Currently... March

It’s currently a Saturday, and the first weekend of our two week Easter holiday. I’m feeling pretty chilled out and relaxed, enjoying a rare peaceful afternoon with Ella asleep in her cot. She has recently given up her nap (sob!) but will still fall asleep in the car if we happen to be driving with her in the late afternoon. My parents have gone to New Zealand for two weeks, so it is just the three of us again, which is nice. Don’t get me wrong, I love my parents being here, but I do enjoy the little routines and rituals we have when it is just our little family during the school holidays.

Here’s what I’ve been up to this month...

Reading so many good books lately! I haven’t done a currently post since January, and in that time I’ve read Everything I Never Told You, Force of Nature, and Before We Were Yours. All fictional books but very different genres, I blitzed through all three of them, reading about a book a week which is normally unheard of for me since having a child. I’m now reading a few books on Hypnobirthing in an attempt to have a natural labour again, and also When Breath Becomes Air, which is the true story of a neurosurgeon who is diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer at the age of 36. It is beautifully written, but devastating as he passed away while writing the book about 18 months after his diagnosis. 

Listening to audiobooks with Ella. This is a relatively new thing, suggested to me by one of my mother’s group friends. Her little girl, Laura, has also given up her nap, so this is a way to give her some rest/quiet time in the afternoon. Laura apparently lies in bed for up to an hour listening to audiobooks. That is pretty impressive… I’ve only managed about 10 minutes with Ella, but she seems intrigued by them. Also I realised you can borrow them from the library, downloading them onto a phone or iPad using the app Borrow Box, so it’s a good way to see which books Ella likes without having to purchase them. So far The Tiger Who Came to Tea is a big hit. Of course, given the choice she would rather be watching TV. Her current favourite show is Pingu, this stop-motion clay animated show from the 90s, featuring a family of penguins. She is now obsessed with penguins, and keeps asking me to listen to the audiobook “with penguins”, so now I desperately need to find a children's audiobook about penguins. 

Watching barely any TV lately. Instead I’m trying to spend the evenings reading, doing some restorative pregnancy yoga, and listening to my hypnobirthing relaxation tracks that usually send me off to sleep. Andy and I do have the latest season of Homeland to catch up on over the Easter holidays, although we haven't managed to stay up late enough to watch an episode yet.

Looking forward to two weeks of no work, obviously. And then only five more weeks of work until maternity leave. Yikes, that is coming up fast! During the second week of the holidays Andy and I are having a little “Babymoon”, three nights in the Blue Mountains while Ella stays home with Nannie and Grampie. I’m really looking forward to getting out of the city and enjoying the fresh mountain air, an of course some rare one-on-one time with Andy.

Baking banana chocolate cake today. I love it when we have bananas that are ripe enough to bake with, it is not often they last long enough in our house for that. The cake has just come out of the oven and I’m enjoying it as an afternoon snack with strawberries. I don’t feel guilty as it is pretty “healthy” for a cake, made with almond meal instead of flour and maple syrup instead of refined sugar. Although I'm not going to lie, I think the addition of chocolate chips would have made it even better!

Wondering how many Easter eggs we should hide for Ella tomorrow. On one hand it will be fun for her to go on an Easter egg hunt, on the other  if she collects lots of chocolate eggs it will be pretty hard to get her to understand that she can only have 1 or 2 per day!

Wearing stretchy maternity dresses, which are what feels most comfortable at the moment. It’s not quite tights weather here yet, but I have a feeling that it might be by the time we go back to work in two weeks. I have yet to find a good pair of maternity leggings, which is killing me. I bought a pair from Marks & Spencer which I had high hopes for but I’m very disappointed in. I am really hating maternity jeans/pants/leggings that have the band that go over your tummy. Maybe it has just been too hot so far, but I find them really annoying and itchy and much prefer waistbands that sit under my tummy. Oh this last trimester of pregnancy is so glamorous. 

Considering transferring Ella into a “big girl bed”. She is still in a cot, but all of my other friends with kids her age transferred to a bed ages ago. Ella has never tried to climb out of the cot so we’ve kept her in as long as possible. A few weeks ago we were having a lot of trouble getting her to fall asleep, so though a new bed might help. Instead she dropped her nap, and bedtime has gotten better. We bought a toddler bed off gumtree in the meantime, but it’s just in the garage for now. I’m torn as to whether or not to switch her now. All my mum friends have said to keep her in the cot as long as possible!

Needing to get a few things for the baby. With Ella we borrowed lots of the 0-6 month items such as a bassinet, bouncer, and a playmat/gym from a colleague that no longer works at my school. So now we need to buy them for baby number two. I really, really, really want this Babybjorn bassinet, but the price is a bit ridiculous, especially as we are not planning on having a third child. I have seen it listed on gumtree for just over half the price, so if I can find a good used one nearby that might be a compromise. We also need another car seat, and I’d really like a capsule for the first 5-6 months, but again that is definitely a want not a need, so I'll have somehow justify the extra cost. 

Feeling sad that we can’t attend the wedding of two of our very close friends here. They are getting married in Italy in July and we can’t go for a few reasons: (1) The baby could be only a month old and I’m not sure we’d get a passport in time. I just can’t go through that stress again. (2) It is outside the school holidays so Andy probably wouldn’t get the time off, and even if he did it would be unpaid. We’ll already be stretched living off one salary so adding 1-2 weeks of unpaid leave wouldn’t be great.

Pic of the Month: My parents bought this for Ella as a treat for giving up her dummy. I just think she looks so cute!