The Return

The Blue Lagoon, Iceland
From our trip in August (updates and photos to come in near future)

It's been a while. So I thought I would ease into it before updating on being pregnant (!!) Taking a leaf from The Daybook Blog

Making: a tiny person jumper, space in our house for all the stuff that will be part of our daily lives
Cooking: peach cobbler and planning to use all the tinned pumpkin that I bought recently
Drinking: Appletiser, it's refreshing and feels more 'grown up' than other soft drinks
Reading: French parenting books. Complete opposite of stressed out English/US ones
Wanting: a weekend doing nothing
Looking: forward to receiving the 100 felt balls I ordered off Etsy shop Felt Foxes
Playing: Candy Crush, and I'm stuck again!
Wasting: time

Sewing: nothing, but I need to finish two minky blankets I started before we moved house

Wishing: I knew already what is brewing in me, it would make some choices much easier!

Enjoying: the start of summer, shocking I know! But after a winter that was cooler and longer than normal I feel ready for some summer weather

Waiting: for my colleague to return so I can go back to my old work 'stuff'

Liking: all the smiles people give to pregnant women

Wondering: if I should go to the bank nearby ( I need to go anyway) that has a great bakery next door and get myself a sandwich

Loving: my Ross bringing me tea in bed and all the extra housework he has taken on

Hoping: that I don't fail. At giving birth, parenting a worthy human, and at keeping Ross and our marriage as my priority

Marveling: at the change nature undergoes so quickly in Spring here

Needing: fresh food, like goats cheese salads and ripe tomatoes mmmm

Smelling: nothing (and thankful that it's nothing especially in a small office)

Wearing: a red coral necklace that I got in Morocco

Following: my March 2014 mommas group

Noticing: that I desperately need a pedicure and a tan

Knowing: that I am almost halfway through this experience

Thinking: that I need more fruit now that its heating up

Feeling: okay (and that's a good thing)

Bookmarking: burp cloths, oh the excitement...

Opening: a fresh new notepad

Giggling: over really silly but fun things with work colleagues. I'm very lucky that we are all friends

Long time no see

First things first: no news on the baby front.

House move is finally almost finished. After only getting our Internet sorted out yesterday (that's right, it took 2 months!) we are finally online and catching up with Game of Thrones (omg) and making the final bookings for our Europe trip in August. Iceland being the main place as neither of us has been there and really, you fly all the way around the world you may as well go somewhere new. We will also be visiting friends in the UK and my parents in France.

Winter has also started in Perth and we are LOVING it!

I am also trying a lot of different recipes and also getting back into the juicing again. Hoping to post some recipes that have worked on here to share.

All good things to come!

What they don't tell you

After a stressful month filled with work stress and a very tragic loss of my FIL, I am back and ready to update on our TTC journey. So let's get to it:

The pill. Such a positive little miracle for the revolution of womankind.

What they failed to mention to me at 16 when I started taking it (for acne problems, I needed it because I was taking Accutane at the same time) was the potential to mess up your cycles once you stop taking it. You spend that long trying not to get pregnant only to find that it might have all been a bit of a waste of money.

Here I am waiting for AF, 2 days late and with negative pregnancy tests. Talking to the friendly telephone nurse service offered by my private health fund was reassuring yet not very helpful:

"Before you started the pill were you having regular cycles?"
"Ermmm... I don't know, I was 16 and never bothered to track my cycles"
"Oh well, don't worry then. It can take up to 3 months for your body to readjust"
End of conversation.

Googling 'What will happen to my body when I stop taking the pill' was a little bit more helpful than talking to the telephone nurse and my mother (an ex nurse, who when I asked the same question to replied: 'nothing will happen, it will just go back to normal so stop worrying about it' well you got that one wrong didn't you mum?)

Back to Google. I found this rather helpful answer to the same question from Dr Sugar (hah!) that reassured me.

So all I have to do now is wait and relax. Easier said than done, but I do have to keep in mind that this lateness could be due to emotional and work stress and to not take it too seriously.

Fingers crossed that things align and that AF visits soon!

Prep work - Supplements

Oh Joy! Picture this: You walk into the drugstore or pharmacy and stand in front of the pregnancy/conception supplements. Bright pink and with images of happy women holding smiley babies. What makes one brand better than the others? One has more iron than the other, is that good or bad? One is has only enough for one month, the other for 3 months but they cost the same.

Hard truth? Australian supplements cost A LOT. For example Blackmores Pregnancy and Breast-feeding GOLD is a two a day (euggh) 3 month supply for $41.69. So what is a woman to do when she is faced with these prices? (And I don't mean to pick on Blackmores, they do great supplements  it was an example of the price)

For Her

Knowing that I would be taking these for at least 5 moths before TTC and the the 10 months during pregnancy and then afterwards as well during breastfeeding, that meant that I could be out of pocket by $250 (queue lemon face) I was out for a deal and wouldn't be dissuaded. Enter Amazon and the world of online bargains. I love shopping online and even have a tendency to stad in shops looking at an item online to see if I can get a better deal.

I knew what the supplement needed to contain and I wasn't too fussy on wether or not the supplement was organic/natural. I bought three of the Spring Valley 1 a day Prenatal supplements. Including shipping it cost me $69.11AUD. And with 240 per bottle it would last me ageeeees, and don't worry they don't expire until the end of 2015.

(Image source)

As these do not contain any fish oil or DHA I had to find something here that would give me the recommended amount of DHA, be it from fish oil or otherwise. I found a great deal here at home with the Swisse Odourless High Strength Wild Fish Oil. It's meant to be a two a day but with 125g DHA per tablet, one is enough. Warning: they are huge ass pills and often get stuck in my throat. I don't take them in the morning and make sure to eat something afterwards to force it down.

(Image source in the link above)

For Him

These wonderful men of ours only need to have topped up supplies of Zinc and Selenium in order to be of optimum baby making health (that sounds weird)

Easy peasy, I just made sure to find the best deal a men's multi and as he had started to take a Krill Oil supplement it wouldn't be too hard for him to forget to take it in the morning. For reference with links, here is what we got:

Cenovis Men's Multivitamin

(Image source in the link above)

Healthy Care Wild Krill Oil (not the price we pay as it goes on special in-store)

The multi does have fish oil in it and because of this he only take one of the Krill oils.

I hope these links helped some of you in finding a better deal!

TTFN xx

Prep work - Books

I am one of those people that likes being prepared, and in order to feel prepared I like to research. But where do you start when you are researching something so incredibly big and life changing as getting pregnant and ensuring that you are able to give this person that is half you, half your soulmate the best possible start even before they are a zygote? (Hells yeah I remember my high school biology, don't you?) It could make your head spin and feel overwhelmed.

First, I'm going to talk to you all about books! Woo yay! READING

I have tried to get my hands on any book that discusses pre-pregnancy health and how to optimise yourself even before you start trying to conceive (TTC). And the only really comprehensive book I could find that had been reviewed by others was 'Get Ready to Get Pregnant: Your Complete Pre-pregnancy Guide to Making a Smart and Healthy Baby' By Dr M Lu.

(Image Source)

I highly recommend this book for its sheer volume of information. Dr Lu discusses a plethora of subjects and even includes a chapter on male healthcare during TTC. He also talks about the effects of the environment around you, diet and nutrition, exercise, genetics and the interesting and maybe controversial subject of how we are responsible even before pregnancy of the health and lifestyle of our children (Obesity, ADHD, cancer etc). 

He has given very specific information on what your supplements should contain and that taking them even 6 months before TTC is vital. Waiting until you have already become pregnant may be too late and completely ineffective; what you are taking them for has already happened and any damage done is done.

As always you can take what he says with a pinch of salt, if you did follow everything he suggests you would be locked in your house for a year! I enjoy reading a lot of different opinions and believe you should take bits from all theories to develop your own and what works for you, pretty much my view on faith and religion too but that is not a subject for this blog.

Overall, it's a very good read and if you think you MIGHT start thinking of getting pregnant, in a year or even longer; it gives you information to think about and implement.

Also up for review: 'What to Expect Before you're Expecting' by Heidi Murkoff. 

(Image Source)

Yeah.... well what can I say? To be honest I can see why this series was popular about 10 years ago, but now? I bought this almost a year and a half ago on a whim from a discount bookstore. I think every single topic in this book can be found online for free and with less words. A lot of it is common sense too (I know, common sense is rare. But nowadays you can google things!)

I don't know, get it and read if you like but don't pay full price for it (if you are in Australia, cause books here ain't cheap)

Throughout trying to find good pre-pregnancy books it has become really obvious to me that until recently there hasn't been much available. Even now I tried to google search for pre-pregnancy books and the amazon list that came up had mainly pregnancy books in it. Even my doctor wasn't very forthcoming with advice when I told her that we would be starting to TTC soon. I was asked if I knew when to tell I was ovulating (thanks to iPhones anyone can do that now) and that I should stop drinking soon and that was it.

Did you read any books before TTC-ing? Were they useful and did they help at all? I would love to hear if others have researched before they started trying and if it worked out better for them. Let me know!

TTFN xx

Welcome and the beginning

So, after being together for 6.5 years and married for almost 3 of them we decided that it is almost time to have a kid. We had done lots of travelling, worked hard, had fun together, had fun with friends. We have one fatty cat George, and a car that is definitely family friendly. We had moved from one side of the world to the other (well he asked and I followed him back here), survived 3 years of him working away, my unemployment issues when we move here during the GFC, and other unmentionable family stuff. Now we are ready to add one to our cosy bubble. We had always talked about wanting kids, there was no doubt in his mind that he would be having some, and no doubt in my mind that if I were to choose to have kids they would only be his.  And then in the last, I would say, year we felt ready. So here we are, embarking on a journey we don’t fully understand with best hopes and as much knowledge as one can read up from a million books we I am reading. Welcome to my pre-, during and post- baby musings. Enjoy!