Sleepless Nights

Author: Veronica

  • I am stuck peeing in a bucket

    So, the great plumbing disaster of 2012 continues and I have been stuck peeing in a bucket since yesterday afternoon. For a pregnant woman with a baby bouncing on her bladder, this is not my idea of fun.

    On the left, you can see the toilet pipe, that attaches to my outside toilet, with the spot for the new pipe (for the NEW TOILET!!!) to attach. On the right, you can see the septic tank. You will notice that they are not joined together, therefore, no peeing in the toilet for us.

    [I will point out here that the water you can see is not pee, but muddy water from the small water tank that was left dripping. I know, I thought that was excellent when I discovered that this morning too.]

    The grey water pit is finally dug and filled back in, although it too, is not connected. Nathan grumbled something about having to dig something and poke a pipe somewhere, but my brain had switched off.

    This morning however, it was finally connected enough so that I got to have a shower, while cackling gleefully to myself. It’s the small pleasures in life, like a hot shower, when you’ve been washing in the sink for the last three days because we were to avoid putting as much water down the drain as possible.

    Sure, there is now a large puddle of shower water sitting at the base of the pipe Nathan has to work on, but it smells like shampoo at least.

    Like I said, it’s the little things.

    Aside from the fact that at the end of this, we’ll have fixed a problem that we’ve been procrastinating about since we moved in, AND we’ll have an inside toilet (in the next few weeks), the only good thing about all this digging and dirt is that I have a blank canvas in which to discuss grown up things like landscaping and the relative merits of different grass seeds. I’m angling for flowers and trees in this spot, which is where the car used to get parked.

    Flowers and trees are much nicer than a car.

    There is a lot of dirt piled up out there. And you know what children love? DIRT.

    Despite me not being able to shower because “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON’T PUT WATER DOWN THE DRAIN”, we’ve had to bath the kids every night since work started. Piles of dirt and gravel are irresistible, apparently.

    I’m told that the regular outside toilet will be hooked up and working again by tonight, but in the meantime Internet, I am peeing in a bucket. I know. My life is so cool.

  • Toys, toys, wonderful toys + a $100 Big W Gift Card to giveaway!

    This post is sponsored by Big W Toys and is helping to pay for my plumbing disaster, that continues, despite me trying not to look at it.
    ***

    Amy will be turning six, around the same time that this baby of mine is born. It’s nice to be able to say that still, because the baby didn’t move for over 12 hours yesterday and I ended up at the hospital, worrying that she was dead. Obviously she is not dead, which is really quite a relief. She kicked while I was on the monitors, kicked the straps and immediately went quiet again once the trace was finished.

    Never fear though Internet, she was WIDE awake at 3am when I was trying not to vomit. Morning sickness is back, apparently with a firm desire to make sure I never eat again.

    Anyway, I digress.

    Amy will be turning six in early September and I haven’t bought her any presents yet. This is mostly because I have nowhere to hide them, but also because I’ve been sort of lazy about deciding which direction we want to go in for presents this year. I can’t see that I’ll be up to helping her with craft sets and paints, not with the whole brand new baby and leaking breasts thing going on.

    I also need to find both children a present to give them once the baby is born, knowing that they will both be feeling a little put out by the new arrival.

    Enter, Big W toys. I’ve been spending a little bit of time on their online catalogue, working out what exactly I need to buy to keep everyone happy. Being able to check everything out online has made my life so much easier, what with the whole broken pelvis thing I’ve got going on and the inability to walk great distances.

    Needless to say, sometime in the next month or so, I will be baby shopping, birthday shopping and hey kids you’ve got a new sister shopping. If I’m really lucky, they’ll have what I want online and I won’t even have to walk anywhere.

    Because Big W are interested in letting you guys (my lovely loyal minions) buy some toys too, I have a $100 gift card to give away!

    Just let me know in a comment below, what toy would you buy if you had $100 to spend?

    You can score extra entries by liking the Big W facebook page, or tweeting about the giveaway. See the widget for details.

    Then fill out the Rafflecopter form below, so that moderating and drawing the entries is easy for me.

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

    You MUST fill out the Rafflecopter form to be eligible. One entry per household, Australian residents only.

  • The one in which I am markedly smaller than before

    So, my 25 week photo.

    25 weeks after 5kg weight loss
    24 weeks for comparison.

    I lost 5kg this week, after the stomach bug floored me. I’m still not fully recovered, having no energy and finding food hard to stomach. Funnily enough, with both pregnancies previous, I caught a stomach bug around the 20 ish week mark and lost weight. I’d hoped to miss the hell that is vomiting until your eyes ache this time, but it seems that some things continue to happen regardless of what I want.

    Of course, it’s all coincidence, but three pregnancies running? Really?

    Ugh.

    I’m hoping I can recover from this – I managed to with Isaac, but didn’t manage to with Amy. This pregnancy is more like my first than my second, so I’m a little concerned about the increased nausea and inability to eat anything. I was awake at 4am last night taking more anti-nausea meds after the urge to vomit woke me up.

    Yesterday in the car, the baby flipped breech (again) and I’ve done nothing but swear about it since. Not because I am worried about her being breech, but because having baby feet kicking your cervix from the inside is painful. Not to mention she’s pressing on a nerve in my right hip.

    Pregnancy is so glamorous, isn’t it?

    How are you?

  • It’s been a little chaotic here.

    It’s loud in my house this morning, which I think is more of a statement about my mental state, rather than the relative loudness of my children. Despite hoping really hard that I wouldn’t, I caught Isaac’s stomach bug and spent a fair amount of time Thursday night through to Friday morning actively wishing I was dead.

    I curled up around my bucket and was glad for the fact that my children were sleeping, as I threw up and pulled all the muscles in my stomach, chest and throat.

    It wasn’t fun.

    Recovery yesterday was slow and this morning, I have just braved a single piece of toast in the hope that I can get something other than water cordial to stay down. A cup of tea would be much appreciated, but to be honest, I’m too tired to make it.

    In other news:

    This.

    This is one part of my yard that is now covered in trenches and mud. That trench is not meant to have water in it, by the way. Two days later, we’d hoped that the water might have evaporated, but a quick glance this morning showed that there was actually more water seeping in from the old failing grey water system.

    It was meant to be a simple job – dig a trench to put pipes down, so that we can put a toilet inside. Unfortunately the toilet pipes intersect with the very old earthenware grey water pipes and we were forced to dig those up and replace them as well.

    Only to discover that the grey water system at the moment is not working at all, forcing us to replace it entirely.

    A “small” job suddenly had Nathan and I playing juggle the budget and working out how exactly we were meant to afford the extra work. Luckily our contractor is a guy who has been working for my family for years and he’ll be happy to be paid in installments.

    Needless to say, this week has been a little chaotic.

  • The reality within the ideal

    I went to lie down this afternoon with my son and my book, only to wake up two hours later, kindle akimbo and pelvis screaming at me. I’d call it narcolepsy, but I suspect “pregnancy” is a better diagnosis. I woke up to find that Isaac hadn’t wet himself, that Nathan had cleaned the house and that everything was pretty much perfect. I am inordinately grateful for this.

    Ten minutes later as I was sipping a cup of tea to wash down the buckets of panadol I required, Isaac ran up to me, threw his arms around my neck and squeezed tightly, before racing off again.

    In contrast, I saw a physio yesterday who reminded me about the importance of good posture, gave me millions of pelvic floor exercises to do, looked a bit stunned when I discussed what joints of mine actually dislocate and sold me a pelvic brace.

    It was an interesting appointment, rehashing things I already knew about how to correctly sit at my computer, how to not destroy my vagina forever and how to ease strain on my shoulders.

    All of which are perfect in theory, but a little messy in reality. I pointed this out and she responded “It’s about finding the reality within the ideal”.

    Which I guess is a perfect description of life, isn’t it?

    As much as the ideal version of sitting at a computer looks great, if I sit properly, my blood pressure bottoms out and I either puke, or pass out. Neither are conducive to working, in case you’re interested. And so I write blog posts either lying in bed with a laptop, or with my feet resting up near the mantelpiece. Definitely bad for my posture, but it’s about finding the least bad thing and attempting that.

    I keep reminding myself that pregnancy is not forever, that eventually I’ll be allowed to take the good drugs again and that I will have a smooshy new baby as compensation. Sometime in September, I’ll stop wanting to puke all of the time, my joints will stabilise a little bit and my skin will clear up.

    Everything is falling apart and yet, it’s all going to be okay. Even if I spend the next three months unable to actually do anything other than write things and lie down, it will get better. Things will ease and I will not remain this unwell for ever.

    This is shades of Amy’s pregnancy over again and I survived that, in worse health to start with. I can get through this. Pregnancy is meant to be glowing health and skipping through rainforests, while birds serenade me.

    However, I’ve got to get used to the reality, within my ideal.

    24 weeks 007

    24 weeks.