Sleepless Nights

Author: Veronica

  • Really, this is about it.

    Getting back into the school routine has knocked the entire family around. Gone are the luxurious sleep-ins that Isaac wants and Amy is no longer able to raid the fridge before anyone else is awake.

    Now, if I was any sort of new and popular blogger, I’d have a series of tips here, complete with a shiny graphic. I’d be ready to tell you all about how to adjust your routine and make sure that everyone bounds out of bed without swearing at the alarm, or screaming.

    But of course, I’m me, and fabulous graphics are not really my thing, nor are tips and advice on how to live your life. Sorry, but you’ll have to buy a magazine for that.

    Instead, we’ve been stricken by an end of Summer cold. I use the royal “we” here, but really I mean Isaac and I. Amy, our darling germ carrier was a bit sniffly for a couple of days before improving today (thank god, because it’s photo day) and Nathan has had a sore throat that he’s very kindly shared with me.

    However, it’s onwards and upwards, because anything that doesn’t land Isaac in hospital is not really a bug worth whining about (sure, he sounds like a frog croaking, but he’s eating and playing cars).

    Pregnancy is going well, you know, all the usual bits and pieces happening. My pelvis falls apart on average twice a day, but I’m much better at putting it back together now. Babe is fluttering occasionally, enough to let me know that it isn’t dead in there and my uterus continues to expand at a normal rate(photos when I warm up enough to upwrap myself from the blankets I’ve wrapped around my shoulders – stupid body temperature).

    I had an antenatal appointment last week that consisted of a LOT of waiting, a lot of talking, a slightly panicked midwife (BUT YOU HAVE TO BE HIGH RISK!!!) and a calm, brilliant OB (Sure, you’re not low risk, but I accept that there isn’t going to be much we can do for you, and sure you can have midwife care).

    After two pregnancies with doctors and midwives alike panicking about the growth of my uterus and smaller than average babies, I’ve been set up with my very own personalised growth chart for this kid, hopefully averting professional panicking down the track. I’m not sure that 20th percentile babies are even all that much to worry about.

    Really, this is about it.

    How are you?

  • It’s the small things

    Sometimes, it really is the small things. You don’t notice them until you stop to look and then you wonder how on earth you missed them before.

  • If politicians were like mummy bloggers

    – There would be no talk of a leadership spill before it happened.

    – The entire spill and speculation would happen via email.

    – There would be no face to face discussion about it. Ever.

    – The Australian people wouldn’t know what happened until Julia and Kevin refuse to attend the same event.

    – Someone will be left standing on their soapbox screeching about “the good of the community” and how “they’re TEARING US APART”.

    – Support will be silently given and received.

    – Any information made public will have an overtone of “we know what’s best for everyone, so follow along and don’t worry about a thing”.

    – The second-in-command will let the power go to their head, and end up trying to micro-manage the ensuing conversation.

    – Everyone else will be entirely confused about what is happening, but they will all agree that it was a terrible terrible thing and please can’t we just move on.

    AND

    – At the end of the day, you will be left with split factions, who seem to think that they control some sort of power.

    {img source}

  • On pregnancy, listeria and being risk aware

    We’ve all heard about the dangers of Listeria, supposedly lurking in every single piece of cold food that you didn’t prepare by hand, yourself. No soft cheeses, no restaurant salads, no uncooked egg based sauces, no ham, salami or other deli meats and certainly certainly no sushi.

    Today I made sushi using smoked salmon and I enjoyed every single mouthful of it. The benefit to eating something that I felt like eating, for me, far outweighed the minuscule risks associated with eating a cold prepared food.

    Listeria is a food poisoning. It isn’t a bacteria that is present in all cold food – no, it’s food poisoning that can potentially grow in cold prepared food and is killed by heating. You’ve probably got more chance of contracting salmonella than contracting listeria on any given day.

    And yet, I find that as soon as I’m pregnant, there is this Listeria Hysteria that surrounds every mouthful of food I eat. Does that contain ham? Has that lettuce been washed and stored properly? Is that egg cooked through entirely?

    I’m just a little bit sick of it. Especially considering if you’re hospitalised during your pregnancy, the hospital sends you up commercially prepared ham salad sandwiches for lunch anyway and the midwives don’t bat an eyelid.

    Pregnant women seem to become public property. Everyone suddenly has a say in what we’re putting into our bodies and it’s getting a bit ridiculous. I’ve already given up a lot of things in order for this pregnancy to progress safely, I don’t particularly feel like giving up all cold foods too.

    My baby might die from listeria – but also, I might get hit by a car tomorrow. Or a truck might crash into my bedroom. Or I might fall down a flight of stairs.

    I don’t think it’s about being frightened, so much as it’s about being risk aware. If I prepare sushi at home, using ingredients I trust, in a clean environment, then my chances of listeria are probably smaller than my chances of contracting salmonella, or breaking my nose walking into a wall (very real possibility).

    This is my fourth pregnancy and hopefully our third baby. Any number of things could go wrong yet. My chances of pre-term labour are higher than normal, my pelvis might fall apart, I might dislocate a hip and end up hospitalised. I might get an infection (again) and land in hospital for a week (again).

    Anything could happen, but provided I am careful, I am doubtful that it is going to contain listeria.

  • 12 week update and asking advice

    Twelve weeks. Yes, really, I’ve managed to hit the milestone that is meant to herald the start of pregnancy being amazing. You know, for all those normal people out there.

    I was going to crop out most of the garden, but I thought some people might like to check out the edging of green. I had to change the angle of this photo from the last one, because my tomatoes have grown too high to be seen over. (Tomatoes in bottom left corner) Behind me is the black currant and jostaberry bushes, getting ready to drop their leaves and in the bottom right corner is the flowering perpetual spinach. It makes the whole garden smell like honey.

    So far this pregnancy I have lost 5kg (11lbs), which has sent my Ehlers Danlos into a spin.

    Normally my EDS is managable, provided I don’t lose too much weight, but obviously I wasn’t able to control the weight loss, even with anti-nausea medication and here I am.

    Basically this means that my gastic system has gone on strike, leaving me unable to eat a lot of foods. Dairy being the main culprit, with meat being close behind.

    Now, my anti-nausea medication is excellent for controlling morning sickness and making life bearable, but it is less effective on EDS nausea, merely stopping me vomiting while I wait the waves of nausea out. Not vomiting is always a bonus, but I’d prefer I was able to actually eat things.

    Even worse, being unable to digest dairy means that I have effectively lost most of the fat content of my diet. Rich food makes me unwell at the healthiest of times and I’m left wondering what on earth I can eat to stop the weight loss and keep myself relatively healthy. Any ideas? Currently I’m living mostly on fresh fruit and crackers.

    I recently bought a trail mix of dried fruit, seeds and nuts and have been snacking on that, but there is a limit and I’m afraid that my body is going to pull the same trick it pulled with Amy’s pregnancy, which left me incredibly unwell for the entire nine months and a good 10kg underweight.

    So, there’s that.

    On the upside, aside from the nausea and weight loss, this has been the least eventful pregnancy I’ve had, with only a tiny bit of spotting at 5 weeks and not a single drop of blood afterwards. A huge improvement from the pregnancy with Isaac, that included bleeding through all three trimesters.

    Frankly, I am a little surprised at the lack of bleeding, knowing that there was a large patch of blood inside my uterus at my ultrasound. But I’m certainly not complaining about it.

    No real food cravings, unless you count the fact that I want to stab everyone who mentions sushi or sashimi. I swear, I would kill for some sashimi right now.

    And finally, I’m pretty sure I felt the baby move, which seems to be following the same path as the other two kids, both of whom I felt at around 12 weeks.

    I guess there are benefits to being underweight, because the first thing I thought was “Thank God you’re not dead.”

    Bonus.

    Did you have any food issues while you were pregnant? How did you manage these?