Getting on with getting excited

So a couple of weeks on from the surgery and things are most definitely looking up. My recovery has been quite quick and it’s such a relief to be free from pain, apart from the usual aches of being 35 weeks pregnant! I’ve had a couple of weeks off work to recuperate and feel like I’m physically and mentally ready to go back to work on Monday, at least for 2 more weeks before my maternity leave starts. Here in Norway it’s mandatory to start your leave 3 weeks before the due date.

So I’ve spent my days over the last couple of weeks just taking things easy. I’ve had quite a few days doing not much but watching telly and annoying Cooba with cuddles while he’s trying to snooze on his bed. I’ve been making the most of sleeping in, a lazy breakfast, loads of time reading The Age online, facebook stalking, all the usual pastimes!

Joel and I have also been getting the baby’s room ready. We’re planning to have him/her in a cot in our bedroom initially as I think it will make life a bit easier for me with night feeds, but we’ll have a room ready to go with all the other accoutrements for when we’re all ready to have a wall between us at night! Joel had initially planned to do the full box-and-dice renovation on the room (which used to be the study) involving plastering and down lights. But after our Xmas/New Years dramas we agreed it was just too much effort and stress to worry about, so we settled for a fresh coat of paint, new cornices and window/door edging (what’s that called again, the Norwegian word is Lists, I’ve forgotten the English word!) and a lovely new light fitting. Joel took care of all of that over a couple of days, and now has assembled a new cupboard (hooray for extra storage space!), the baby’s cot, change table and pram. We still need to put up some window coverings, add some shelves, a rug for the floor, a heater and some cosiness.



Before the renos





painting done, new light, before the cornices/edging





Ikea flat pack ready to assemble



My handy husband making short work of the Ikea assembly

Cupboard, cot, change table assembled. iRobot doing its thing cleaning up

I’ve pulled out all the clothes and things I bought at the second hand sale back in September and have washed all the little teeny tiny little outfits and things. Wow, cute. I have to say I think I may have overbought on the ‘newborn’ sized clothes and have loads of clothes in neutral white, green, yellow etc. I don’t mean to sound presumptuous at all but if you happen to want to shop for clothes for baby Ireland, he/she could definitely use some 3-6+ mth sizes in girl or boy colours or styles as we are honestly pretty well set now for 0-3mths with lots of gender neutral clothes.



Lots of teeny clothes ready to put into the baby's new cupboard

 So this weekend Joel is off on a cross country ski trip with Ryan and Charles. They leave Friday night and ski to a cabin to stay the night, then spend Saturday touring around returning to the cabin again on Saturday night. They’ll ski back on Sunday. I’m pretty sure this will be the last time I’d be happy for Joel to be out of phone range and not very accessible in the lead up to the due date, but he’ll have a fantastic time.

Me? Well I’m under strict instructions from Joel not to do anything remotely strenuous that might bring on early labour! I’ll hopefully be able to spend some time with Louise and maybe some other girlfriends while Joel is away.