, and I know I am the unprepared one, not him, and I know he will thrive at school, but I'm going to miss him terribly!

My cutie pie 13 months old.

Can you say chubba bubba?!

After he discovered he had legs and started to lose the baby fat.

The start of things to come, helping dad in the yard, a favorite pastime for both of them. My big boy on his 4th Birthday, I cant believe he might be at school for his next birthday! Soon I will have to start looking at school bags, lunch boxes, school shoes, appropriate hats, vinyl labels so he doesn't lose everything, school uniforms, augh!

I wonder if home schooling is totally out of the question ; )

Happy Birthday!!!

Yesterday my lovely hubby turned 28! I know not a big significant number but a birthday is still a special occasion!

Today I'm exhausted, I don't think I sat down for more than 10 minutes all day yesterday. I cant help but make a big deal about birthdays so after Michael's alarm went off and I remembered it was his birthday I got up to have a coffee with him, you can't start your birthday by yourself so at 5am and that was the start of my big day!

After James and I dropped him to work (Jack told me he wanted to stay in bed, so we left him at home, I don't blame him it wasn't even 6am!) we got ready for the day went to the post office picked up the rest of Michael's gift came home made cards for Dads Birthday, wrapped the gifts, attempted to pick up pizzas for Michael and the boys to have at work, until we realised Eagle Boys aren't open for lunch, so Red Rooster it was! We took Red Rooster out for them and his gifts and cards and of course some balloons and party hats, cant have a birthday lunch without party hats can you? Even at 28? Unfortunately as he works on a mine site I could only drop the stuff off to him, were not allowed on site so he and the guys he works with had lunch together.

By this time it was 1.30pm and in the 20 mins it takes to drive home James has fallen asleep (he was up at 5.30am) so after James was tucked up in bed Jack and I made a double decker carrot birthday cake, very yum but by the time we were done it was time to shower them and get them dressed for dinner!

James beautiful card, I gave him the sticky letters and he stuck them on and did the beautiful colouring : )

Jack's card which reads Happy Birthday Daddy 28

A lion and a truck on the inside because Daddy likes lions and trucks obviously!

I love Jacks writing, I cant believe he can write his own name without any help and as long as you tell him what letters to write can write pretty much anything! Not always legible but so sweet : )

My beautiful boys ready to go for dinner at 'the fire engine and the gun' otherwise known as the mine workers club which has a fire engine ride and a dear shooting machine in the play area

I just wanted 1 nice smile from Jack this is the best I could do.

My beautiful James, this is my newest favorite photo of him.

After we got home from dinner we had to cut the cake and sing happy birthday, I think I have given the boys my obsession with birthdays, they loved it more than Michael I'm sure!

He said he wouldn't eat any after having a naughty day, no Jenny Craig all day, he ended up having 2 pieces : ) Lucky I made him a nice healthy carrot cake, never mind the 500gms of cream cheese that went into that icing! : )

Almost finished the nursery!

The nursery from the doorway after we spent a few hours emptying out the junk and replacing it with all the nursery furniture, and making it a bit pretty, although not anywhere near finished, I put up some of the old toys the boys had to make it pretty but I want something new for his room, also no cot yet but that will be here soon.

The room looks much bigger in these pics than it actually is but this corner is where the cot will go, there's a hook in the ceiling so I'm getting a mosquito net to hang above the cot.

I know a bookshelf with basically nothing on it is a bit useless but I'm so happy its in there and even with only a few things on it, it will be full soon enough. I'm so happy I finally painted all the furniture white, it goes really well in this room, and makes all the toys look so vibrant! I can't wait til its finished but I'm so so happy with what we did today!

Baby Charlie only 3 weeks left!

So here I am 37 weeks, I feel like I have an alien in my belly sometimes, and I creep Michael out when I can feel Charlie is thinking about doing a somersault I lift my shirt and tell Michael to watch, he cant watch it for long it freaks him out, which still makes me laugh, after 3 kids you would think he'd be used to the whole baby process!

I still have a lot of fluid which means even though he's big and I'm big,( although I've only put on 7kgs, which I am very happy with considering I'll probably have another 4kg baby plus fluid, blood and all the other baby gunk comes out I haven't really gained any weight at all! )

He still has some room to move around, I can feel him sometimes with his head down but he's defiantly not engaged, I have stubborn children I know that I just didn't realise it started when they are still in the womb, I'm completely expecting to be induced again and I've gotten used to the fact, I think if I went it to labour naturally it would probably throw me completely!

I didn't think my stretch marks had gotten as bad as they are, I'm not looking forward to the condition of my belly after I give birth! This being our last baby Michael has promised me I can have my boobs put back up closer to my chest and further away from my belly button where they tend to sit now, and I can have my left over belly seen to, I have to lose a heap of weight first but then I'll be quite happy to remove all that extra skin! I'd like to look 25 not 45!

Home Alone

Yep that's right I'm home alone for the whole night.

No husband.

No children.

Nothing.

I have to admit I am not loving it.

Michael and the boys have been talking about going camping for a few weeks, and Michael and I talked about them just camping in the backyard 1 night, I wasn't allowed to stay the night it was 'boy time' something I think I'm going to have to get used to especially with another boy coming into the family, so camping in the backyard ended up Michael taking the boys to Blackdown Tablelands a beautiful national park about an hour away from us.

But this afternoon, after I waved goodbye to my beautiful husband and our lovely boys who are going for 1 night and will be home tomorrow morning (I have to keep reminding myself of this fact!) I started clearing out the nursery and cleaning our room and I got quite a bit done! Much more than I would have if the boys were home, I still got a bit teary, especially when I was talking to my mum and she said 'before you know it they'll be all grown up and married with babies of there own' didn't really help me!

So the nursery before was our junk room where we stuck the computer and all the still packed boxes when we first moved in, it would have been our study/guest room but after finding out 2 weeks after we moved here that we were pregnant that idea went out the window! So the room has stayed half packed full of junk waiting for it to become the nursery, today I moved our computer out of there in to our bedroom, which I really didn't want to do but its not looking as bad as I imagined and I have made a start on making the nursery look pretty, even though I have to wait til tomorrow when Michael gets home to get all the boxes out and move in the bookshelf and change table, but its a start!

Before

Now minus computer and with all baby stuff in one place

Charlies chest of draws which are holding all his little clothes at the moment, and a few donated teddies from the boys, the cutest little booties I have ever seen, yep there little cowboy boots, I can't wait to take a picture of him wearing them,and a picture of his big brothers to make them hopefully feel a bit more included in the baby process, I can't wait to show them tomorrow when they get home, they are like all little kids and love seeing pictures of themselves.

The one and only thing we have hanging on the wall so far, Charlie's first pair of shoes : )

I also got to put out our first non practical gift for Charlie this beautiful soft bear from my lovely cousin Megan.

I have finally got a portable bed for Charlie to have in our room and to take away after he's born. We have Michael's 10 year school reunion in Longreach at the end of September, I'm going home for 2 weeks in November and were probably going to Michael's Mum and Dads for Christmas, after that he'll probably be too big for it, but I think its going to get its use, and for $31 I cant complain, love eBay shopping!

I love the fact it has a little light at the top.

And it folds away pretty well, I think it will take up a lot of room in my bag when we fly home, but hey there will be me and 3 kids I think were going to have a whole heap of bags anyway!

Our room with the vacuum cleaner and computer, not exactly romantic but its clean and practical for now, looks like were probably moving into a company owned house in November anyway so I'm not planning on doing too much.

Not bad for an afternoon's work!

Photos Photos Photos! Oh and a birth Announcement!

I'd like to thank Danielle(of Danimezza) for getting me addicted to another website!! Damn you lady!

Picnik is a free photo editing website that is not only quite easy but very fun!

So of course I had to play around with our wedding photos

And some photos of the boys

I think this may be how I do our birth announcement cards, or something similar anyway!

And a special one from Suez and Brett's wedding day. As these two became parents of a little boy yesterday!

A whole month early, our due dates were only 10 days apart, if anyone should have been going early it should have been me!

I'm so excited for them, they have been through a horror pregnancy but yesterday they had very little (only 2kgs) Benjamin Scott. I can't believe I have to wait til November to meet him! I'm torn between calling her and getting all the info and just leaving her alone for a few days (she did just have a pretty major surgery!) I'm sure I wont be able to last the whole day out before I call her!

Pregnancy, Birthdays and Meow Meows.

Pregnancy is such an unpredictable difficult time of a woman's life, the normal rules of the universe don't seem to apply. For example me an overweight, no exercise, bad eater has a relatively easy pregnancy, where as my lovely Suez who goes to the gym a couple of times a week, drinks enough water, eats well, and isn't overweight has had a horror pregnancy, gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, Dr is worried the baby isn't growing and is still too small, is in hospital at 35 weeks taking 8 blood pressure pills a day, isn't allowed to do anything and looks like she could be induced this week, as they are concerned about her health, but as the bub isn't growing as well as it should they want to leave her as long as possible so it can grow before getting it out. Do you think she'll end up having another baby? Not likely!!! She told me this baby is going to be an only child and really I don't blame her at all! I on the other hand have big healthy babies that are so comfortable they don't want to come out, and I don't think Charlie is going to be any different, at 36 weeks he is still not engaged, and because of the amount of fluid he still has room to move about and is enjoying laying sideways across my belly, which gives my ribs a break!

Here I am at 36 weeks, getting bigger by the day, I've put on a kilo this week which kinda scared me, I'm only up to 8kgs this pregnancy and I don't really want to hit the 10kg mark.

I'm getting a lot of uncomfortable braxton hicks, usually after a big day or if I'm standing up to long (like the days we go to Rocky I'm usually standing up shopping and my belly is as hard as a rock) I know I'm meant to be taking it easier, but things still need to be done,and with the boys to look after and keep entertained sometimes I just have to do stuff! Next week is Michael's Birthday and apart from his gift (which I'm not sharing with you until he has seen it, he checks my blog occasionally!) I really don't know what were going to do. Usually I have parties planned or trips away planned but this year with baby due so soon after his birthday I haven't really thought about it! Jenny Craig isn't helping me either I can't even make him a ridiculous dinner and cake, well I can make the cake and he can look at it, that's about it. Yesterday my mum rang at 7.30am, very odd for my mum to call me its usually the other way around, she was in tears, her very old cat Toby died during the night, she would have been 17 next month. Do you think either of us were saying anything on the phone? Nope. There were tears and that noise that you make when you try to say something when your sobbing, both my boys stopped what they were doing and just stared at me, they are used to me crying but not usually on the phone. So now my mumma is all alone no cat to bug her no kids around and defiantly no grand kids around, I think having us live in Orange for 12 months was great for her but also sucked cos she got so used to us just being around the corner now were 16hrs away. I couldn't even give her a hug which I think sucked the most, I was sad about the cat but more sad for my mumma. All the more reason for her to come and live with us, there's defiantly nothing holding her back now...mmmm might run that one past her : )

Its Friday!!

Well its not really, its only Thursday but in our house that's Friday, Michael works Sunday til Thursday so Friday and Saturday we have him all to ourselves!

I can't believe how quickly this week has gone, usually by Wednesday it feels like I haven't seen Michael in a million years! We've had a busy week though Michael got his tax done on Wednesday and we now owe nothing to the tax department, and we will get a nice sum in the bank which is going straight on Michael's new car. Having one car is just getting ridiculous, and its not going to be any easier with a newborn.

Tomorrow were off to Rockhampton for another anti natal check up and Michael's Jenny Craig visit. I hate him so much for losing so much weight while I'm stacking it on! But I'm so very proud of him as well, he's gone down 2 pant sizes and is fitting into clothes I have never seen him able to wear, soon we'll be a slim family, well apart from Charlie he's going to be a chubba bubba like the big boys were as babies, I can't wait!

I completely forgot to post the pics of the boys new haircuts, I can't believe I waited so long to have their hair cut! They look so much better now!

James with his cheeky smile

My Jack Jack with his 1 grey tooth : ( Thank heavens there only baby teeth. I thought it would be James that would end up with a grey tooth not Jack.

So today I am cleaning the bathroom and cleaning out the fridge before we go groccery shopping, and I think the little boys and I will have take out or something easy for dinner as we'll be home alone, thursday is Michaels Lions club meetings so he will be off talking about silly things with old men til at least 10pm : ) I think I need to buy him some more appropriate outfits for Lions meetings, I'm looking at some nice ties on eBay, maybe some bus driver socks to wear with his lace up brown shoes : )