It's a Girl!

So blog posts don’t get much bigger than this! Maybe that’s why its taken so long to write this one…! Well that or we’ve had our hands rather full!

On Tuesday February 15^th at 16:05 our beautiful little girl, the wriggly one I’d been taking care of for the past 9 months, was born. Finally we got to see those adorable little heels we could feel poking out under my ribs, see the hiccups that had been gently rocking my stomach, and thank our lucky stars that we managed to bring her safely into the world. She is perfect in every way.

She weighed 2.91kg, or 6 lb 6 oz in the old measurements, and measured 49cm in length. Her name is Cami Louise Ireland.

Her birth was absolutely amazing. My contractions started at about 3.30am on the 15^th, 6 days before my due date. I had an unsettled night’s sleep and was up and down to the bathroom a lot (even more than usual!) and some back pain and period pain type cramps had started. I waited half an hour or so before I woke Joel up as by then I had the feeling this could be it. Well…actually I wasn’t sure as Mum had told me she and Dad were at the hospital 3 times with false labour before I was born, but in any case I had a feeling it was labour, false or not!

Joel phoned the hospital to get some advice as I’d been measuring quite small for the previous couple of weeks of my pregnancy and the doctor had advised us that the baby was 29% below average size. The midwife said to hang in there at home and to come into the hospital when things started to get intense. We stayed in bed until about 5.30am but by then I needed to get up and move around to manage the pain. Joel lit the fire and some candles, put on some music, fed Cooba, and actually we just sort of looked at each other a lot saying “wow, this is it!” The contractions started very regularly right from the beginning – about 5 minutes apart and lasting about a minute. Before too long I needed Joel to help me with heat packs, massage, and a hand to hold onto during the contractions. We felt really well prepared from the birth course we attended so we knew what we needed to do and just got on with it.

By about 9.30am I felt like I needed to go to the hospital. We’d almost used up the hot water already at home in the shower, the contractions were very painful and I wanted to make sure our ‘small’ baby would be ok – I wanted to be reassured that the baby’s heartbeat was strong and she wasn’t being stressed by the contractions (I had been told my amniotic fluid which cushions the baby during the contractions was at the low end of the normal amount). We actually walked to the hospital as it’s literally down the end of our street! A small aside – it had been a really windy couple of days in Stavanger in the lead up to the 15^th, there was a big exhaust tower at the hospital which had been blown by the wind and was at quite an precarious angle and at risk of collapsing taking out the ambulance station and probably the supermarket over the road, the whole street was cordoned off, there were police everywhere, we actually had to cross a police cordon to get to the door of the hospital. They tried to stop us and I think Joel really loved telling them he had a wife in labour and that they had to let us through! Which they did.

Once we got to the labour department they checked me, the baby was fine and I was 2cm dilated. It was at that point as I’m sure any mum would tell you I was of the opinion that I’d been having strong regular contractions for 5-6 hours so my response was “2cm – is that bloody all???!!!!”. We were told we could stay at the hospital or go home for a while, I decided we should stay. We were able to use the ‘fødeloft’ or birthing loft in the hospital – which is basically like a birthing centre up on the 7^th floor. We settled into our room with a nice view over the hospital grounds including the leaning tower. I was very keen to use the bath as I knew the benefits of pain relief that warm water could bring from my experience over Christmas. So we ran a bath, the midwife provided some aromatherapy oil, and off we went. Joel was again doing a great job with the massage and encouragement, iced water, whatever I needed. He was there with me through each and every contraction and didn’t leave my side.

It’s hard to remember the timing of everything as it all sort of went in a blur. It didn’t seem like very long (I guess it must have been a few hours) and I was checked again and was about 6-7cm dilated. So that felt like good progress. Back in the bath for a bit longer and before long the contractions intensified. I think some time around then my waters broke but as I was in the bath it was a bit hard to tell! As things really got going I got out of the bath. The midwife said I was about 9cm and almost ready to start pushing. I think at that stage they did a bit of acupuncture just to encourage the last cm or so of dilation. The midwife also attached a fetal scalp monitor to the baby. By about 2.30pm I went through the transition stage (holy moly) and was ready to start pushing. There is a policy at Stavanger hospital that you can push for an hour. If the baby isn’t born in that timeframe, they intervene to help things along. By about 3.30pm with a lot of pushing Cami hadn’t been born.

At that point things really changed. It went from being Joel, the midwife and I to all of a sudden I was put onto a bed and wheeled down to the 1^st floor. I went into a room with about 8 people in it – doctor, trainee doctor, midwives, nurses. Two nurses were inserting an IV, another doing a catheter (ouch), the doctor prepared the ventouse vacuum device. There was an awful lot of swearing, sweating and plenty of general yelling during the delivery, and that was just from Joel! Eventually, finally, excruciatingly she was born. She was put straight onto my chest, I asked if it was a boy or a girl, someone told us it was a girl. Joel was crying, Cami was crying as they rubbed her down but she was a little distressed after the tough delivery so her breathing and cries were a not as strong as they like to see. So she was whisked off to the doctor for a bit of help breathing. She was in great shape, and her condition improved really quickly.

They wheeled her in her warm humidicrib into my room within about 15 minutes so I could see her but then she had to go to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for check ups and monitoring. Frustratingly I had to remain lying in bed until my bleeding stopped. This took about 3-4 hours so Joel was ferrying back and forth between Cami in the NICU and me. The labour was so tough, but geez being apart from my baby for the first few hours of her life was the worst. It felt surreal “did that really just happen?”. My wonderful husband though managed to convince a nurse in the NICU to hand over her other patients to someone else and bring Cami down to see me. It was a few hours after her delivery but this was the first time I got to have a cuddle and we had a try at breast feeding. That was special. Finally my beautiful, perfect little girl was in my arms. Joel got my vote for ‘husband of the year’ for making that happen. Again, like at Christmas, I think his experience in navigating the hospital system came in very handy – he was able to be proactive and push for the hospital staff to meet our needs.

By about 8pm Cami was back at NICU and my bleeding had finally stopped and I could have something to eat and a shower. Joel and I at that point headed across to the ‘birth hotel’ – a hotel within the hospital for parents with newborns. We were able to go and see Cami whenever we wanted but they recommended we come in every 3 hours starting at midnight to feed Cami. We then had the exciting task of phoning our family back in Melbourne. By then it was about 9.30 or 10pm so we were able to share the excitement with our family first thing on their Wednesday morning. Everyone was so thrilled and excited, it was wonderful but of course bittersweet as they are so far away and it would be a little while before they would be able to meet her.

Joel and I both went over to the NICU for the midnight visit and feed. I changed Cami’s nappy for the first time. We had a bit more success this time with feeding (the first time we only got her ‘latched on’ for a few minutes.

I went over for the 3am feed but Joel slept through. He was exhausted and I guess didn’t have the hormonal ‘high’ to keep him going through the night! But he joined us at 6am, when we were told she would be checked out by the paediatrician in the morning and hopefully could be ‘discharged’ to our care around noon.

So at noon the following day she was checked out by the paediatrician and given the all clear. She needed to have some follow up blood tests as there was a mild elevation in her CRP (infection) levels in her blood, but nothing to worry about and they were trending downwards. She was doing really well and we were so thrilled that finally we could take over her care. We spent 3 nights in the hospital (at the birth hotel) and the midwives were fantastic, available all day and night and they gave us loads of help and advice on everything from bathing to breastfeeding and much more. We came home on Friday ready for the weekend, we walked home with Cami in her pram. It had snowed so everything was white and it was a beautiful day, lots of blue sky and sunshine.

Latest News

Well that took me a while to write over a few snatched minutes at the laptop. Now Cami is just over 6 weeks old. She is growing heaps (4.24kg and 54cm at her 6 week check up) and already growing out of some of her newborn clothes! We have had some tough days and nights with her that’s for sure, but it feels like when we hit the 6 week mark things have taken a bit of a turn for the better. We’re finding her to be more settled with her feeding, digestion and sleep and overall just a more contented baby. We hope this new phase lasts as she continues to grow.

Other changes we’re seeing are that she’s now much more alert, making eye contact, and the big milestone – she’s started to smile! It’s wonderful to know that she is feeling happy! She is thoroughly gorgeous (of course!), we think she has Joel’s eyes, my nose and the rest remains to be seen!

We’ve had a lovely visit from Joel’s dad John who came to stay with us for 5 days in late March, and his mum Bernadette will arrive in a week to stay for a fortnight. My parents will be coming after that during May, followed by Joel’s sister Emma, and then probably Sally will head over mid-summer. It will be a busy time with lots of visitors but we’re very excited to introduce Cami to many of her family members.

Also we had a very exciting event in my family with Brett’s marriage to Sam on the 20^th March. It was a beautiful wedding which we would have dearly loved to have attended in person. Unfortunately Cami’s passport wasn’t ready in time. Luckily though I was able to see and hear all the highlights ‘live’ on Skype! Technology really came through for us thanks to Jeff and Denise Mills who arranged this using their wireless internet and laptop.

I will try to update the blog more frequently, but for now we’re off to start a busy day. Cami is asleep and mothers of newborns certainly know how those precious minutes are to get some things done before she awakes and needs my full attention.

38 Weeks, The Countdown is On!

It has been an eventful couple of weeks. Cyclones in Queensland, floods in Melbourne, a very special little baby arrived in Stavanger (not ours!).

I’m up to 38 weeks and I’m feeling great. I’m really enjoying being on maternity leave (started a week ago @37 weeks) and am working my way through a long ‘to do’ list of bits and pieces around the house, preparing for the baby’s arrival.

My thoughts now are really on the labour and really I’m just hoping and praying for a healthy baby.

My girlfriends in Stavanger threw me a gorgeous baby shower on Thursday night. I knew they had something planned but thought it was meant to be this weekend, so got quite a surprise when I showed up at Aud Trude and Kristian’s house for dinner only to find loads of pink and blue decorations and a room full of girls shouting ‘surprise’!! It was a really lovely evening, lots of baby talk of course and our mates all chipped in and bought us a beautiful hand crafted cradle which we will keep downstairs in our living room for baby’s daytime naps. Thanks so much to everyone and despecially to Louise and Aud Trude for arranging everything, it was a really special night. A baby shower isn’t a Norwegian tradition at all so for many of the girls it was their first (but hopefully not their last – it might catch on)!

On Monday 24^th January we were so excited to hear about the arrival of Mari and Kev’s baby, a boy, Elliot Murphy. He is a little treasure, absolutely perfect in every way and is sleeping and feeding like a champion. His big brother Oscar is so lucky to have a little brother, we can just imagine how much fun they’re going to have growing up!

I’ve also been asked to be a fadder (Godmother) to Aud Trude and Kristian’s beautiful little boy Oliver. His christening is 20^th February, the day before our due date so we hope to be able to make it either with a big belly or a little baby!

I finished quite a big project I started quite some time ago – a rocking chair. I quite liked the idea of having one for use when nursing. I found a really nice old second hand one and decided to try my hand at reupholstering it. I found some great videos on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/diyupholsterysupply#p/u/13/jWyZEbNAnmU) giving step by step instructions on how to do it. I bought some fabric on ebay and had to chase up a local upholsterer to buy some tacks and other supplies as it seems DIY upholstery hasn’t really taken off here in Norway and I struggled to find supplies online. Anyway I finally finished the job today. I’m really happy with the end result. I’m actually sitting in it by the fire as I type this blog post! I learned a lot about how to do it so maybe I’ll find some more projects during my year away from work.

So that’s it from us, waiting patiently and putting all the finishing touches on the baby’s room. We’ve now put up some shelves, a heater and curtains for the nursery. Here it is now almost ready for our little one to settle into.



Bump Watch

Ok ... so this is my first blog post in a while, so I have decided to show off my lovely wife and her gorgeous bump!  I borrowed my company's studio gear (studio flashes/strobes, radio triggers, backdrops, etc) and set up Emma for a photo shoot. 

These were shot on 12th December which was the week before we went to Switzerland for Bec and Terry's Swiss wedding.  Em was about 31 weeks along at that stage.  A lot has happened since then such as our Christmas and New year spent at the hospital. Now Emma is 35 weeks and getting bigger by the day.  I hope we will be able to do some more bump shots in the last 5 weeks so stay tuned.

Now for my beautiful wife and her lovely bump.





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.

A not so Merry Christmas after all

Well it’s been a bit of radio silence from the Irelands in Norway these last couple of weeks. You last heard from us returned from an amazing trip to Switzerland, and looking forward to a quiet but enjoyable Christmas and a trip to the mountains for New Years.

Well it was a great plan, but unfortunately wasn’t to be. I woke up on Christmas Eve morning experiencing quite a bit of pain. I guess this is a bit of a debrief for me as well just to write down what happened. Maybe I’ll be accused of over-sharing, so be it. I don’t mind sharing what we’ve been through, it’s a bit rare but just goes to show even the most ‘normal’ pregnancy can take a bit of a turn… but as I said it’s all ok in the end so don’t worry! Now if you’re not good with hearing about gory pregnancy details and medical stuff I suggest you skip to the happy ending in the last paragraph!

So yes, pain. Right side abdominal pain. It has been a somewhat reoccurring theme for me in this pregnancy to have some pain – I was hospitalised for 2 days back in October for the same thing and have had a couple of milder doses in between. But then I believe the diagnosis was something many pregnant women experience – constipation. Glamorous isn’t it, this pregnancy caper! During pregnancy the hormones in your system slow down your digestion so that the baby can get as many nutrients as possible from the food you digest, just my luck that my damn system was so good at this that things would grind to a halt every now and then. I was managing it with diet and fluids and exercise (or so I thought) so was quite annoyed when I got this mega pain on the 24th December.

So I just thought, ok I’ll just get through this painful few hours and all will be fine. Problem was the hours turned into a day, turned into 2 days, 3 days and no relief. I was very sick (pain and vomiting) and on Boxing Day we decided it was time to go to the hospital to make sure the baby was ok and to see what was going on. They monitored the baby at hospital and told us he/she was fine, that it probably was constipation again and I should take some pretty simple treatments (I won’t go into details there…!) and it should be ok. By then I had stopped vomiting, and was just feeling drained and still in a lot of pain.

I managed to get my system ‘working’ again, was able to start to eat and drink a bit and thought things were on the improve. But there was still the pain. And the pain if anything got worse. So I soldiered through a few more days at home with paracetamol and hot showers until on 30th December I thought I needed to go to the GP because the pain was terrible and it just wasn’t going away. I was pretty sure this wasn’t just a stubborn poo anymore…

The GP took a simple finger prick blood test which showed some elevated levels of infection/inflammation, so it was over to the hospital for more tests. At the hospital they were thinking along the lines of appendicitis. This wasn’t news to us – it was what they had to rule out back in October during my last hospital visit. Problem was it some of the symptoms didn’t really support it and the stage of my pregnancy complicated it all – everything in the abdomen moves around and changes so much it’s hard to know what is going on. Anyway, they did an ultrasound and found an area of inflammation, and came in on the evening of 30th December and said they wanted to operate on suspected appendicitis.

GETTING EXAMINED IN EMERGENCY ROOM IN HOSPITAL

Joel and I were of course very worried and nervous about the affects of an operation and general anaesthesia on the baby (32 weeks). We were also a little nervous that the particular young surgeon who bowled over to my bedside and announced that they wanted to operate right away seemed a bit scalpel-happy and wasn’t doing the things we asked – ie. To consult with a senior obstetrician and senior anaesthetist (who we would also like to speak to) to get some advice. So to be honest Joel and I were being difficult and asking lots of questions.

Fortunately there was a shift change and the next surgeon who came on duty was a lot more diligent and came and spoke to us at length. He’d sat down with the radiographer who did the ultrasound and his consultant surgeon and discussed what it could be. After much discussion of the ultrasound and my case history (6 days of pain) they felt it was likely that the appendix had already burst and created an abscess and that the best approach would be to treat it with antibiotics overnight and then drain the wound. They could also see if the antibiotics had any affect to shrink it overnight. They/we were cautious about doing any more tests such as a CT scan due to the risk of exposing the baby to harmful radiation. So it was a bit of guesswork and deduction involved.

So I was of course happy that I wasn’t about to be wheeled into surgery, but also not that thrilled with the idea of a burst appendix in my abdomen! The next morning, New Years Eve, they did another ultrasound and Joel, the radiographer and I were joined in the lab by about 4 other radiographers, including we think some pretty senior doctors, and our original radiographer came up with a new theory, that it was actually a twisted ovary, not the appendix after all. There were lots of nods and pats on the back for this switched-on guy as all the pieces seemed to fit that diagnosis, and it was quite left-of-field.

So then I was transferred over to gynaecology, and they advised the only treatment was surgery. Fortunately there was a very experienced laparoscopic gyno surgeon on duty and she would be operating on me. Some calming words from our friend Jonno Evans, an anaesthetist in Melbourne about the surgical risks to the baby (minimal) and I was in the theatre within the hour. I was scared of course but just trying to remain calm for the baby. One of the biggest risks for the pregnancy was that I would go into premature labour, and I knew that I just had to remain calm and composed, I’m quite proud that I managed it. As I was being taken to theatre a surgeon said to me “normally we’d give you some relaxant drugs before you go into theatre but you seem quite calm, I don’t think that you need that”. Our poor baby had already had to put up with more drugs than we’d ever want, so I was pleased that at least I could do that.

So the surgery went very well, they found that my ovary had twisted twice and the tissue had died. There was absolutely no chance to save it so it was removed. Post-op I was moved into a really lovely private room up on the top floor of the hospital with a fantastic view over Stavanger. Joel was with me as we watched the fireworks start to light up the sky on new years eve. We felt quite happy at this point – happy the surgery had gone well, happy the source of my week-long pain had been identified and resolved, happy that I wasn’t in labour! We were happy that we’d worked together and with the doctors to continuously question the diagnosis, the risks and benefits of the plans that were outlined to us, and advocated for ourselves and our baby to ensure we got the best possible care. We also put our faith in the doctors who we know were thorough, diligent and skilled, and who communicated with us about what was going on, including those things they weren’t sure of.

JOEL WITH SMUGGLED IN RED WINE TO HOSPITAL ON NEW YEARS EVE (7th FLOOR WITH GREAT VIEW OF FIREWORKS ALL OVER THE CITY)

JOEL SMUGGLED IN SOME SWEETS AND TREATS (INCLUDING S&V CHIPS) TO HELP ME RECUPERATE

So now I’m into day 3 post-op and although I have some normal post operative pain, I can’t say how relieved I am to have the original pain gone. The focus now is just to rest, get moving again (physio Joel has me on a pretty good rehab plan!), eat well and recuperate. Joel has been an absolute solid rock of support over the 10 days, I couldn’t imagine going through this with anyone else, he is just amazing. He’s been running around after a wife in pain, keeping family informed, talking with doctors, taking care of Cooba. He has spent almost every minute with me at the hospital just going home to feed Cooba and sleep. I am so lucky to have the most wonderful husband in the world. So now we’re just looking forward to a completely uneventful next 7 weeks or so until the baby arrives. We are also hugely looking forward to the arrival in a few weeks of Mari and Kev’s second child, a little brother or sister for my god son Oscar. So much to be thankful for.

Happy New Year everyone!

A Month of Pre-Baby Travel

This month is a month of travel. Joel has spent a week with 3 mates in Iceland on a bit of an adventure holiday. I had 5 days away at the European Resuscitation Council conference in Porto, Portugal. We’re about to hop onto a plane this week to go and see Bec, Terry, Jade, Diane, Rene and all Bec’s lovely Swiss friends for their wedding in Solothurn! It’s so exciting, one of the biggest bummers about living overseas and so far away is missing out on some of those big occasions in the lives of our friends and families. We’ve missed out on heaps of weddings. So when we found out that there’d be one in Europe, and especially for our lovely Bec who was one of my beautiful bridesmaids, well there’s no way in the world we’d miss it! We’ll be sure to upload some pics.

Late last month Joel and I also celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. We made the most of the excuse to get away for a  romantic pre-baby long weekend in Italy. We flew into Milan, took a train about an hour north to Lake Como and spent 2 lovely nights there in the little town of Torno on the lake. We spent the days just meandering around, eating well, drinking well, shopping, and taking in the sights. We then went to Milan for a night where we did more of the same. It was a wonderful trip, we talked a lot about our wedding 12 months before and how special it was.  He

We are so blessed and lucky to be living this amazing life together. 12 months on and marriage has been a blast! In many ways not much has changed, but for us our wedding was really a milestone in our relationship. It signalled for us a commitment to each other and was a way I guess of cementing that we’re moving ahead together in the same direction. For us, that also meant wanting to start a family. We’re making our preparations, practically and mentally, for our much anticipated new arrival in February.

Pregnancy is a weird and wonderful thing. I’m now up to 30 weeks, only 10(ish) more to go. I’m definitely into the third trimester now and have to say I’m really feeling rather pregnant! I hear that in the next 10 weeks the baby’s weight will double. Given that I’m already feeling pretty big in the tummy, struggling to lean over to tie up shoe laces, need some help to get up if I have to squat down or kneel down or something, the thought of doubling the size of my baby bump (which I actually think is a bit cute just at the moment!) seems a little daunting! My latest trick, squatting down to do something (today it was to put paper into the paper basket) and falling straight onto my bum. Seems my centre of gravity has changed a little these days and my brain is yet to catch on!

The baby’s movements have changed in the last few weeks from being fairly indecipherable wriggles and kicks to something quite different. Now you can really feel that the baby is in there and you can feel very distinct movements under the skin, little limbs pushing against the outside of the uterus. I really am enjoying being pregnant and for the most part have felt really well. I think I’ll need to slow down a bit now though, I get a bit tired these days and my body doesn’t react well to ‘overdoing it’. So I’m going to take the hint and ensure I get enough down time.

In other news, our friends Aud Trude and Kristian (who you may remember from our wedding) had a beautiful little boy Oliver a few weeks ago. Aud Trude is already showing her super mum skills and is managing beautifully. Mari and Kev are next with their second baby due Jan 19th, then it’s our turn!

We’re planning a pretty quiet Christmas at home, probably focussing on ‘feathering the nest’ for the baby’s arrival. Joel is planning to continue the renovation plan and tear down the walls and ceiling in what used to be our study and will become the nursery. Personally I think a coat of paint would do the job, but he’s insistent, only the best will do! I plan to leave him to it and instead focus on reupholstering the rocking chair I bought second hand, reading up about birthing techniques and pondering on baby names. Until next time, Merry Christmas!

Some pics from Joel's recent trip to Iceland:

Bump Watch

It has been ages since we've posted a blog. Sorry about that, life gets in the way!! Everything is going really well and Baby Ireland is growing like crazy and giving us lots of kicks.

Joel has just got back from a week's project management course in Aberdeen (Scotland), and we have now completed our weekend birthing course. Tonight we did a tour of the hospital including the 'fødeloft' or 'birth loft' which is where we will most likely end up when Baby Ireland decides to arrive. It was great to see where it will all happen and we both feel really comfortable with what's to come.

Here are a couple of bump watch photos, we'll have more to post soon with a long weekend in Milan coming up and Joel's week long boys trip to Iceland in early December. Loads to look forward to.

From Bump Watch Nov

Week 23

From Bump Watch Nov

Week 27

PS. Huge welcome to little Oliver, Aud Trude and Kristian's beautiful little boy who arrived in the early hours of Sunday morning. We haven't met him yet as Joel and I are recovering from a cold, but we hope to meet him very soon.

21 Weeks

We had our 21 week ultrasound last Friday 8th October. Everything was great, the baby is growing and developing normally. My official due date has now been set at Monday 21st February. Despite some last minute wavering from Joel we stuck with our earlier decision not to find out the gender of the baby.


Here are some pics from the ultrasound, my favourite is the 2D view where baby has its legs over their head. No wonder I’m feeling lots of wriggling from this little baby! Practising their cycling moves overhead perhaps?

Some old pics

I've just been going through our little digital camera (which we don't often use) and clearing off some photos and have found some really lovely ones that I had to share with you. They are mostly of Bec, Jade and Terry's visit (though strangely Terry doesn't feature in any of the pics! Think we took those ones with Joel's proper camera!). There are also some pics from my trip to Greece with Mum and Dad this summer.

So here they are!

Girls Weekend in Oslo

(Note: This blog was written earlier this week!) I just returned from a lovely weekend away with Louise in Oslo. We decided that the blokes are always off here or there on boys trips and seeing as Joel was offshore this would be a perfect time to get away for a girls' weekend! We looked into London but the flights were too expensive, so Oslo was our next best option. We went to a concert on Friday night, Amy McDonald. It was a venue called Sentrum Scene, a fantastic venue, really small and intimate, and even short asses like Louise and I had a perfect view!! Amy McDonald is a really great Scottish singer/songwriter, she has a fantastic, unique voice and great songs. You may know her songs This is the Life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6MRYLWJb1o&feature=channel and Mr Rock and Roll http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR7SdaXHPH4&feature=channel. She's great, buy her albums!

Amy McDonald playing at Sentrum Scene, Oslo

We did some shopping on Saturday morning and then went to a pub on Saturday afternoon to watch the St Kilda v Collingwood grand final "live". The actual result was known by about 10am on Saturday morning but I switched my phone off and managed to avoid finding out the result. The Aussies out there of course know the outcome of that saga - the scores were even at full time, and unlike most other sports, a drawn grand final means a rematch the following week. It was such an exciting, nerve wracking, depressing, inspiring game of football, I was absolutely beside myself for most of the game. Poor Louise - I'm impressed she didn't leave the pub after my carrying on! It was actually Louise's first game of AFL football (she grew up in the States but spent most of the last 10 years in the UK) so I definitely blame her Aussie husband Charles for leaving her this long in the dark. Louise is a fan of rugby and cricket, so I reckon it's a matter of time before we get her hooked onto AFL!

Game (GF1) about to start

Me and Louise at the pub about to watch the GF1

Dinner at a lovely French bistro Saturday night, then Massages on Sunday, lunch at Aker Brygge and we met up with some of Louise and Charles' friends in the afternoon for a while. We had a ball, thoroughly enjoyable and just the right mix of activities and relaxation! So thanks Louise for being a great travel buddy!

Meanwhile Joel is now up to day 24 offshore, working like a trooper doing really long hours and having to deal with lots of issues due to bad weather. AT this time of year the wind and waves can really pick up and cause a lot of issues for the cranes onboard the ships to lift the heavy equipment off the sea bed and into position. They are doing a lot of Waiting On Weather which at this stage of the project, in what should be the final days/week it's extremely frustrating. They just want to get the job done and get home. His return date may be this Sunday but could very easily stretch into early next week. But there's not much we can do about it, we're at the whim of the weather, so we're just hoping for some calmer seas and good progress out at BP Valhall.

Cooba is missing his daddy

Bump Watch 18 Weeks (2 weeks ago) ....and new hair!

Update Today (Saturday 2nd October)
Baby - We've hit the 20 week mark now with the pregnancy, everything is going well. Next ultrasound was postponed until the end of next week so Joel could be there. Really looking forward to seeing Baby again!
Football - I don't want to talk about it.
Joel - Still off shore, finishing up the last few things at the field and will start heading back soon. Hopefully home Monday night, maybe Tuesday at the latest.

A sign of good things to come?

Well this little baby of ours is already showing some good signs of being a very compliant and obedient little one, and upon it’s mother’s request for it to ‘get a wriggle on’, has done just that. In the last week or so I’ve gone from feeling some very faint little movements and the very occasional little kick or poke, to these days being able to feel more and more movement. Every day now I can feel him/her wiggling around and it is absolutely thrilling each and every time. Perhaps the novelty will wear off (I doubt it), but feeling our baby moving around is just so reassuring (it’s alive!) and really feels like things are progressing.


Tomorrow will be the 18 week mark according to our current due date and that makes us 2 weeks away from the half way point. That in itself is something I have to wrap my head around as in one way it feels like the time has flown, but on the other hand the weeks have dragged by at a snail’s pace!

Due to a pretty poor weather forecast over the rest of this week, Joel’s ship has come back to the port nearby to pick up some more equipment and shelter from the rough seas. He arrived in yesterday morning and was able to leave the ship at about 6:30pm to come home for a few hours to see Cooba and me. He’s working 12+ hour shifts on the boat (6am – 6pm). The ship will probably be at port until some time Friday night so he’ll hopefully be able to do the same thing again tonight. He prefers to sleep on the ship which is completely understandable – if he stayed at home he’d have to get back to the ship by taxi by about 5.30am. Plus he really needs to be ‘on call’ in case something happens during the night shift and he’s needed.

It’s so fantastic to be able to see him, such a treat and not something we had expected. It really does break up the 4 week stint to have a couple of evenings together half way through. I was really hoping that Baby would be cooperative and try out a few good kicks so Joel could feel it, but even with the patience of a saint and plenty of poking, prodding and verbal encouragement, we couldn’t get him/her moving. I’m pretty sure though that by the time Joel gets back from this offshore trip he should be able to feel the baby moving. It will be amazing to be able to share that together and it’s something we’re both really looking forward to.

Joel was also able to check out all the loot I picked up at the Stavanger Kids Sale last weekend http://www.stavangerkids.no/ and he was so happy with everything I chose. Among other things I bought a cot, travel cot, car seat with base, baby monitor, auto breast pump, baby bjørn, bouncinette, lots of clothes (onesies galore, sleeping clothes, socks), burping cloths, wraps. We need a change table, a bath and a mattress and some linen for the cot (which Mum is going to make for us – thanks Mum!) and then I think we’ve got most of the basics sorted out. I think I saved about 2/3 of what it would have cost to buy it all new. I’m also hunting online for a rocking chair for the nursery. We’ll have heaps of space in there and I always sort of liked the idea of using that for cuddles and maybe feeding. But we’ll see what comes up on http://www.finn.no/.

The view from Joel's home/office

This is where Joel will be spending most of the next 3 weeks out at sea – on a vessel at the BP Valhall oil field. It’s in the North Sea, between the UK and Norway. The 10m seas that he experienced transiting from picking up the equipment in the UK and getting out to the field have calmed down, and from the picture below it looks like it’s quite pleasant out there indeed!

Map showing the position of the BP Valhall field

BP Valhall taken with Joel's phone camera

Reflections of Motherhood

This post on mamamia (http://www.mamamia.com.au/) came at a very opportune time. Today is Regina and Ulf's baby's due date (http://www.misshermelin.blogspot.com/), 2 nights ago I felt our baby move for the first time (2 little pokes, amazing! Nothing since but you can bet I'm on the look out!). So motherhood is really on my mind. I don't know if its the hormones or the day or maybe I'm missing Joel and my sister and my mum, but I cried my way through this video this morning over my toast and coffee! I hope you enjoy it too.

An interesting visitor – 52 marathons in 52 weeks

Facebook is really a weird and wonderful thing. I got a message via facebook about a week and a half ago from an old school friend Amanda who I hadn’t heard from in oh about 15 years!

I was first a bit sceptical – we’ve had quite a lot of visitors this summer which has been fantastic, but I must say Joel and I were quite enjoying having the house to ourselves once again. Hosting a marathon running stranger wasn’t exactly high on our ‘to do’ list that weekend! But then I took a look at his website (http://www.runlikecrazy.com/) and read a bit about his mission, and wow, did I change my tune.
The guy’s name is Tristan Miller. He’s about my age, grew up in Melbourne, and quite likes to run. He decided to sell his apartment and all his worldly belongings to fund a year-long mission to travel the world and run 52 marathons in 52 weeks. He’s raising money for charity (Unicef and Facing Africa). His marathon in Stavanger was his 34th. Joel and I agreed that Tristan was doing something pretty special and we would be really happy to help him and his mate John (An Aussie living in Sweden joining him for part of the trip) with some accommodation.

Tristan has been running marathons all over the world, from Tokyo to Mongolia, Rwanda, South Africa, the Great Wall of China…you name it, he’s run it (or is about to run it). It’s quite remarkable, but honestly what really struck me after meeting him is that running the marathon is not even half of it. In a way that’s the easy bit! Can you imagine crisscrossing the world many times over, spending no more than a few days in any one place, having to work out flight plans, train and bus timetables, travel visas, hotels, maintaining clean jocks and socks, just all of the logistics and headaches and flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants exhaustion that must come from spending a year travelling? Add to that the physical and mental exhaustion of running a marathon every single week…I just find that utterly amazing and inspiring.

I wanted to help Tristan generate a bit of publicity for his cause. I contacted a couple of local newspapers and managed to get a pretty good response, Rogalands Avis ran almost a full page article on him as well as a snippet on the front page http://www.rogalandsavis.no/nyheter/article5254795.ece. Stavanger Aftenblad ran about a quarter page article in their sports section. Not bad for a PR novice hey?! A TV2 film crew also arrived (through one of Tristan’s connections – I can’t claim that one!) and did a great story for the Saturday night sports news http://www.tv2sporten.no/ovrig/maratonmannen-foeler-seg-som-forrest-gump-3276858.html. Joel also took some fantastic photos. For Tristan, having a photographic and video record of the trip is hugely important. He is getting about with his little digital camera but Joel’s Digital SLR with fancy lenses and filters provided some great pics which Tristan took with him.

What was also special about this particular weekend was that Tristan was running the Stavanger marathon on Saturday, then leaving on a 6pm flight to Denmark, taking a bus down to a ferry port, and then taking an overnight ferry to a little island called Bornholm to run an Ultra Marathon – that is 100kms after travelling all night. The man ran 142km over a weekend. That is just mind blowing.

Tristan at the finish line, Stavanger Marathon

We spent a bit of time with Tristan before and after the race. He’s a fantastic guy, and not nearly as crazy as you’d think! He’s basically a normal guy who’s been given some great (but also fairly “normal” – not unlike you or I) opportunities in life, who found himself in a bit of a rut and decided to just turn it all around, to think big and do something amazing. That was really his message – that you can do anything you set your mind to it if you set a goal and then go about planning the steps it takes to achieve it.

Joel and I have been really proud to help Tristan out over the weekend with hopefully a welcoming smile, some good food and a warm, comfortable bed to sleep in for a night. I hope the publicity helps him get the attention he wants for the charities he’s supporting. We’ve also donated a small amount to Unicef in his ‘everyday hero’ appeal. I also know that each and every donation is so appreciated by Tristan, he was reading his twitter “runlikecrazy” and checking the Unicef donation page and commented about how thrilled he was that people had been inspired by his self-proclaimed “Captain InsanO” double-up marathon/ultra weekend and were making donations.

It was a really interesting weekend, and definitely one that we felt great about – it’s fantastic to every now and then open yourself up to new people and experiences and to give something of yourself and your time to help someone else. However I’d argue that we were really the beneficiaries as we really felt like we’d been part of something special and important. We truly wish Tristan all the best for the months ahead and the many kilometres still to run. He plans to finish up with an ultra marathon in Antarctica (!!) and his final run will be in Melbourne during the daytime on New Years Eve. If you’re interested to read more or get involved (maybe run with him on NYE!) I highly recommend his website http://www.runlikecrazy.com/.

L-R John, Tristan, myself and Joel

Bump Watch, 16 weeks

Get a move on Baby!!

So I’m 16 weeks and 3 days along now. From what I’ve been reading and hearing from friends, it is around the 16th week that I could start to feel the baby. It’s been described variously as bubbles, a flutter or the feeling like a snake or something in your belly that slithers around. Nice image hey?! The midwife told me the best way to feel it is to lie tummy down with a soft cushion under my stomach. Mari has said she feels it best when lying on her back on a hard surface and applying some gentle pressure to the uterus. Naturally I’m trying both those positions daily but without much success! I have to stop myself from dashing off from my desk into an empty meeting room to lie on my back and press on my stomach! Can imagine how that would look to anyone who happened to walk in!

The thing is I’m told that you may not be able to feel it that often, maybe only occasionally, so if I happen to be busy or occupied when the baby decides to Get Physical I could easily miss it! In fact I may have been ‘feeling’ the movements for days but without being aware of it. Also it’s hard when you don’t know what you’re feeling for! There are so many different movements and things happening in your stomach and abdomen when you’re pregnant. Digestion takes on a life of its own, so I predict it’s actually quite difficult to distinguish between lunch bubbling around down there and baby!

I have to say I’m most looking forward to feeling the baby move as I think it will create a different kind of connection to this little 12cm, 150g person that I am apparently incubating! It’s a weird sort of feeling for me (but I’ll try to explain it), this baby is so wanted, anticipated and is something we feel we’re 100% ready for, and of course I’ve had some physical changes signalling that everything is progressing as normal. Intellectually, I know I’m pregnant and if all goes to plan we’ll welcome a baby in Feb 2011, but emotionally I think it’s a bit of a different story. It seems abstract and theoretical. I just can’t really believe sometimes that there’s a baby there. It still came as such a (wonderful) surprise to hear the baby’s heartbeat at our last check up a couple of weeks ago. I’m not worried about it as I feel that this is something that will develop naturally as the pregnancy progresses, that you start to feel that maternal bond and protectiveness. I think and hope that feeling the baby moving will jump start that process and bring this all into reality for me, that yes there really is a baby – OUR baby in there.

So Joel is offshore now for a month, so it’s just Coobs and I at home. We’re lucky to have some wonderful friends who ensured that my first solo weekend was full to the brim with heaps of fantastic visits and good times. No time to feel lonely. The weather has also been absolutely sensational, such a lovely surprise at this time of year when we expect autumn to really hit. It’s most likely the last taste of warmth and sunshine for a long time, so we’re just soaking it up as much as possible.

I devoted Saturday to spending the first part of Joel’s offshore paycheque (!) and picked up a really comfy and I think quite stylish maternity skirt by Boob http://shop.boobdesign.com/sv/product/263/gravidkjol-once-on-never-off#filter-2 and a fab pair of leggings (tete–a-tete) from the same shop. I can’t remember the name but it’s opposite Rom for Mer and has some maternity clothes upstairs. I hope to just get by with a few essentials (a capsule maternity wardrobe, in fashion-speak?), mostly focussing warmer clothes to see me through autumn and winter. I also found some gorgeous St Tropez ribbed tops made from 70% silk at O’La La in Kirkegata which are really long and quite stretchy which will be good for layering under and over other tops during the winter, but will I hope also be able to be used post-baby, unless the bump just stretches them too much!

I promise, more bump watch photos to come!

Bump Watch 10-13 Weeks

We've been promising some bump photos, it's still early days but I have made the bold move into maternity jeans and am the better for it!

This one says 11 weeks 3 days but then at our scan the date was put back exactly a week, so that would make it 10 weeks 3 days. Quite a nice belly there, but the disclaimer is that the bump size varied a lot in the first weeks depending on certain things...I won't go into detail but I'm sure every woman who has been pregnant knows exactly what I'm talking about....

The next one here is at exactly 13 weeks:

Not much difference? Yeah I agree! I'll try to wear something a bit more fitting next time so you can compare apples with apples. Anwyay, it's all coming along nicely. I'm at 14 and a bit weeks now so hope that soon I can start to feel the baby moving soon! If I'm lucky that might happen in the next week or so.

 

Until next time!
Emma.

BABY IRELAND

Some Pretty Big News!

We are so excited to be able to fill everyone in on some pretty special news in our family. We will in about 6 months time have a new little person to introduce you all to! We are 12 weeks pregnant!

We had a 12 week scan on Friday and everything looks great. We’ll include some videos below from the 2D and 4D scan for those who are interested. These new release videos have been on a high rotation in the Ireland household! Everything looks great and we are just hoping for a safe, boring, normal pregnancy. Our due date is Feb 19th.

We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, we’ll be having the baby over here in Norway but if all goes to plan we visit Oz next year. We would love nothing more than to get to Melbourne to be part of Brett and Sam’s wedding on March 20th (and our friends Jenn and Ian who are tying the knot the day before!) but it will depend on when Ireland Junior decides to arrive, and also on the red tape involved with getting a passport for him/her. We’ll have to take that as it comes.

Everything is going really well so far and Emma has escaped the major pregnancy symptoms (nausea, tiredness etc). So far so good! We are really looking forward to the next 6 months and beyond and cannot wait to be parents!

Emma's Bucket List

So I've been following some blogs lately, one of my latest addictions (in this instance http://www.mightygirl.com/) , and was inspired by one of the posts to start my own Bucket List, as in things I plan to do in life before I kick the.....

you get the idea.

So I'm just starting off and I'm sure will be adding to this a lot over the years (and hopefully crossing some off too). Some are lofty and expensive (...well most of them!), some are simple and free (gotta find some more of those ones!). I just thought sharing this might actually raise the stakes a bit and give me that extra motivation to get off my butt and actually achieve some of these things.

I'd love to hear if you have anything you would add to your bucket list, or if you have one of your own.

I plan to get off to a good start tonight and sign Joel and I up for child sponsorship - our wedding present to each other - which we've been meaning to do for ages. Number 38 - Tick!

1. Go on safari in Africa
2. Get my PADI diving certificate
3. Try snowboarding
4. Skydive or bungee jump
5. Make a quilt
6. Learn to pick up a dropped stitch (knitting)
7. Bake a sponge cake (completed for Regina's baby shower)
8. Take a wine course
9. Swim with dolphins
10. Go in a hot air balloon
11. Be a mum
12. Start my own business
13. Renovate a house
14. Live by the sea
15. Hike into Macchu Picchu
16. Own a holiday house (other than McCrae!)
17. Stop chewing/picking my nails/fingers
18. See the grand canyon
19. Play poker in Vegas
20. See the running of the bulls in Pamplona
21. Go parasailing behind a boat
22. Have a walk in wardrobe
23. Take a short barista course
24. Own a convertible
25. Sail around the Greek Islands
26. Eat tapas in Spain
27. See the pyramids
28. Scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef
29. Grow a vegetable garden
30. Have a compost bin
31. Learn to stand up on a surfboard
32. Sing in a choir
33. Be in a murder mystery party
34. See the Northern Lights
35. Visit Antarctica
36. Stay at a health spa
37. Do a road trip along the coast in California
38. 
    
    Sponsor a child in need
    
    
39. See Uluru at sunrise and sunset
40. Eat one 100% vegetarian dinner a week