Quote of the day

"For every feared thing there is an opposing hope that encourages us".

- Umberto Eco

Class Overview

It wasn't thaaaaaat bad last night.

The class went for 2 hours and the lady who held the session was a midwife...not the usual Child Care Nurse/Health Care Nurse.

It was informative and I smashed all opposition by naming all the different body parts on the chart!! Woo hoo....go me! Maybe it was because no-one else was comfortable saying "cervix" or "vagina".

However, seeing a little hole in some chipwood that was the size of what we had to dilate to in order for the baby to come out was freaky. I just about passed out in my seat.

It's amazing all the different things that the woman's body just does without being told though, it really is a miracle!

I left feeling a little scared but not too badly. I just thought to myself...I'm not the first and not the last to have to go through this, all the other women in this room will be joining me in a couple of months so there's nothing to be worried about.

I will see how the next few weeks go, but so far so good :)

Vaseline & Chinese Burns - FUN!

Tonight we have our first antenatal class.

I'm a little nervous. I've heard stories of these tree-huggin hippee crazy people!

I'm not really looking forward to being told to put that vaseline WHERE and do WHAT with it??

or having Russell give me a chinese burn so that I can learn to "breathe" through the pain??

How 'bout I give you a chinese burn weirdo and see how you breathe through the pain? I bet these people haven't even gone through labor before!!

BUT....I will reserve my judgements for now and share them all with you tomorrow :)

I just wish I could take my camera in with me!!

Building Better Marriages

By Rob Furlong
Challenge Newspaper October 2004

An old friend of mine recently sent me the following humorous (but untrue!) story:

“A Husband Shopping Centre has opened in Atlanta, where a woman can go to choose from among many men to be her husband. It is laid out in five floors, with the men increasing in positive attributes as you ascend.There is, however, a catch. You’re only allowed in once.
Once you open the door to any floor, you must choose a man from that floor. If you go up a floor, you can’t go back down except to exit the building.So, a woman goes to the shopping centre to find a husband. On the first floor the sign on the door says:

Floor 1: These men have jobs and love kids. The woman reads the sign. “Well, that’s better than not having jobs, or not loving kids, but I wonder what’s further up?” So up she goes.The second floor sign says:

Floor 2: these men have high paying jobs, love kids and are extremely good-looking. “Hmmm, better,” says the woman. “But I wonder what’s further up?”The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3: These men have high paying jobs, love kids, are extremely good looking and help with the housework. “Wow,” says the woman, “very tempting. BUT, there’s more further up!” And so again, she goes up. On the fourth floor the sign reads:

Floor 4: These men have high paying jobs, love kids, are extremely good looking, help with the housework and have a strong romantic streak. “Oh, mercy me.” (That’s how women talk in Georgia).“But just think .. what must be awaiting me further up?” So up to the fifth floor she goes. The sign on that door says:

Floor 5: This floor is just to prove that women are impossible to please. Thank you for shopping.”

We laugh at a story like that because we can all make points of contact with it but we also recognise that it does stereotype men and women.Far more damaging however, is the stereotyping of men and women by the advertising industry.

Mark Earley from the U.S.A. commented on this recently as he warned people about “Mooks” and “Midriffs”. Take a close look at what he says:

“On television, men are increasingly portrayed as perpetual adolescents: pre-occupied with sexual matters and incapable of meaningful conversation. One obvious example is Miller Lite’s controversial “Catfight” commercials. A discussion about the beer quickly degenerates into “an angry, clothes-shredding, wrestling match” between two women in a fountain. The ad then cuts to a bar where it turns out that the fight was merely a male fantasy: two guys’ idea of the perfect beer ad."

Then there’s the recent Domino’s Pizza ads in which men were explicitly compared to dogs, blindly running towards a ringing door bell in the expectation of their favourite pizza. Or car ads where young men are shown as incapable of any thought more substantial than which comic book character would win a hypothetical fight.

Advertisers claim that these ads provide an “insight into guys’ mentality.” But, as Douglas Rushkoff of New York University says, this portrayal of the American male, which he calls the “Mook,” is entirely “the creation of marketers.” It’s designed to sell guys things by appealing to an exaggerated version of their worst instincts.And, yes, there’s a female equivalent of the “mook”. Rushkoff calls her a “midriff”. She’s style-conscious and sexually precocious along the lines of a Britney Spears. Like the “mook” the “midriff” embodies advertisers’ ideal consumer of their goods and services.”

Here is my question then to those of you who regularly read this column:

From whom do you derive your idea of self from?

• Do you think you are a man because you are with a beautiful woman?
• Do you feel like a woman because there is a man in your life who idolises you?
• Or maybe you take your cues from the advertising industry?

If you answer yes to any of these then your house is built on very unstable ground. Our sense of worth, identity, who we are, is built on our relationship to God. We are made in His image, to bring Him glory. When we understand that we discover what it means to be a man or a woman and we also see the “Mook” and the “Midriff” for what they are: gross distortions of reality!

Quote of the day

"Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you."

- Carl Yung

Deluded Night Sessions

I made a big Hazelnut Torte for Father's Day on Saturday night.

During the night I had one of my 'deluded night sessions' and I said out loud:

"That cake has so much cream it'll turn your breast milk into cream puffs"

Yes yes, seriously deluded.

Then I hid under the covers and nearly suffocated because I thought spiders were hanging from the ceiling trying to get my cake :)

Quote of the day

"If a little dreamin is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time."

- Marcel Proust

29.3 weeks

I am into my 3rd and final trimester. I never thought I would ever get to say that, but here I am!!

This whole experience just keeps getting better. 18 weeks along (to the day) was when we first felt bub-o-luv move. We were sitting in church and I was eating a freddo frog during the sermon. About 10mins later the baby kicked all along my belly and it was the most amazing surreal feeling ever. I will never forget that moment, mainly because I yelled out a little and then remembered where we were. I was just so surprised and excited!

Since then the movements have become more common and longer lasting. Every time I feel it move I think about the mystery of it all. How amazing is God!?! Here is this little being inside of me moving around and growing every single day. The whole mystery of the womb and exactly what bub-o-luv is doing in there is fantastic. We are separated by a few cm’s of skin and muscle and I can’t tell what it’s doing, its fantastic! I love it!

The other night though, I felt ‘bol’ position its feet on the left side of my belly and then push and smacked it’s head on the right side of my belly! I wasn’t too impressed since it knew exactly what it was doing. Positioning perfectly and WHAM…that felt kinda odd but cool at the same time. Yesterday while I was sitting at work it kept pushing it’s little foot against my belly and you could see through my clothing a little bump. I kept grabbing it and rubbing it. It would pull back in and then do it again. It felt odd because it would hold it’s foot there for about 10secs and then pull it back in. It hurt a little ‘cos it was really stretching my skin.

As I was lying in bed last night I was telling the baby how much we loved it and that we couldn’t wait to meet it. I had both hands on my belly and every time I said “I love you” it would kick around. Maybe coincidence, I don’t know, maybe the sound of my voice, I don’t know…but it was a really amazing moment.

One of my closest friends was over on Saturday and she was talking about how her 8mth old boy was only just starting to realise that they are a separate being. She was saying that when they are first born and really young, they don’t see themselves as a separate entity/being/person to mum. They are one and the same. I thought this was amazing but made sense all at the same time! Baby has been attached to me, sharing my body for the last 9mths, why would it see itself as being a separate person once it’s out? I think it is a beautiful picture, and it captures a little of the bond that mums and their children share. It’s a really, really beautiful picture.

In terms of the pregnancy things have constantly been changing. I haven’t vomited since week 16, I have had the occasional spew if I’ve eaten dinner too late at night, but other than that the morning (all day) sickness has stopped.

Then started the fun stage where the belly starts to pop out and movements start to happen.

Now I just look at my belly and am shocked. I kind of miss my flat belly…it was so much more manageable. I struggle to pull my undies on every morning, struggle with my socks and shoes and pants. I can’t bend very far and am having trouble trying to adjust to moving around the belly. I miss wearing my old tank tops and clothing but I wouldn’t change it for the world! I’m just starting to look forward to feeling ‘normal’ again.

When I think about it, I have been pregnant for 37 of the last 41 weeks. I feel like I’ve been pregnant all stinking year!!

I have had to ‘move into’ maternity bras. Not the funnest thing in the world. They aren’t very supportive, and every one in the office can tell when the air con is on too high!! Just look at bek…she’s a walking thermometer!! I mean hey, all dignity will fly out the window in 10wks, why not get a head start!

Sleeping isn’t too bad, it just hurts to roll sometimes – it’s an uncomfortable feeling, kind of like my organs are all shifting here there and every where.

I had a doctors appointment last week as they had to check that I didn’t have gestational diabetes and they also checked my iron levels (after 2mths of complaining they needed to do it!!). I don’t have diabetes, but my iron came back at 14. Iron levels should be between 20 and 220 (20 being absolute minimum obviously). To which the doctor says…”you really need to sort this out…blah blah blah”. I just about slapped him. Moron! I’ve been telling you to sort it out for the last 2mths and only NOW have you done anything about it.

So, I’m on iron tablets that have vitamin C in them to help absorb the iron.

It has started to make a difference. I’m not dying (too much) by the end of the day and I am slowly starting to get my energy back. Slowly but surely!

The only other change has been that my legs are a little swollen. They don’t look too bad, but they hurt a little and just feel a little pudgy. It’s quite funny actually.

Other than that, everything seems to be going well! Other than getting really tired throughout the day things are going well. Bol seems to be growing and growing non-stop and Russell is loving every minute too! He is looking forward to becoming a daddy and I can’t help but smile when I think about him as dad. He will do an absolutely amazing job, and I’m glad it’s him helping to raise our kids and no-one else.

Actually, that’s the other thing. The pregnancy seems to have brought us closer and closer every day. I love him more and more and am loving our relationship at the moment. We have always had an open and honest relationship and we rarely argue. When we do, we can pretty much sort it out quickly without raising voices. I hope it doesn’t change too much when the baby comes, which is naïve because I’m sure it will, but I hope that we can always put the effort in and work at it. Not get lazy about it.

Anyway…this has been a long post and I should get back to work. Only 4.2 weeks left and then I’m outta here!!

Something to look forward to

Oh, I wish I’d looked after me dear old knockers,
Not flashed them to boys behind the school lockers,
Or let them get fondled by randy old dockers,
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me tits.

‘Cos now I’m much older and gravity’s winning.
It’s Nature’s revenge for all that sinning,
And those dirty memories are rapidly dimming,
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me tits.

‘Cos tits can be such troublesome things
When they no longer bounce, but dangle and swing.
And although they go well with my Bingo wings,
I wish I’d looked after me tits.

When they’re both long enough to tie up in a bow,
When it’s not the sweet chariot that swings low,
When they’re less of a friend and more of a foe,
Then I wish I’d looked after me tits.

When I was young I got whistles and hoots,
From the men on the site to the men in the suits,
Now me nipples get stuck in the zips on me boots,
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me tits.

When picking them up requires some leverage,
When it’s not so much lift as industrial heavage,
When there’s more of a parting and less of a cleavage,
I wish I’d looked after me tits.

When I was younger I rode bikes and scooters,
Cruising around with my favourite suitors.
Now the wheels get entangled with my dangling hooters,
I wish I’d looked after me tits.

When they follow behind and get trapped in the door,
When they’re less in the air and more near the floor,
When people see less of them rather than more,
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me tits.

You Are a Ring Finger

You are romantic, expressive, and hopeful. You see the best in everything. You are very artistic, and you see the world as your canvas. You are also drawn to the written word. Inventive and unique, you are often away in your own inner world. You get along well with: The Pinky Stay away from: The Index Finger

What'>http://www.blogthings.com/whatfingerareyouquiz/">What Finger Are You?