Approaching life..

I am really looking forward to having a blog that is actually full of delicious homemade food, pictures of all the delicious veggies we grow in the garden and post after post of all the pretty things I make on my sewing machine.

I am not sure if it because I am feeling so incredibly lucky at the moment or if it was the 5 months of full bed rest that did it, but for some reason I am feeling so motivated to approach life with absolute energy and passion at the moment.

I keep imagining life in our new house, with our new gorgeous baby and me.. unlike I have ever been before.. A new version of 'me' that is organised and motivated and has a new passion for life and motherhood and creating a wonderful loving home. Someone who shops at the local farmers markets and cooks delicious homemade meals from scratch, spends her time gardening and sewing and being absorbed in every moment with her kids. Someone who has the laundry sorted and the house clean and has time to bake muffins before playgroup in the morning. I imagine dancing around the house at 5pm with my kids laughing and happy and having fun because I will have prepared dinner at 10am instead of thinking about what to make at 6.45pm. I will be a better mother, a better wife and a better friend.

But then reality sets in..

I will be tired. Really tired. I will have a newborn. I will have a 4 year old who has to deal with moving house, changing schools and getting a new sibling all in the same month. I will have a husband that now takes an hour to get home from work instead of 10 minutes. I will be really out of shape after spending majority of the last 9 months in bed and I will probably spend most of the day in my pyjamas..

But you know what? I am okay with that. I'm more than okay with that..

I am going to spend every second just savouring that newborn goodness while eating take away in a house that resembles a junk yard. I am going to sit there with a smile on my face and hope that the motivation to make my life look like a pinterest board is still there in 6 months time!

Yeah!

These are some of my favourite photos from Instagram.. You can follow me on Instagram if you like (@grow_cook_sew) as I may be a bit sporadic in posting over the next few weeks (You know.. moving house and having a baby and all!)

Thirty four weeks..

I can not believe I have made it to 34 weeks.. Tom and I have literally spent the last 7 months dreaming and hoping every single day that I would make it this far.. and here we are!

I just can not wait to meet this little baby. I feel so incredible grateful that he will be with us soon. I actually feel like he could cry and scream and keep me awake all night and I won't complain a single bit because I know how lucky I am to have him.

Not long to go now..

A baby sprinkle..

I had a little party on the weekend to celebrate the fact that I had made it to 34 weeks and that I survived months of bed rest. I also just wanted an excuse to catch up with all my girlfriends, many whom I had not seen since I fell pregnant.

Tom spent the entire morning cleaning the house and baking. He made his signature flour-less chocolate cake, my favourite mandarin, lime and yoghurt cake and a few other yummy treats.
Tom's mum made an orange and almond cake (she makes one for us almost every time we head up to the farm.. she picks the oranges off the tree in the morning and boils them for hours before using them to make the cake.. It is so good, I'll make sure I grab the recipe off her next time I see her).

We spent the afternoon chatting, drinking tea and eating cake. It was so lovely and of course, I got absolutely spoilt with gorgeous baby gifts. I didn't have a baby shower with Sophie (I always felt it was a bit self-indulgent) but this time around I felt that I had so much to celebrate that an afternoon of eating cake was necessary!

Unfortunately though, I didn't manage to take any photos which is such a shame because Tom had been to the flower markets in the morning and the whole place (including the table setting) looked so lovely. I did however, take this photo the next day when we were still eating cake (well actually, Tom is sugar free at the moment, so I took it upon myself to finish the entire cake on my own! Oops!)

Thirty three

33 weeks! Not quite sure what was so interesting up in the sky!

Home sweet home..

Here are the photos I promised of our new place! We settle in just under a month but when we actually move in will depend on when this little baby decides to arrive. (It's going to be a crazy few weeks when we have a baby and move house at the same time but I promise I will not complain a single bit!)

Tom and I had our heart set on buying a weatherboard house with wooden floorboards inside, a decent kitchen, a bit of space outside for kids to run around and room to build a little veggie patch. We had been researching different areas around Perth and prices since we moved here over a year ago so we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted.
Although I have to admit that while this house ticked all our boxes, it's not the type of house I thought we would end up buying.. Tom and I both really love old rambling places with overgrown gardens and lots of character. We both found this house a bit too "clean" and we were devastated to learn that the house used to have about 4 beautiful mature gum trees in the garden that had been pulled out before it was renovated.
But, we decided that buying a simple, clean house provides the perfect canvas to create the type of home we want from scratch. We can't wait to cover the walls in artworks and have a garden full of trees and veggies and do all those little things that will help turn this house into a home.
(The first thing I am going to do though is remove those ridiculous letters from above the bathtub!)

On the home stretch now..

I had an appointment with my obstetrician yesterday and it looks like this little baby might be arriving sooner rather than later, of course its impossible to predict these things but judging by the ultrasound I had and the contractions I have been having, it looks like things are getting ready to happen.

I will be 32 weeks tomorrow which is over the really risky stage but could still mean up to two months in neonatal care if this little man does decide to come now, so we are really hoping that he stays put for another month at least.

I have to go into hospital tomorrow to have steroid injections to help speed up his lung development. I'm a little nervous as I don't particularly like the thought of giving steroids to an unborn baby, and am a little worried about the (unknown) long term effects of un-naturally speeding up development. But like many other decisions I have made in this pregnancy, I have learnt to accept that science and medicine sometimes do have a (very valuable) place in pregnancy and childbirth. I also trust my obstetrician that this is going to give our baby the best possible chance if he does decide to come early.

In other news, Sophie has been on school holidays for the last two weeks (which may explain why this baby might come early.. it's impossible to lie in bed 24 hours a day with a 4 year old running around!)
I have had such a lovely time with her, she is really starting to turn into a proper little person. Watching her learn to read and write is so exciting and I can see her growing up more and more each day.
She is so excited about having a little brother and I know she is going to be such a great big sister.
Very exciting times ahead..

Life is happening

I have struggled to find the time or energy to write a post lately. My life is completely preoccupied with the imminent arrival of our little boy and moving into our new home which are due to happen within a week of each other! I have been so busy trying to get organised but still trying to rest as much as possible.

I also feel like I have nothing to write at the moment because all I can tell you is how happy I am, and I fear I might start to get awfully boring if I keep going on and on about how things are finally falling into place for us (but seriously.. being weeks away from holding the baby that we have been longing for for years and buying our first home just seems unbelievable to me! I can't believe that the things we have spent soo long working towards are almost here.. it's so incredibly exciting).

On that note, I'll leave you with a picture of the cutest little French baby shoes..

x

Hello stranger

I love that when I go a week or so without writing a post I get emails from total strangers asking me if everything is alright. (So sweet.. Thank you!)

Everything is going really well, as I said in my last post.. better than ever! I can't believe that we are so close to having a place to call home AND a little baby! (Although it's a little scary when these things are so, so close but you are not quite there yet).

I have been so busy all week trying to organise everything to make our dream house turn into a reality (Building inspections, wood ant inspections etc. etc.) but we are now just waiting for the bank to give us the green light and hopefully they will! (I've been preying to the mortgage gods all week!)

I also reached 30 weeks yesterday which feels like such a huge milestone.. I am finally starting to get out of bed for an hour or so each day and it feels so good to be back in the world again! I managed to get a hair cut (for the first time in almost a year) and make a very quick stop at the local fabric store last week.. both things that I have been dreaming of doing for months.

I wanted to post a photo of my belly to show you all but Tom was busy cooking dinner (and making the most delicious pears poached in red wine for desert), I didn't want to disturb him so I asked Sophie to take a photo for me..

This is what I ended up with.. Either she is a brilliant, creative photographer in the making or just can't manage to hold my phone still enough.. I'm going to go with creative genius!