Uncategorized » The Best Nest

As I near full term status (36 weeks today!!) I have been thinking a lot about how I have felt during this pregnancy, eight years on from my first.
I have come to the conclusion that pregnancy the first time around is monumentally focused on surviving the birth; the great unknown. Every aspect of being pregnant with Ethan was exciting, new and amazing. I remember saying to Dave that I almost felt like I was the only woman ever to have been pregnant because I felt such wonder in every new stage, kick, hiccup, midwife appointment! In direct contrast, this time around I feel like its all about surviving the pregnancy itself. The birth is out of my control. It will happen in its own time and follow its own path whenever hippo decides he is finally done getting fat(ter).
I don’t have a birth plan {I honestly haven’t given it more than 5 minutes thought!}, I’m working for 3 more weeks – hippo allowing, and I feel like I am literally counting down every second and minute until the end of this pregnancy. That makes me feel bad. I have had an amazingly easy pregnancy, just like with Ethan, I have had to suffer through only minor instances of all of the usual preggo complaints compounded a little by the sheer size of baby #2 and the accompaning bump! But I know what’s ahead in terms of labour, recovery and getting back in shape, I know that no matter how many people say “you’re all bump!” that I will leave the hospital all rolly, round and squishy and I will hate it. That too will pass.

I’m not being totally flippant though! I have successfully;

Prepared and decorated the nursery
Been on a hospital tour (this is our first NZ born baby)
Gathered essentials for my hospital bag which I will pack today
Washed all of Ethan’s old baby clothes – SO glad I saved these for 8 YEARS he had a beautiful bubba wardrobe!
Washed all of the new clothes today
Gathered a couple of things for a Big Brother gift for E when baby comes
Stockpiled nappies {and chocolate}

So, I think you could say we are ready {????} and waiting for baby!

36 weeks

Three dogs. On ~~their~~ the couch. Sometimes I have to remind myself that he who pays the mortgage controls the couch, though I don’t think these three care too much about the household division of power.

At 5pm on a Saturday arvo it’s now totally acceptable to whip up a batch of Date Scones even when no-one else in the house really even enjoys them {aside from E who’s great love of warm baked goods does not discriminate against dates}.

I have been using Google Reader to follow and enjoy all of your amazing blogs for years now. I love it. It’s simple, it works and I valued being able to sign in to Gmail and all of my shit was in one place. Sigh. So now we are moving on and though I have a couple of other apps I’m trying out on the iPhone and iPad, Bloglovin’ is looking good as my new RSS reader on the computers.

If you have migrated from Google Reader and you are already a follower of The Best Nest you should be good to go, if you have just noticed all the hub-bub about RSS readers and are about to create your own list of feeds you can find The Best Nest on Bloglovin’ here.

That’s it people. That’s all I have this week. The last bite of bakery caramel slice that just went up in price .60c and simultaneously shrunk. The nerve of you Hollywood Bakery!

I am tired, I don’t feel good, my bank manager is away and the women who is supposed to take care of his customers is a fucking moron {just thinking about the immense headache of trying to fix my mortgage makes me feel stabby – 5.1% for the angry lady though hello!}. I guess I am loving that. So now we are up to two. Two Things I am Loving.

What else?

I can only think of things I am Hating. This is the sad truth. I am prepared to concede that this is probably in part due to a new lack of antidepressants in my system, my happy pills have succeeded in making me happy-ish for a good number of years now, but it is time to bid them adieu. We’ll talk more about that later.

So instead of a stream of happy iPhone photos, depicting perfect family life, I present to you a short bullet point list of thinks I Kind of Like this week;

Diet Coke
Hot cocktail sausages
Bread
Ethan {he has been perfect this week, bless his filthy wee feet}
Friday after 2pm. Kind of. There is a Tupperware party to go to tonight which really could go either way.

Happy Friday! Let’s cross our fingers for Rainbows and Unicorns over the weekend shall we?

Here’s a wee tip fellow bloggers; whenever you are lacking in inspiration and have reached the very bottom of your creative souls, head over to the New Zealand Herald website and have a quick browse among the Life & Style section – there is no end of bullshit here which should either; enrage you to the point of seeing red > hello opinion piece, or will make you giggle so much you will feel compelled to write a scathing post on the author’s complete lack of sensibilities.

Of course I have done all of these things:

and I’m about to again. Because I have opinions people and sharing is caring right?

Dita de Boni do you actually have a soul, or a scrap of imagination or motherly fun tucked away in your Journalist of the Year cap? This weeks Keeping Mum blog titled, “I Hate Halloween” seems to be written from the authors usual high moral ground, empahasizing her hatred of Halloween, apparently stemming from our country’s love of sugar! The ample baking at her husbands work place contributes to her Halloween-phobia, as does free Mr Whippy’s as a treat for for employees, apparently Halloween angst takes many forms and to top it all off HER KIDS ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO IT!

The horror.

If your kids are super excited about Halloween simply because of the possibility of free lollies, maybe evil sugar has become just a tad bit marginalized in your household? There is so much to enjoy about Halloween least of all is the candy, let us count the ways;

Dressing up is fun
Scaring people {or trying to} is super fun when you are a little kid
Being out and about in your neighbourhood dressed up, possibly with your friends in the early evening when you’d normally be doing homework is ace
Anything that is a break from routine is fun
Lollies are definitely fun.
Traditions are fun – regardless of whether or no they originate from America for gods sake!
Having something to look forward to is fun, and if a cheapie costume once a year makes your kids happy then so be it.

So let the kids eat lollies I say! Get the rod out of your back and have a little fun. Our neighbourhood has a system where houses ‘opt in’ to Trick or Treating and are provided balloons to decorate their mailboxes with. This way, no-one like Dita gets bothered if they are that annoyed by Halloween. The hundreds of kids in our neighbourhood all meet on the local tennis courts and are handed out maps showing where the Halloween houses are, last year there were over fifty! We had such a fun time walking around between 5-7pm, having a very specific time frame helps limit the obvious annoyances of Halloween ; ). It was great to meet our neighbours and their kids and enjoy the season.

One year when Ethan was younger I hosted our own Halloween party. We decorated, had a sausage sizzle for the kids and parents and I supplied a few of our immediate neighbours with a bag of lollies each and we visited them for some ‘pre-arranged’ Trick or Treating. Safe, fun and just another excuse for a party really!

Happy Halloween!