THANK YOU!!!

I just wanted to say a long overdue thank you to two loverly ladies.

First off, April - thank you soooooo much for the beautiful star blanket you knitted Bae!!! we LOVE it, its fantastic to use in his hammock over him at night because its round it tucks right into the pillow, the perfect shape, & its nice & warm too! it must have taken you hours & hours & hours to make & we really appreciate all the love & care that went into it!

April made this blanket for Bae when she found out i was pregnant as part of a pay it forward thing, which no one ever responded to on my blog (there are two comments there but they are from people that loved the idea but didn't want to take part) - so if you want to then the post is here, i will warn you though you wont be getting anything as spectacular as the blanket April knitted me, i just don't have the patience for blankets!!!

Secondly i want to thank Hayley. Hayley very kindly gave me a whole stack of newborn cloth nappies which have made our cloth journey soooooo much easier than with jet (we just used terrys for him in the newborn stage). lots of them are her creations & they are just fantastic! he's wearing one in the pic below, if i was smart i would have taken a pic of all of them before he was born (but I'm not!), now most of them are either waiting to be washed, being warn or waiting to be put back together so i didn't have many to take a group pic of (slack arse i know!).

so..... A HUGE THANK YOU TO HAYLEY & APRIL!!!!

sorry its taken me so long!

Bae's Birth Story

Bae Theo Wolters

Birth Details
Born on the 18/5/09 at 11.10am Gosford Hospital.
Weight: 3.6 kilos/8.15 pounds
Length: 51cm
Head Circumference: 35.5cm

Why we chose his name
Bae – a Korean name meaning inspiration (Pronounced like Bay)
Theo – One of Rocky's (many many) uncles, who he stayed with in Holland when he was 19. He means a great deal to Rocky & shares Bae’s birthday so it seemed fitting to use his name as Bae’s middle name.

Birth Story
On Saturday the 16th I had a bit of a show at around 3pm, followed by some light contractions through the night (most of which I slept through). Once I got up in the morning they subsided & I only had a couple of very light contractions throughout the day. That didn’t stop Rocky from cleaning the whole house & running around with a huge smile on his face in anticipation of the big event.

I had another show Sunday afternoon & then more contractions Sunday night. They were a bit stronger, about 1 every hour or so but I still managed to get allot of sleep. I got up at about 6.30am on Monday & had a shower, the contractions quickly started to come quite regularly & grew more intense. I called our wonderful midwife (& family friend) Bernadette at around 7.20am, not really sure if I was in labour since the contractions felt different to the ones I experienced with Jet.

We left for the hospital at about 8.10am, luckily for me my contractions died down in the car, I think I only got 3 in the 30 minute trip! We arrived at the hospital at about 8:40am. I was a bit concerned that I wasn’t in labour because the contractions had subsided in the car (even though they started up again once it got out), but at about 9am Bernadette checked me out & said I was already 7cm dilated.

I spent the next hour or two going in between the shower & the bath, then settled into the bath & moved into the last phase of labour. I think I only had about 10 big contractions & then out he came (over about 15 or 20 mins). His head came out in one contraction & he was posterior so we could see his little face all scrunched up in the water, then he giggled himself around & with daddy’s help managed to wiggle his shoulders out with my next contraction & that was it – he was out! He cried straight away & fed within about 10 mins of the birth. Rocky was very excited that he got to deliver him & cut his umbilical cord.

I settled down onto the bed with our new little son while we decided on a name (after consulting his astrology chart!) & called the grandparents to congratulate them on the arrival of their second grandson! My mum was looking after Jet (who desperately wanted to come with us when we left) & as soon as soon as he heard we were on the phone he started pulling grandma towards the car. Mum bought him all the way to Gosford to come & meet his new little brother, only to have him fall asleep in the car from all the excitement, so she turned around & took him home again.

4 & 1/2 hours after the birth we were discharged & came home to all the grandparents & Jet who proceeded to point out that Bae had two eyes & ears & then settled down to hold him on the couch for the next 20 mins.

The birth was completely natural, no gas or other drugs used. I had no tearing, only a few tiny grazes which haven’t given me any trouble at all. Funnily enough the thing I’ve found most painful after the birth is my sternum, it made a popping or cracking sound at some point in the last stage of labour & now all the muscles in my chest feel very fatigued & sore!

Introducing...

Bae Theo Wolters born 11.10am today. Beautiful natural water birth :)

40 Weeks Today!

I thought today might be the day, i had a show yesterday at about 3pm & had sporadic contractions through the night then when i got up in the morning they stopped! Ive had more of a show today & maybe a few light contractions here & there but nothing solid yet. Maybe bub is just trying to hold out to be a Gemini! If he comes any time after 7.40am on the 21st he will be so only a few days to wait....or maybe he is just indecisive like his mummy & cant decide if he wants to come out or stay in.

Anyway, I'm just resting up & trying to get as much sleep as i can so i have some energy for the birth. I'm actually looking forward to it - i had a great birth with jet (although if you asked me at the time i would have told you it was bloody awful & i never wanted to do it again). With him i was one week overdue, i had a show in the middle of the night then got contractions through the day but i didn't know that was what they were, they were only like light period pain. Then when we were eating dinner they started to get stronger. I think we went into the hospital at about 10 or 11 & he had a water birth at 5:50am. i would say there was only about 3 hours of pain, no tearing, i used a bit of gas but no epidural or anything else (i did crack a tooth on the gas mouth piece though - oops!). So they say you can halve your labour second time round - if that's the case this time should be a breeze!

ill sms a pic of bub & the birth details here once he is born - hopefully not to long away :)

More Longies!

A friend from the ABA (Australian Breastfeeding Association) had her 5th bub at the beginning of april & she is a fellow cloth nappy user so i decided to make her some longies for her bub (these are the little turtle knits picky pants ones.

I made the small & the medium size, theres quite a difference between them! Hopefully the small will fit her now & for another couple of months, the medium might even fit her next year?

Heres some pics:

Ive ordered the Ladybug Loops pattern because im not keen on how chubby the legs are with this one, but i havent got it yet. When i do though im sure there will be even more pics of longies on this site!!!

Crochet Felted Nursing Breast Pads

I found a pattern for felted breast pads on Ravelry & since ive managed to crochet one thing i figured id give these a go. Somehow i ended up with more stitches than the pattern said i should but hey, they look ok! Ive felted them up & they look like their the perfect size - just got to lanolise them now, then wait for bub to arrive & my milk to come in!

Heres some pics, this is both felted & unfelted:

& these are ones after felting:

& before felting:

Sorry, no action shots this time ;)

My First Crochet Project :)

Ive been wanting to learn to crochet for a while but havent been able to work out how to do it! Anytime i picked a pattern to try i just couldnt get my head around it, so i asked the wonderful ladies on nappycino for a suggestion & Claire reccomended the Brrr Baby Beanie, so i gave it a go & i did it!!! :D

Heres some happy snaps:Its a bit big for Jets baby:

Im so happy ive finally made something! Now all i have to do is figure out what should i do next? ;)

Wooly Outfit for Bub #2

Ive been knitting so i thought id share!

I knitted a pair of picky pants for bub #2 & thought id make a jacket to go along with it. I did size 0-3 months for both patterns.

Here's the jacket, i used snaps instead of a button, i don't think its meant to fold over quite that much but i figured it would keep him warmer. This isn't my favorite jacket pattern, the bottom sits a bit funny but hopefully it looks ok on bub!


& here's the pants, i just love the picky pants pattern! i did the ribbed waist with an i-cord tie & ribbed cuffs at the bottom. Jet actually has a matching pair (same wool but i used the little turtle knits longies pattern which is skinnier in the legs), i don't think Ive ever blogged about them though!:

Teddy likes it but its a bit big for him!

& a little small for mr frog (plus its not really his colour!!!):

& one last pic:

Not long to go till bub gets here now - I'm 38 weeks tomorrow! We still haven't got any idea about names, we have a list of about 50 but I'm just not really that into any of them, guess we will just have to wait & meet him!