Blessingway & Baby shower...

Yesterday we had a small Blessing Way Ceremony & Baby shower...

A Blessing Way, which is a North American Indian tradition is fast becoming a great alternative to the traditional 'baby shower'. Having only ever been to one other Blessingway for Antonella, who's son is Zara's age and baby girl is 4 months old, I knew that it would be something I would want to have with my friends and family when the time came to celebrate Flutterbug's imminent arrival.

Two weeks ago, Orsi & Jo offered to organise us a baby shower & I felt it would be great to include parts of this tradition into our family get together...

Each woman was asked to bring a bead or two for a blessing necklace. During the ceremony the women left the Dads with the kids and we all went upstairs to form a sisterhood circle. Then a bowl was handed around and each woman gave her beads and a blessing for me and new baby as they threaded the beads to make a necklace. The necklace was then given to me to wear during the rest of my pregnancy and the birth. I have been totally blown away by the love, support & empowerment this has given me, Chris & Zara as we enter our last faze of preparation to meet Flutterbug.

Afterwards we all went back down to join the Dads and kids, gorged on far too much yummy cakes and treats and got thoroughly spoilt with gifts for Flutterbug...

What a truly magical day that we'll treasure for years to come - Thank you everyone!

Big Girl Room - COMPLETE

I have had many requests to see the final finished product of Zara's room...

Once again, big thanks to:

Granny & Grandpa Hilton for all the sewing and "handyman" work...

Grannyannie & Grandpa for the zillion ladybugs on the mozzienet...

Sue for getting vinyl decals to SA super fast...

Dad for playing handyman & coughing up the cash...

Mom for the idea...

Zara for being the big girl!!!

All the rest of you for thanks for the nick-knacks & endless love & support always ...

big belly...

As you might remember, I had a belly mask done of my tummy when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Zara... So this week I had another one done so that I could compare belly's.

Zara was quite intrigued by the process of Theoni pasting "stuff" all over my tummy and insisted on getting naked too - what a great daughter to keep me company ;~) I know she would have loved to "help" Theoni so we kept her distracted with some Easter eggs. Zara seems to have been a far "quieter" baby in utero so it was quite a weird experience this time as the baby just kept moving around - he/she seems to be constantly busy but also probably wasn't wild about the coldness on my tum?

As you can see its quite a messy affair but well worth it in the end with a treasured art piece to keep for each child so they can see how they transformed my body. Chris and I have had fun examining each belly mask and taken note that although there are some similarities, my tum is different...

The final countdown...

I am now 36 weeks, so with approx 4 weeks to go till we meet our little Flutterbug I have been quite busy "nesting"...

Zara is nicely settled into her big girl room and en-suite bathroom. The move over has been gradual and this week, she decided no more changing on the baby's change table but only in her room so sometimes I feel like my back is going to give in. She also decided to give her 1st pair of gumboots and grobag to the baby. There are days that she wants to be a big girl and other days she feels the need to be my little baby. We are just letting her set the pace as she feels comfortable...

I have cleaned out the linen cupboard, larder cupboard, bookcase etc... we have also washed all the newborn baby clothes and I plan to sort out the nursery next week...

We have seen Dr Mia, our back-up doctor. He says the baby is well positioned and a nice size so he has given us a full thumbs up for our planned birth at Genesis Clinic. Although it is very difficult to determine an accurate size for the baby, Dr Mia estimated he/she currently weighs about 2700g. On average a baby will gain 150g per week from now so he would estimate roughly 3300g at term - pretty much what Zara weighed at birth (3280g). He did say the baby is mature enough to be born so we should be ready for when he/she is ready.

We will now see Sharon on a weekly basis till the baby decides he/she is ready to meet the world... my guess is that seeings we are ready, prepared and organised this time round he/she will make us wait till 42 weeks (unlike Zara who decided to catch us completely unawares) "just because he/she can"

I am feeling strong and healthy and savouring each day left of the pregnancy. Although I am desperate to meet our new baby, I have thoroughly enjoyed being pregnant! Its been a far easier pregnancy this time round so know I will miss the flutters when baby is born.

What a big Girl!!!

Having had a rather torturous week and even rougher weekend with Zara been sick, I thought we would be a long way off moving her into her "big-girl bed"! But low and behold today at lunchtime, she announced to Chris that she wanted to have her nap in her new room...

My immediate feeling was that this was going to be a way of tricking us into not actually having a sleep and getting us to run circles around her. She came and gave me a kiss "goodnight" as I was sorting stuff out in the nursery and toddled off with Dad to her new room! I didn't hear a peep from her for over an hour so can only assume she actually did sleep.

Tonight when it was time for her bath, we asked her where she wanted to sleep and she said in her "big girl room" so while she was bathing, Chris and I rallied around to get her chair, radio & monitor all set for the big event! After getting dressed in the nursery, she was a bit concerned that her chair was missing but got all excited to see we had put it safely in her new room. She chose her story (& managed to sneak two extra books in as well...) after a little cuddle with me, she went into her bed and all I can say is "so far, so good!!!"

We feel extremely proud of her making the decision all by herself but also realise that in many respects our little baby is not so little anymore. I suppose the lesson for me, in particular is to try let her guide me as to how much change can be tolerated at one given time!

Even though she is growing up daily - she will always be our little girl!!!

Ladybird mania

Having had Gran Heather make all the bedding and lengthen the curtains for Zara's new room, we thought it only fair to get Grannyannie to sew 100 ladybird buttons onto Zara's mozzi net. I did phone her 2 days before going to Durban to warn her that she had a "mammoth" task ahead of her and got a rather nervous giggle as a response! Having sewn 1 button on, we soon realised that this was not going to work! The buttons were too heavy to be sewn on so in stepped Grandpa. The best plan he could suggest was to glue the buttons to the net. BUT what glue?? Super glue didn't work so whilst Grannyannie cut the loops off the back of the buttons, Zara picked up the bits of plastic and Grandpa and I used the glue gun to glue all the ladybirds to the net. It was all done in much shorter time than I anticipated and the final result is truly too cute for words - now we just need Dad to get the net up over the "big girl bed"...

Making changes

With just a few weeks before we meet our little Flutterbug, we have all been busy gearing up for the big changes in our family. Zara in particular has been facing the most change with potty training, getting Dad to do bedtime and with the prospect of moving from the nursery into her own "big-girl bed". I have been telling her that we going to make her a nice new ladybird room and that she will be sleeping in the bed that was mine when I was a little girl... so far she seems OK with this so I have been running around sourcing ladybird goodies to make her room special and thus hopefully a smoother transition into the new room. Over the weekend the Hilton grandparents were here for a visit and Heather spent the most part "chained" to the sewing machine making the duvet covers and some covers for the new baby's change mat. Graham and Chris put up curtain rails and some floating shelves... Everyone had a little help from the big girl herself and she really seemed pleased with all the goings on...