Thoughts on life in Trimester 2

HI friends :)

Thought I'd update you on some of daily life lately.

I really like being pregnant. Lately I've been shopping for cute maternity tops on e-bay - last night I won a really cute tee-shirt that says "Baby: ingredients: Love (58%), Passion (28%), Hope (20%). Cooking Instructions: Pat tummy gently for 9 months and daydream (Dan read that and he said - well, you've definately got the method down!). Made in Australia from local and/or imported ingredients. May contain traces of chocolate."

Life down under's pretty busy. We really like our house. We have to get a termite treatment to protect us from the little buggers... so there goes our savings. We're working on designing a nursery - we're going to paint and put in new floors and a floor rug and decorate from scratch..that's all very exciting at the moment! Well, I'm picking colours and themes and what-not, and then danny's going to do the actual painting when I'm far away from all the fumes. Ahh, the perks :)

I'm actually studying a lot. I feel like I'm taking 2 courses simultaneously. One could be called, How to Not Screw Up your Brand New Baby 101, and the other, How to Survive the Terrors of Childbirth 102. :) Yeah, there's a lot of reading involved...and interviews with tons of other recent mothers, and some internet research. The final exams for the 2nd course are in August - possibly August 14th, but who knows exactly - there could always be a pop quiz! But the first course - well, who knows when those finals are. In about 18 to 20 years I expect :) So I guess I've got plenty of time to perfect those skills - and all the other add-on courses that come along with it. It's an extremely intensive package deal. If you ever decide to take any of these - beware! there's no going back. There's Enduring toddlerhood, and Parenting a Preschooler, and Navigating the messy world of Elementary School.... Oh my goodness! How exciting!

School is full-on. I can't remember if I've mentioned that I've been cut back to 3&1/2 days this term - they've made massive cuts to education this year, and special ed and ESL are really suffering from it at the moment. grrr... but I'll be back to full time next term starting 30th March, and work up until end of June when the 2 week break comes and then I'll just sit around and study and nest and wait for baby to come :) and go camping! Anyway, I'm working 5 different schools in less than 4 days a week. I'm a whirlwind travelling teacher. It's crazy. But let me tell you, the week goes by fast! Sometimes I get quite swamped - I really have too many students when it comes to managing all the paperwork and admin we have to do - but all in all I quite like my job. I love my students and the variety, it's always incredibly interesting. And sometimes they even learn things from me!

And I guess that's about all the news from down here for now. Hope you're all well and staying warm :) We'd love to hear from you any time.

Talk to you soon,

Alicia

Pictures of bub

My husband is a genius - he got the scanner on our computer up and working again, so I'm happy to share with the world our very first photos of our very first child! If you look really carefully, you can see his/her great big brain :) I'm so proud!

That one's a bit fuzzy, but bubby's waving at us :)

First Scan

This morning Dan & I went in to the hospital for my first ultrasound.
Everything is normal-normal-normal for our little bub. Anything but normal for us... we actually got to see a tiny little person hanging out and growing and waving and kicking around inside of me. It was incredible!

The dr. said everything looks really good. They said Baby was a bit stubborn and made it tricky for them to get the snaps they wanted, Dan said 'that sounds about right.' We got a fairly good photo and it's on the fridge, but unfortunately we forgot to ask about getting anything in computer format, so I don't have anything to show you online yet. Maybe we can scan the photo, but I doubt it would turn out well.

Dr. said the due date is right on - I'm exactly 13 weeks today and Baby is exactly 7cm. from head to bum. The little heartbeat is good, the brain looks to be forming properly...we could actually see the brain! They can zoom in so close that we can see these tiny bits like the bladder and the ears...it was so weird. But beyond cool. I think I'm falling in love :)
The next scan will be at 19 weeks - on 20th of March. By then they might be able to tell if Bub's a boy or a girl, depending on what he or she feels like showing us. Today they had no way of being able to tell that kind of thing yet anyway.

Feburary 4th - 12 weeks.

It's an odd thought I've had lately... I've become a place. A place for a new life to grow and be knit together. All you who've done this before know...it's really pretty cool. (I know I still have a tiny little belly, but believe me, it is slowly growing!)

Have a beautiful week!

Summer Holidays

Happy holidays, Happy New Year (better late than never)

It's just about time to go back to school again... so I thought I'd better leave some notes about my relaxing but still pretty full holidays. It's been really good.

Hasn't been so hot this year. Feels much more like a Minnesota summer than a subtropical Brisbane one - complete with plenty of mozzies :) In fact, I hear you Minnesotans have been trying to have a summer holiday at the same time as us this year! Good on ya! It looks to be lovely and green there - even greener than here!

We've been spending a lot of time with family. It seems somehow they're always around now since we've moved out to the suburbs and we're closer to a lot of family. It's really nice. There was a Christmas party and a Nanna's birthday and a Mum's birthday yesterday, and oh yeah - back on New Year's day we had a housewarming party at our own home. The first party we've actually ever thrown as a couple. (not counting a couple of weddings. :) Dan Bar-b-que'd and I played pregnant hostess and heaps of people hung out in our back yard ... and I think I've got some photos of that somewhere. Nikita was the star photographer of the day.

Nikita & Ali

Dan Lynam (eating), Wayne & Kate (admiring their baby), Paul and Thea Lynam (being cute bro and sis)

Dan (getting food), Bec & Jeremy (They just moved into a house walking distance from us!), Nanna Lynam's next to me

Auntie Pam and Uncle Rob (They live just around the corner from us too)

Sara-Ellen (cousin on the Smith side), Dominika & Dominic & Sebastian

So I guess I should detour for a moment to officially mention the really exciting news that many of you who read this blog already know. Yep, we're gonna have a baby :) Should show up sometime in the middle of August. At the moment I am 11 and 1/2 weeks along, and everything seems to be going really well. Had plenty of morning sickness (aka - morning, afternoon and all night yuckiness) just to prove that everything's growing as it should and we're both normal. Great stuff :) But I've been taking some Ginger & B6 vitamins since about week 8, and I've been feeling much better since then. Other than that, let's see... Baby Smith is now about 4 and 1/2 cm long - you do the conversions. She's tiny! No - we dont' know the boy-or-girlieness of the baby yet. But we do want to find out. We'll let you know whenever they tell us if they know for sure...but that'll probably still be a couple of months yet. The only thing we're keeping a secret is the name. We've got a few picked out, and they'll be a surprise. (to us too probably, as it's taking me a while to make up my mind - suprise, surprise!)

So I've been enjoying these quiet weeks off - mostly spending large chunks of time sleeping, eating and reading a wide variety of pregnancy books, mags, and websites. Trying to get my head around becoming a mother. incredibly exciting and a bit frightening.

But we have taken 2 little trips recently. One weekend we went camping (back to the site of the notorious snake and spider in the toilets episode. Needless to say, I did not visit that particular spot in the middle of the night this time.) It was really refreshing to just be outside and hang out with some friends. good times.

Wildlife everywhere....out in the bush. I took plenty of happy snaps of the roos, but didn't bother trying to take any photos of the Bandicoots that shuffled up after sundown. I'll just have to remeber what they looked like. Cute little things- about the size of pudgy housecats, with long pointy noses and little pointy ears. We tried desperately to spot a platypus too - apparently there were sightings by a couple of couples at the campsite that weekend. But we were not to be that lucky. I just think it's cool to know that one or two of those shy and bizzare little creatures was just a few short steps away from us - down in the muddy & somewhat dehydrated creek.

Then last week Dan and I spent a lazy 4 days up at the Sunshine Coast. We stayed in Caloundra at the Grand Pacific, hung out in the seaside town and beaches (Bulcock beach - which I think is hilarious!), and basically did a whole lot of indulgent nothing. Didn't even take photos. It was blissful :) And the gelato ice cream & sorbets at the little shop there are the best we've ever had.

And today is Australia Day, so we're off soon to celebrate in the classic way - at a bbq with friends. and lamb chops of course :)

Happy summer!