Just spoke to my folks on the phone - they were just checking in to see if anything had happened yet (just like my friend who rang yesterday and said straight away, "are you one or two?!" and it took me a minute to figure out what she meant!)...

What was I saying? Yes, so when I was talking to my Dad, I mentioned that perhaps the baby will come on Wednesday, because it will be a full moon. And he reminded me that Piper arrived on a full moon in 2004. "In fact," he said, "I can guarantee it, because that was the night someone broke into Simon's (my brother) car and let it roll down the street into a fire hydrant!"

Dad also told me that that's where the terms looney or loonies comes from - people affected by lunar activity. Anyway, so now I wonder if Wednesday will be the day! It happens to also be the birthday of Margie's daughter, Acacia. (Margie's looking after Piper during the birth).
(This is me and Piper posing in front of the statues of characters from The Magic Pudding, an Aussie story.)

So there you go, the things you learn while waiting for babies to emerge! This is a photo of me in all my bulging glory! Last Wednesday (the due date & ANZAC Day, a public holiday here), Gord, Piper and I went to the Botanical Gardens, to a kids park there. This is where I am in the photo. We also got a bit trigger happy while we were picnicing later, so I'll see if I can upload some of those shots...

Waiting...with a new camera!

Hello all,

(Wrote this a couple of days ago but the slow internet connection made it veritably impossible to upload! Anyway, here it is...)

Have been meaning to communicate for at least week and upload some pics, but it's taken me this long to get the new camera
software onto my computer. Yes, so did we say we lashed out on a digital SLR?? (second hand of course- thanks ebay) We had planned (vaguely) to buy a video camera, but we came to the realisation that we both probably wouldn't use it that much - we both get off more on framing shots and stuff. So we've been relatively trigger happy this week - will put a
few up here (or in the next posts).

Anyway, the other news is that there's no news! On the baby that is... It's still wriggling around in me, despite the due date passing as on Wed 25th. But when I think about it, if I was the baby, I'd make the most of the cosy space it's in while I could! We haven't at all started stressing yet (I might in a week!), but it's a really wierd waiting space. Piper was a day early, and we'd been so busy before that, that waiting never entered into it. With this kiddo, there's been things to finish and get done, but they are largely done and it's all bonus time now... We've been doing lots of socialising - had something on almost every night last week...

Last weekend we were up at Gembrook - I was so
glad we went up, cos at first I didn't want to, in case I had to sit in the car for an hour all the way home if I went into labour. However, when the weekend came round, we just decided to go, and while I was there, it felt so good to be there, like there was nowhere else I'd rather be right then - a really lovely feeling. The main task for the working bee was to clear the fenceline along one of the boundary roads, so we can get a new fence put in. I love burning off, and did my bit while Jane looked after the kids, even if I was a bit slow and had to take a few rests! I remembered that two weeks before Piper was born, we were up at Gembrook too, cutting down a massive tree with John and Anne, Gord's parents, and stacking up a big woodpile. Felt good to be engaged with the land, and it doesn't seem to bring labour on! Anyway, I was proud of my blackberry scratches!

Anyway, will finish this post here and see it it will upload this time!

Love Bec

P.S. The first photo is of Jane and the kids with the very sick wombat who hangs around the property. For one thing, it wouldn't normally be out during the day, and you'd usually never get that close it it. It's almost blind, I think, and is very sick with mange.... But still, great to see one up close...

Easter

Here's what we looked like on Easter morning, having attended church for the three preceding evenings, culminating in champagne and hot cross buns at 12am at the end of the Saturday night vigil!

I bought Piper a bunny, and Gord a different bunny, and then I thought I'd better buy myself one too, in case Gord didn't think of it, and just as well I did! Piper's purple egg is from Pippa and Poppa. She's had a cold this week - caught it from me - so we've been rationing the chocolate intake. At the moment, only the bunny's head and ears have disappeared, along with a tiny top section of the egg. Needless to say, Gord's bunny and my bunny have long since been consumed!

Anyway, I'm sure you were all incredibly interested in the state of our Easter confectionary!

The highlight of our day today was having photos taken, largely to capture my pregnant belly. Gord paid for some of it, as a Christmas gift for me, and we got to organising the shoot this month, which is when I'm looking most impressive anyway! I found a photographer via google (you can look at her website here) and booked her. She works with natural light, as opposed to shots set up in a studio, so she came to our house and we posed in the beautiful golden afternoon light coming in through the loungeroom windows. We ended up nekkid, even, which felt really natural. I can't wait to see the results - might even publish one here! Depends how risque they are!

Gord and Piper are playing memory at the moment, and singing Baa Baa Black Sheep. I believe Piper's being the mum and Gord's being the whiny kid - it's somewhat disconcerting hearing our own words coming out of her mouth! I've made a cake, which is taking longer to cook than the recipe said, so the anticipation is growing!

Back to the pregnancy stuff (!), it's just so cool how Gord and I are both really excited about the upcoming birth. Not only because we'll get to meet this new life, but also, I'm actually looking forward to the labour. I think it will be different from last time, even though last time went so well. I'm just carrying way less angst about everything, and hope this means I'll be able to surrender even more easily to the whole process. It's felt really good to get the bedroom all painted, and a new doona and doona cover organised. Just need some curtains on the windows now! We haven't picked up the birth pool yet, but I really feel like the baby could come any time now and it would all work out fine. I've even managed to finish the placenta bag...

What's that? you say... We're planning to have a Lotus birth. What's that?? you say. Sounds fancy or whatever, but basically what it means is we won't cut the umbilical cord, so the cord and placenta remain attached to the baby until they drop off in their own time, in the baby's time. It's based on the idea that the placenta belongs to the baby, having developed from the same cells that the foetus came from. It can remain attached for three to ten days. You wash and drain the placenta well, and then salt it daily until it detached. It seems like a fairly mysterious process to me, but one worthwhile engaging in - we can tell you our experience, once we have an experience to share! We didn't do it with Piper, cos we didn't know about it then....

Anyway, will wind it up here and check the cake! Love to all...