‘single live fetus’

SO! we’ve just had the 20 week scan. At the top of the letter it says:

‘there is a single LIVE fetus’, well thank god for that eh?

It then goes on to use the word ‘normal’ a lot. Head, spine, heart, stomach, kidneys, bladder, cord insertion and limbs – all ‘normal’. Movements and cardiac activity - ‘normal’. ‘Normal’ appearances. Normal, normal, normal baby harrow, so this is all good news.

The two things we were dying to know were ‘sex’ and we especially went to a Radiologist, called Linda, that specialised in 3D scanning so we could see our wee babies face. Alas, neither was to be.

After taking all the necessary measurements and saying ‘normal’ a lot the very lovely Linda turned the image 3D to show us the face. Two orange blobs appeared on the monitor. ‘um, you see the blob on the left?’ she said, ‘Well that’s the back of your babies head, unfortunately for you she has her face buried in your placenta right now’. Oh. We could see a round back of head and one little ear.

We moved onto the sex. ‘hmm, you see those two white lines?’ she said, ‘that’s the thigh bones, but they are so close together that I can’t make out the genitalia’. Oh again.

Our baby is currently lying horizontally across my stomach facing my spine with it’s legs pulled up close together and it’s face using the placenta as it’s pillow. Both hands are up beside her head like that famous painting called ‘The Scream’. In case you haven’t brushed up on your art lately I have copied the image for you below.

In fact, that’s probably not entirely an inaccurate image of what he or she may currently look like, minus the black sweater.

After a little probing Linda said she felt 90% sure that the baby is……a girl. She said although she can’t see either genitalia it was probably a girl because a scrotum and penis would show up more readily.

SO, it’s a GIRL!!!!

Maybe. But hold onto your cash for now those that bet boy, our midwife reckons we just won’t know until it’s out and that’s a surprise I’m happy to wait for, baby Harrow has her ;) secret safe for now.

xxxxx

so this is what’s good now.

Pete’s voice raised 6 octaves as he squealed,

‘AND we just bought a sieve!!!! what PERFECT timing!!!’ and my response was

‘AND that’s not even the BEST thing, we have 8 large matching jars!!!!’

I catch us looking at each other grinning broadly, eyebrows raised like, what do you think of them apples! There is not a hint of sarcasm here just incredulous looks of honest glee.

We are making plum sauce. Because that is what we do. And that is what makes us happy. Our plum tree has already dropped red round marbles in her thousands and Pete’s, through the Harrow household door motto is ‘Waste NOThing, USe everything!’ and so we are turning 70 of the little gems into 6 big jars of spicy plum sauce.

Some things in life must be acknowledged as being as good as they truly are.

1. buying a sieve because you think it might be handy one day and then the VERY next week using said sieve in a recipe that could not do without.

2. having 8 matching jars. with lids.

3. having a whole two cupboards just dedicated to empty jars and lids waiting for awesome filling.

4. being ok that at 29 and 31 making plum sauce rocks your world. 

5. knowing to draw the line at taking a photo of jarred plum sauce to put on the blog no matter how proud those plum jars make you feel.

Here comes the baby dream

I had a dream last night that I had the baby. It was a girl and she had big round blue eyes like Pete and wispy blonde hair and was so small she fit in my hand and not much down my forearm. Since we’re in the throws of planning a home birth (I have a strong aversion to hospitals) I had the baby in the kitchen at our flat. I got one contraction, hiccup’d and squatted down to catch her in my hand. As Lou said when I told her, let us hope the dream is prophetic. Not pathetic as I first thought she said. HA. later the baby turned into a kitten that was grey and white just like Millie cat and although I was a little concerned at all that fur I still loved her very much.

I have started reading pregnancy books and they are very helpful except for two things. The first was a drawn diagram of an episiotomy. I am now terrified of episiotomy’s. Basically if in labour you are not stretching enough they snip from your vagina to your anus. Here is a diagram I have found for you to all share in.

This was rather too much information for me. I should very much not like the snip thanks all the same. The second thing was a photo of the placenta. Again, here is a picture for you all to share in.

 

I nearly threw up.

While researching home birth I came across interesting suggestion which was to not clamp and detach the placenta at birth. You can leave it attached apparently until it falls off of it’s own accord, the benefits being all the extra blood and a massive boost of iron and other goodies that continues to transfer to your baby until the whole thing shrivels up and dies (the placenta not the baby). In the case study I read, ma and pa had to salt the thing every day,wrap it in a nappy and sleep it in the cot next to their new born babe. hmmm, I may not be able to be super mama after all.

We have the 20 week scan next week! boy or girl, get your votes in.

Another blog just for Pete….

Because you are away from home and because no one else will find this interesting BUT the two major trees at the bottom of our garden are in the process of being chopped down and because I am stuck here minding the chooks who’ve had to be temporarily relocated to the shade shed, I’ve been documenting the whole thing!

Actually, it’s fascinating. Watching these 2 guys fell two whopping 90ft trees, I’m mesmerised. First of all they are fit, very fit, not a patch on my husband of course but watching them hand over fist hauling themselves up and down that tree all day wielding a chainsaw?!! It’s frikking brilliant entertainment.

But as I said, this blog Pete is for you. Before and after pics of our veges shaded and then pics after…… BATHING IN GLORIOUS SUNSHINEEEEEEE!!!!! It is going to be a bumper harvest this year.

Garden ‘BEFORE’ with looming trees.

Garden ‘AFTER’ with one middle tree gone, 2nd tree on right still to be cut!!!!!

Chooks having a wee nap on the bench in their temporary shade shed shelter.

Disturbed chooks, oops.

One tree down, one to go!!!!

So exciting eh Pete?

AHA! Here he is….

Finally got around to taking some pics of Lou and Ben’s new baby boy Leo. He weighed 3.2kg and is called Leo Zekiel Powles.

He looked the spit image of Nova when she was born except slightly less pretty in a 'cos i'm a boy' baby way. Oma was praying hard for a hint of ginger hair but I think it is firmly blonde.

What you talkin bout Willis?

Is it cause I’m so cute?

I can be serious and cute.

Now you are all under my spelllllllllL!!!!! mwa hahahahahahaha.

Wonderful Spring Garden

I have been absent for some time and have a backlog of blogs in my mind to get down! One is how awesome it is that Spring is FINALLY here. I’m usually an advocate of winter, but 3 months of continuous heavy rain was starting to wear me down. Now there are little green leaves and blossom on our plum tree, strawberries ripening along the fence line and potatoes mounded up tall and strong.

Pete, as most of you are probably aware by now, is an absolute legend in the garden. He’s fastidious and focused and reads his subscriptions to ‘NZ and Weekend gardener’ and ‘Lifestyle Block’ from cover to cover every month. He plants and weeds and sows according to the waxing and waning of the moon just like a big hippy and he LOVES IT!

Because he’s away so often with work it’s my job to maintain the gardens harmony and when he returns our conversations go something like this.

Pete ‘did you water the garden?’

Me ‘yep, every day just like you said’ (lie)

Pete ‘hmm, how come my tomatoes are wilting and my beans are dead?’

Me ‘REALLY?!?’ (displaying mock horror) ‘I can’t think why cause I watered every day just like you said’ (lie)

Pete, sticking finger into crusty dry soil ‘I think you’re lying’

Me, breaking under pressure of evidence, ‘I might have forgot to water some days, but it rained a little on Wednesday and I figured that would see it through till Sunday and……sorry Pete’

Pete, looks at me as though I’ve neglected real life children. Nuff said.

So this time I’ve been working real hard, watering EVERY day and so have added some pics to show you all how wonderful everything looks and prove to my husband that at least halfway through his time in Thailand and Mumbai things in the garden were indeed still alive!

good wif. hard working wif. green fingered wif.

And who’s that most beautiful kitten asleep in the laundry basket? Millie cat aka ‘Bear’.

And who are those most beautiful ladies? Maureen and Ha-say-o looking very intelligent.

And what are these NOT dying in the shade shed and fully watered? wonderful seedlings waiting for the moon.

And seriously what is this contraption? Pete’s homemade irrigation system water bucket collector complete with bag of stinky chicken shit fertiliser seeping in it.

And who are these 3? Ahh Pete and I with our lovely niece Nova on mums 65th Birthday last August (just happened to spy this one left on the camera!) little did I know I was pregnant here and knocked back a half bottle of uncle D’s champagne. oh dear.

Best News Ever!

For those of you that got the email you will see this is a big copy and paste jobby but why attempt to tell a good story differently when you said it right the first time eh? So the best news ever, I’m 3 months pregnant. Pete and I are absolutely stoked!

We had the first scan on Monday and it was possibly the second best day in my entire life (what can compete with the Wedding eh?) The little thing was bouncing around in there, stretching it’s arms and legs (which thankfully it has two of each) and rubbing it’s face (which it has one of). Pete had somehow wangled with work to be back in the country from Thailand for two days just to get to the scan and am so happy he did. We were high fiving and grinning and laughing and actually, yep, when we got out to the car squealing with joy. I know I know, so unlike me to squeal, you should’ve heard Pete.

When we went to the scan we thought I was around 12 and a half weeks pregnant with a due date of 23 April but after the ultrasound technician took the measurements of the body and brain she said it was more like 11.5 weeks. Pete looked down at his hands and quizzically counted off randomly on his fingers and looked back up at her and said, ‘but hold on…. I was away on business during that time’. The technician looked frantically at me, I thought she was going to pass out. NOT FUNNY PETE. It didn’t help that I then jokingly asked if the lady could tell me if it had red hair (runs in the family and is petrifying Pete). She told us straight laced that we couldn’t determine that information from the ultrasound. Righto.

We won’t know the sex until the 20 week scan but will be sure to find out so will fill you all in then. Have attached a some blurry ultrasound images, we think it’s incredibly cute eh? HA, however, if anyone saw those pic’s of Pete as a baby at the Wedding you know we are in for a lot of… people leaning over bassinette, then trying not to recoil too fast in abject horror! But look at him now eh? Gorgeous.

Hope everyone is well, name suggestions for both sexes, VERY welcome.

As Pete’s Uncle David said '”Keep us posted on the news and pictures - they are the most detailed and easily seen scans I've ever seen :-)”, Not a hint of sarcasm to be heard there I’m sure!!! In case you can’t tell what the beauty before you is I shall explain. This is a side on view with the head on the left and the tummy trailing off to the right, the weird thing poking out of it’s face is it’s little hand (it was waving them about by it’s face, it is not growing out of it’s face)

This is head at top and tummy below and little arm waving up to the left. Note massive ju-ju lips just like it’s mama.

And finally little skeletor face, with right hand rubbing it’s eye and big fat tummy. I am already in love despite the fact that so far my pregnancy has been a communion with the toilet bowl. Whoo hoo! babies eh? best news ever.

What a party.

I had the best day ever. Pete looked incredibly hansom, all our favourite people were there, the day was overcast and warm and I felt exhilarated and totally invincible.

It was the single best day of my entire life and lets face it, a picture tells a thousand stories so here’s a few of my favourites.

 

   

 

 

  

 

 

Lets dance Pete. Ok am.

Chickens! and small hoofed animals under the bed.

We’ve got chickens and they are just lovely. Heads up looking about, their two Jurassic looking feet scratch left and right on the soil in search of bugs and then whOOSH quick as can be the head swoops down while they simultaneously shuffle back their butt with a wiggling motion to peck at the soil where their feet just were. Pete does a really good impression.

We built them the Coop De Ville.

And they flew straight over the fence. We saw them in a line wobbling and clucking their way up the neighbours backyard. Pete looked at me in abject horror.

'”FUCK” he said, his eyes were like saucers. “fuckity, fuck”

errrr. After what felt like hours of flappity gurgling panic from us both Pete grabbed a handful of chicken feed and started screeching

‘CHOOK, CHOOK!@ chook chook chook, here chicken!’ and throwing the feed at the back fence to alert them of it’s presence. It didn’t work. I leapt the back fence and Pete followed close behind, Rambo had nothing on us. We mission over two wire fences and through brambles to get to our chicks and one by one we carried them back. Once all three were safely locked in the coop Pete called our resident ‘chicken guru’.

‘Gidday Fletch’ he said.

‘uM SO I built my coop, my fence is a metre high and the damn birds just flew straight over it. What the hell do I  do now?!?!?!’ (there was no time for niceties)

Fletch, being the calm seasoned chook owner that he is explained that we’d need to clip their wings, just one mind you which would supposedly be enough to screw with their aerodynamics so they’d only flap in circles rather than up and over stuff. It didn’t hurt them he assured us, it was only feathers. The prospect was daunting. Actually, it was terrifying.

We left them in the coop overnight and the next morning Pete trudged down to the bottom of the garden armed with my sewing shears. Only two sentences had been spoken up at the house earlier.

‘I don’t think I can help’ I’d said.

‘I know’ said Pete

He was on his own. Bad girlfriend. Oh dear.

He entered the coop and I locked the door behind him. An hour passed. Then another. I went to look.

Out came Pete beaming.

‘GOD, they are just SO interesting to watch!’ he exclaimed and promptly went into a rant complete with head cocking motions and foot scratching. Two hours of observation worthy of an Attenborough doco and no wings had been clipped. bummer.

To cut a long story short, Fletch and Cass happened to be coming for lunch the next day anyway and the two  boys had the wings clipped in under a minute. WHOO hoo.

We all sat back on the lawn toasting success with a glass of homebrew until, flap flap flap, our newly clipped chicken flew up onto the top of the gate. Far out. Prolific cursing and a trip to Mitre 10 later and Coop de Ville now looks like this.

Their fence is now two metres high. Our chooks are safe.

As I readied myself for bed that night, comforted that our chooks could free range without fear of the wandering black Labrador next door, Pete sang out from the bedroom,

‘AMMMMMM, something with HOOFS has been running round under our BED!!!’

What?! I finished brushing my teeth with a the sense of reason that comes from living with Pete (recall the honey comb / hornets nest event?) and wandered casually into the bedroom.

Pete’s immobilised in the middle of the bed, duvet under his chin.

‘I’m serious’. He states. ‘I can tell’ I say and duck my head under the bed. Sure enough there are double sets of indentations in the carpet in random tracks from where the last tenants furniture lay. I smile.

‘Yup, definitely hoofs. Remember the other day when I said I was meeting mum for coffee?’ I ask pulling my head up level with the mattress. He nods, dead serious.

‘Well, actually is was a ruse and I bought a Shetland pony, I’ve been keeping him under the bed’.

‘You’re a shit’ Pete says and rolls over. ‘neigh’ I reply and turn out the light.