Eco Ninjas

Beware the masked bandits lurking in the undergrowth....

Soon...

I don't think it will be too much longer.

Nesting urge has kicked into high gear.

Back, hips and pelvis are loosening up.

Autoimmune issues have gone into remission for the first time in about 8 years.

Braxton Hicks contractions are becoming more intense and frequent. I can feel some of them doing things. Not just tightening but also pulling, stretching, crampiness, heaviness and pressure. I can feel changes.

Ready when you are, baby.

A Lovely Day at the Park

Great weather and great friends...

Yummy food to share...

Bird watching, duck feeding, boat watching...

A wonderful, relaxing day :)

   

And home, late in the afternoon, where Shmoo's interest was piqued by a textbook on inorganic chemistry that he found stashed away on one of our bookshelves. He spent quite a bit of time poring over the periodic table and discussing the elements with The OH, fascinated with the diagrams of the various molecular structures in the book.

Birth Wall

The boys have been helping with the artwork to decorate my wall of inspiration for labour/birth.

Baby Bottom Balm

 

Isn't that just the most gorgeous, golden, sunny colour?! I'd forgotten how impatient I get waiting for the beeswax to gently melt into the warm oil but I got there in the end (and without overheating it all). I used jojoba, rosehip and calendula oils, about 1.1L in total, and about 150g beeswax. I find that's usually a fairly good ratio for our cool climate so that it doesn't set too hard (not fun trying to apply hard lumps of balm to a baby's bottom!). I ended up with 9 x 100g jars; 6 (and a half) x 30g jars; and 1 x 20g jar. I keep the jars that aren't currently in use in the fridge and they last absolutely ages (but that does also depend on the shelf life of the oils that you use). Great for keeping the yucky stuff away from babe's sensitive skin; preventing and healing rashes; and I always use it at each nappy change for the first few days as it makes the sticky meconium clean-ups a breeze.

Girls Clothes / Boys Clothes

Not being restricted by gender stereotypes means...

Coming home with 12 items of clothing for the kids from the op shop instead of 3. Shmoo loves his silky soft, stripey PJ pants; Loo adores the dark pink t-shirt with the happy, glittery cat on the front; and Beanie is thrilled to have pale pink, flowery, soft flannelette PJ pants and a PJ top with a a pink and green flowery Babushka doll on it.

Happy kids and bargain prices. Who cares that most of it was from the 'girls' section!? The only issue I have is that girls' clothing is so much more 'fitted' than boys' clothing of the same size, even for size 2-3 stuff. I usually have to go up at least 2 sizes when selecting from the girls' section. I know that typically boys are slightly taller and heavier than girls of the same age but not by that much... it's ridiculous! My boys are all on the shorter, skinnier side of average for their ages and the differences in clothing sizes are still very noticeable. It's a very sad state of affairs when girls are subjected to this kind of pressure, even if subtly, from such a young age. No wonder so many women have grown up to feel self-conscious and unhappy about the size and shape of their body.

I Know I'm Getting Close When...

I wake up at 3 am and seriously consider getting up to clean the washing machine.

Gotta love that nesting urge. ;)

The Birth Box

   

- New car seat for Beanie purchased and installed; and old car seat turned around into newborn position.

- Car seat box decorated by kids and starting to be filled with homebirth supplies.

- Birth Day gifts for kids and midwife wrapped and ready.

- Taking 5W capsules from midwife.

More Bulk Cooking

Yum... I now have a dozen containers of Honey Baked Lentils in the freezer. Two out of the three kids didn't really like them but the rest of us do. I've made the recipe quite a few times in the past but this time I did it in the slow cooker and it turned out brilliantly. Since I was doing a bulk batch I upped the quantity to 8 cups of lentils; used tamari instead of soy; halved the amount of stock (since it was going in the SC); used about 3/4 of the amount of the other liquid ingredients; left out the chilli; and only used about 5 onions as the SC was starting to look a bit full by that stage! 5-6 hours on high and it was lovely and thick and delicious.

Karate Kids

Karate lessons have started up again and Loo Bear's attending the bi-weekly kids' classes along with Shmoo. We'll see how he goes. ;)

Shmoo's as keen as ever. In addition to the kids' classes, he's trialling attending one of the adult evening classes per week that The OH goes to and he seems to be enjoying it. Apparently there's some tournament over in Launnie just before Easter and Shmoo's very enthusiastic about participating in it. He says he's willing to take it seriously and put in the practise so I think this will be a fantastic way to extend his skills (on so many different levels) and increase his self-confidence. Gonna be a big year for him, I think!

Mmm... Meatballs

Made a mega bulk batch of tasty meatballs for dinner tonight based on this awesome Nom Nom Paleo recipe. I used finely grated carrot instead of sweet potato and normal button mushrooms (and was quite heavy-handed with both - hey, it's a good way to sneak some veg into the kids!); onion instead of shallots and I did also add a little crushed garlic. Sooooo good! The flavours were amazing and the kids actually ate them! I made enough for tonight's dinner, a few left over for nibbling on tomorrow, and 8 containers to freeze for easy meals after Baby Bear is born. :D

I Feel the Earth Move...

I woke up at 7.20 this morning after hearing a very lound rumble and feeling the whole house shake and rattle quite strongly for over 5 seconds. No raging thunderstorm going on overhead and a cavalcade of logging trucks going past so early on a Sunday morning seemed a bit unlikely. 'WTF was that?' I asked The OH, only to get a sleepy 'Huh? What?' in reply. But the kids felt it too so I knew I hadn't imagined it.

Turns out we had a 3.4 quake out in the Bass Strait. Great opportunity to do some research into earthquakes! :)

Birth Clips

The boys and I spent a good part of the afternoon YouTubing, watching homebirth videos. We started off with a bunch of great ones I'd previously bookmarked from Gloria Lemay's blog and then moved on to searching YouTube itself.

The boys loved watching all the babies being born (including the photo montage of their own births) and it's good to know that they won't be too concerned by the sights and sounds of a normal, natural labour. Shmoo and Loo had wanted to see Beanie being born but things happened so quickly we didn't get a chance to wake them up... Hopefully they'll get to see Baby Bear's birth!

Afterwards we got the doppler out and they each had a go at finding Baby Bear's heartbeat as well as their own.

Read. Learn. Teach.

Baby Prep

- Bassinette set up and linen washed.
- Baby bag (small travel case) unearthed from the spare room and have started packing it with things for the first few days (keeps basic things in one place and also will serve as a hospital bag in case of transfer).
- Cloth breast pads and sanitary pads washed and ready to go. Eco-disposable maternity pads ready for first few days.
- A few minor repairs carried out on the trusty Hug-A-Bub (has served us well and been an essential for all 3 boys).
- Labour and post-birth music playlists created.
- List of contacts and last-minute-in-labour to-do list created and ready to be printed out.
- Drinking red raspberry leaf and brushing up on Pink Kit skills.
- Bulk cooking started to fill the chest freezer with meals and snacks.
- Ingredients for baby bottom balm purchased and ready to be made.
- Starting birth prep for the kids.

Birth Blessing (by Natalie Evans)

Close your eyes and breathe deep

Breathe in peace, breathe out pain

Imagine your feet

Toes curling into dirt

Think of yourself as rooted

Think of your place in the earth

How did you come to be here?

Through generations of women named

A maternal lineage

That brought you to this place

Think of their birth stories

What you know, what you believe to be true

Realize that their births carry deep wisdom

Some may carry the memory of joy and transcendence

Each birth is a powerful experience

Each birth traces down to you.

Just as you pass this knowledge on to your baby

Understand that your birth is your own

It will be different from all others

Like the swirls in your thumb

Your birth will have a unique pattern

Unfolding with each contraction

Rising and falling like a newborn's chest

This birth belongs to you

This birth is an opening

This birth is the end and a beginning

May this blessing of birth come to you without fear

May this blessing of birth come to you with great understanding

May this blessing of birth make your heart soar

May this blessing of birth bring shouts of delight to your lips

Blessings to you and your birth.

Costa neoRomantica

On the drive into town today Shmoo excitedly pointed out a large ship's bright yellow and black funnel/smokestack that he could see above the buildings. Of course, we had to do a drive-by (or two). The ship in port turned out to be quite a large cruise liner, the Cost neoRomantica, flying the Italian flag. Each of her decks are named after European cities so we'll have fun trying to find them all on the world map tomorrow. :)

Man Made Marvels: Okinawa Aquarium

Wow, what a cool doco. The OH recorded it earlier this evening and then we sat down with the older boys and watched it after Beanie had gone to bed. It was fascinating watching the construction of the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium and seeing the level of sustainability that they've attained within the aquarium marine life. It was a great doco to watch with the kids - the sea creatures appealed to both of them and Shmoo was quite interested in the engineering side of things.

Happy Bubble Bath Day

It's my Bubble Bath Day today. Not that I actually had a bubble bath, but the kids did. It's a tradition here that the boys get a bubble bath whenever anyone in the house celebrates a birthday and Beanie greeted me in the morning by excitedly reminding me that it was my Bubble Bath Day today.

But it was a nice, quiet day (well, as quiet as you can get with three hot and frazzled kids on a heatwave day). The OH made us bacon and eggs for lunch; we had a lovely raspberry cheesecake; and indulged in some yummy, cooling lemon icy poles and passionfruit flavoured kefir spiders (ice cream sodas).

Let's just hope that the heatwave doesn't last too long. We certainly didn't move this close to Antarctica to have too many days in the mid-to-high 30s! (At least I got a whole bunch of nappies dry in record time though).

Nesting

Coathangers and clothes airers laden with freshly washed, tiny 0000 and 000 grow suits, little singlets, mini socks and hats.

Baskets full of teeny newborn-sized nappies, covers, liners and bamboo flats, sorted and ready to be washed.

Counting down, waiting for an itty bitty baby to arrive...

What Not to Ask a Homeschooler

"Don't you think he should go to school?"

"But don't you think he'd be better in school where he can learn more? What can he do? Can he read? How can you teach him maths?"

Grrrr. Honestly, mum. What kind of parents do you think we are? If we thought Shmoo would grow into a happier, balanced, well educated person simply by attending a mainstream school, don't you think that's where we would send him? Do you think we deliberately keep him at home to hold him back?

He learns plenty through being homeschooled. I'd say, on average, he can do what most kids his age can do. Yes, he can read. He's been reading for quite a few years now. As a matter of fact, I've met quite a few 11-12 year olds from the local primary school who can't read as well as my 5 year old. And as for maths, I may be a bit fuzzy on how to solve quadratic equations but, at 7 years old, I think Shmoo's doing just fine working out the practical applications of basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and fractions. We'll cross the quadratic equation bridge when we come to it.