Maybe I should just keep having babies . . .

I know I've mentioned before how great I've got it having babies in Australia, but things keep getting better and better. Not only do I get paid at half pay for a whole year from my work, but as of January 2011, the Australian government is now paying all working moms (or dads but not both) to stay home for the first 18 weeks after a baby is born. What this means to me is that on top of the money that my employer pays me for staying home, I now also get paid over $500/week from the government. It's crazy! And totally rad!

And also, we have virtually no out-of-pocket hospital expenses for the birth AND we get a family stipend every two weeks to help cover the costs of a child (which at the moment is $25 or so, but will likely go up once we have two littlies, and again once the littlies start school to help cover school costs).

And then on top of all this, my hubby spoils me too! Before Elliot was born we got a very sensible and very snazzy Subaru Outback (which is only like my dream car for like forever!). And today, just in time for Oliver's big entrance, I got the iphone that I've been contemplating/dreaming about for the last couple of years. Am I the luckiest or what?!?!?!

Hmmm . . . I wonder what I might get if I decided to have another baby . . .

Working hard with Daddy!

Belly Paint

Two years ago, my friend Monica sent me this great belly paint so that we could paint my pregnant belly. Unfortunately, Elliot decided to come into the world before we had the chance to use it. How appropriate that now he gets to help paint my belly this time around! And we had a great time, even if we did get a little carried away! Thanks, Moni!

Play-dohs!

One of my favourite things to play with is my Play-dohs (and yes, it is always plural!). Can you tell how into it I am? ~ Elliot

We've got a middle name!

After months and months of searching websites and bugging friends, the perfect middle name came up and clonked us smack in the head. The circumstances surrounding getting hit in the head have not been the best to say the least, but the name is just perfect and has given us a great deal of happiness and peace during this sad time.

A few weeks ago, one of my most favourite people in the world, my Gramma (AKA Gramma Flippity Flop, AKA Gramma Cabbage Patch) was given about six weeks to live. She has developed gangrene in her leg and since she's 91 and has several other medical concerns, she has decided to let the infection take its course. Thankfully, she will be given heaps of morphine and should be able to live out her final weeks in peace.

The saddest bit about it all is that due to the fact that I'm so pregnant, I'm not able to fly over and give her my final hugs in person, (although I know that all of my family is there happily being my surrogate huggers--gosh, she'll be missed by us all!).

So how to honor this very special person in my life? With a name like Audrey May Schatzel it took a bit of creativity to incorporate it into a suitable boy's name, but finally we decided that Mason was perfect (May's son). And now the newest member of our family will get to carry with him forever a little piece of one the most amazing people I've ever known. It feels just right.

Now if we'd just stop having second thoughts about the name Oliver . . .

I feel FANTASTIC!!!!

Y'know that glorious feeling when you've felt cruddy for a while and then you start feeling better again, like your old self only better? Well, I've been feeling like that all week, and it feels so very good! Finally after weeks of feeling sick and weeks before that when I was in so much pain, I feel GREAT!!!

I have energy (granted it's a third trimester level of energy but it feels superb nonetheless), a sense of humor again, and best of all, for some miraculous reason (maybe the weight has shifted more forward and less down? who knows? who cares!!!!) my pains have subsided considerably and I can go to the shops or do some cleaning or best of all, play with Elliot without feeling miserable! HAL-LE-LU-JAH!!

And of course with feeling better physically comes feeling better emotionally, and I think we are all very happy to see that cranky Casey has finally budged over and made room for fun, silly, optimistic Casey. I'm feeling so excited (and nervous) to meet Oliver and see how he and Elliot will get on

I'm also cherishing these last few weeks of being pregnant (something I definitely wouldn't have said six weeks ago!) and feeling Oliver move and sharing these last weeks of my body. I'm so grateful to have this reprieve because I didn't want to end my last pregnancy hating everything about it. Being pregnant is a pretty miraculous thing and I'm glad I've been given another chance to marvel in it for a little while.

P.S. This isn't my real belly, but a stand-in I found on google!

Is anything better than playing at the park with my cousins?

Before Vinnie and Dommie hopped into a plane and flew home to Broome, Mommy and Auntie Sue took us to the bestest park! Just look at all the fun we had! I sure had a great time and wish my cousins could play with me more often. ~ Elliot

I love to play Nana's piano!



How can something so cute make you feel so pukey?

After many weeks of feeling really unwell with nausea, tummy aches and intermittent diarrhea and a horrible last Saturday that saw me frequenting the toilet up to 40 times and resulted in me spending the day in the hospital hooked up to a drip, they've finally worked out what's wrong with me. Somehow, somewhere I've picked up a little giardia parasite. Now I'm on some super antibiotics and hopefully in a couple of days I'll be feeling much better and starting to gain back some of the 2.5 kilos that I have lost. No wonder it felt like World War III in my belly!

P.S. Thankfully, Oliver has been checked out about every third day with fetal monitoring and he's doing just fine. In fact, the midwives always comment on just how much he moves which I'm not kidding you is ALL the time!

It's purple!

Just a quick photo to show the progess with our house. Paul's Dad is up all week, and they've been working hard trying to get the front veranda finished so if Oliver decides to come early, we'll at the very least be able to get from the garage to the front door without tromping through the dirt and rubble. There's still a lot of work ahead, but I think it's starting to look pretty damn good!

Thanks for all your hard work guys!

World War III took place in my belly last night!

With the Braxton Hicks contractions (which I don't remember ever having with Elliot), Oliver's usual rowdy kicking and elbowing and partying topped off with a serious case of the hiccups, and some uncomfortable gas bubbles and pains going on in my own belly, it's no wonder that I got virtually no sleep last night. Fingers crossed I'll be sleeping through the festivities tonight. I could really use a good night sleep!

Day at the Beach

What fun we had the other day when the whole family went to the beach! I wanted to swim really bad, but it was so cold that my lips turned blue so instead Daddy and I built a sand fort with my new sand toys! Afterward we all ate fish and chips and I played on the toys and hung out with Uncle David, Rebeka, Rhiannon, Nana and Grandad. I wish we could go to the beach every day! ~ Elliot