You know your finally a mom when….

1. While standing in the super market cue you realise that you are now swaying side to side and go “shhhhhhhhhhh…  Shhhhhhhhhhh” even though you left the baby with your husband
2. You are now ready to audition for X-Factor with your routine that you have been practicing daily…  Your routine includes singing about the dishes to twinkle twinkle, hanging the washing on the line to rock a by baby, and who could forget putting your make up on to the tune of the alphabet song…. In other words your daily chores now take twice as long and have become a wondrous song and a dance
3. After 28 years and 10′s of 1000′s of attempts you finally learn how to blow a raspberry on a bare bottom
4. Being ambidextrous is not a skill, it is a necessity in life… And you can do ANYTHING one handed
5. When multitasking becomes an understatement – cooking dinner, feeding a baby, organizing the week, tweeting, face booking, and writing a blog post while drinking a cuppa IS possible!
6. When you FINALLY get a night out on the town and you find you have just tested your dinners heat on the tip of your tongue before you ate it
7. When you can pull an all nighter six nights in a row, and still say “I’m not tired” (while yawning)
8. You leave the house without make up, your hair done, or jewelry on, you dont care what your wearing nor do you notice or smell the baby spuke on you…
9. Nothing is “gross” anymore, poo, spew, boogers, number 3′s, biting someone elses nails, sticking you finger in someone elses mouth, sticking your finger in someone elses nose, nothing is too gross…
10. Coffee is no longer a luxury – it is a necessity!

SO… Answer me this, you know your finally a mother when…..

To my dearest little miracle,

1. I love the way you fling your body to move yourself just to see my face
2. I love the way you cry and cry until only i hold you in in my arms in what your father and i have deemed the ‘breech baby’ position
3. I love the way your beautiful red hair glistens in the sun, and how i can give you a little Mohawk
4. I love the way each time i put a clean nappy on you you do a poo
5. I love the way your father speaks baby talk to you, and you respond with gurgles
6. I love the way your big eyes stare so intently into mine
7. I love the way your little fingers grab onto my thumb and never let go
8. I love the way you scream for food, then fall sleep while your drinking
9. I love the way you you get the hiccups but it doesnt bother you in the slightest
10. And i just love how we get to spend all day together, laughing, crying, screaming, rocking, sleeping, eating and most importantly just being in love just the way i always imagined…

I love you, everything about you.

Love from the mother that is and always will be.

Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning. Anon

I am a new mom… And i think like any new mom, i have a billion questions to ask… My curiosity sometimes overwhelms me, and sometimes i think to myself ‘why cant i just be patient and wait for the answers?’ or ‘Does it really matter what those people think?’

But no matter how silly, they are still questions that make me ponder.

1. Why is it that when a baby is born, each family member ‘claims’ a body part yet never asserts them to be of the actual parents?
2. Why is it that when there is a baby involved strangers – especially old woman – feel the need to stop, touch the baby, and ask you if you are breast feeding?
3. And why is it that when you do something, or have your own rules, other mothers seem to have to tell you that their way is better, that you MUST give it a go?
4. Why is it that as soon as i put the new nappy under my Jennifer’s butt…. She wee’s? Or poos….
5. Or why the poor munchkin cries and cries for food, then falls asleep as soon as the bottle is in her mouth?
6. I’d really be interested to know when babies skull bones fuse together?
7. Or when their eyes change colour…
8. I’d love to know when you know the smiles are real smiles and not poo smiles
9. Or when their eyes start opening more…
10. And call me a silly mother, but do you think they already know who we are?

We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself. Lloyd Alexander

You know those pregnant women who constantly rub their bellies, hold their bellies, or pat their bellies?  I always thought that was kinda annoying.

And you know those pregnant women who pull their belly out for no good reason or lie on their back and expose their bellies…? I kinda always thought that was real annoying too…

But…

I have become one of those women…

And now i know why those women do it…

The top 10 reasons pregnant ladies have a thing with their bellies

1. The belly is remarkably heavy, i have found that i like to hold it up so as not too feel as heavy, and this is coming from someone with a little baby!
2. The belly is remarkably tight, i like the feeling when i rub my belly as it stops feeling so tight
3. I like to put my hand on the top of my belly, just resting under my right boob cause this is where gorge’s head and sometimes hand is… If i poke the little tykes head sometimes he moves his hand and i can play handsies with him!
4. Sometimes (ok ok all the time) i eat too much and in my head it ‘helps’ with the indigestion if i rub the belly
5. Its there… The belly is there, its wasnt there, and now its there… I must rub what is there!
6. Honestly as well, it hurts – all that stretching and pulling… What do you do when you muscle hurts? You rub it!
7. I like to expose my belly cause even though its winter my belly feels hot…
8. When i can see my belly, i can see my miracle move more
9. When my belly is exposed i can play with my belly button
10. There is a baby in there! What other excuse do you need for rubbing and exposing – ok dont answer that one

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives. Oscar Wilde

As i sat in hospital last week i realized that while i love my husband to pieces, there are quite a few things that are defiantly not going to be done while i am in hospital having our baby!  So today i give you the:

Top Ten Things that wont get done while i am in hospital!

1. The washing will not be taken out of the dryer and folded… It will stay in the dryer… even if it is still wet!
2. The floors will get swept…. But the pile of dirt will not be panned up, and each day as the floors are swept, the pile will grow bigger and bigger until the puppy destroys it and the dirt ends up back through the house!
3. There will be a trail of clothes from the front door to the couch, where he has decided to drop them as he walks and undresses through the house
4. The toilet seat will remain up
5. The towels will not be washed, they will remain in a heap on the floor, and for that matter, the bed defiantly will not be made, the sheets defiantly not washed
6. He will not remember where anything is kept, and more than likely i will be called to confirm where exactly the chilli sauce is kept
7. My dear husband wont eat any vegetables, no purchase any vegetables or food with substance should he decide to do some groceries
8. After cooking a massive meal he will in fact store the remaining food, however he wont eat the leftovers, they will stay in the fridge until mold grows and we cant decipher what the food originally was!
9. If by chance his socks do get washed, they will not be paired up and will receive a phone call letting me know that he has no socks and that he requires money to purchase some…
10. Speaking of money, i will get a call or a visit more than likely twice a day asking for some more money as he has none… I will question the $50 i just gave him and he will advise me that food is expensive… When i ask what food he will let me know just what fast food he ate and how much it cost, not to mention exactly what expensive energy drink he likes and how much they cost… hmmm apparently he has never heard of home cooked meals and a glass of water!

But i do know that he loves me, and no matter what doesnt get done and how much money he spends it will be made up by love and affection for me and our miracle george!

Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others. Anon

I love my george, i love everything that i was able to fall pregnant by Gods grace and i love how truly blessed i have become….

HOWEVER….

There are a few things that i really miss, and a few things that i just honestly cant wait to do!

1. Eat some fresh sushi
2. Run as fast as i can for as long as i can
3. Sleep on my front
4. Colour my hair
5. Caffeine, lots and lots of caffeine
6. Put my wedding ring and engagement ring back on
7. Reheat food – simply for convenience
8. Breath a full breath, walk up stairs without losing my breath
9. Know what gender my georgie is so i can go shopping!
10. Hold George in my arms…

Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live. Anon

Pregnancy, it is a blessing, i real blessing, i love that i have been given this gist and i love that i will be holding a miracle in my arms soon, but there are some things that make me take a double check in the mirror and make me say – pregnancy glow – where?

So tonight i bring you the Top Ten weirdest things that have happened in the past 215 days, and are making me go WTF?… And just a quick warning…

1. My boobs have gone from small to sore, to big, to saggy, and now they have stretch marks on them!
2. While my ankles are not swelling (thank goodness!) my toes are and often these days dont touch the ground
3. My hair has gone straight (ish)
4. Speaking of hair, it all seems to fall out in clumps yet i have more than ever
5. And my finger and toe nails, they are growing at the speed of light as well, not only that – they are so tough i have to use clippers instead of a nail file!
6. My belly button – now that is a whole other story and if it manages to finally pop out, and stay out, i promise i will post a picture!
7. My face goes from oily to dry back to oily, i am covered in acne and am even getting scars…
8. My ovaries still hurt… It is the weirdest feeling having your ovaries burn when you know they are meant to just be sitting there doing nothing (like they normally do)
9. It isnt really that weird, but it is something that i cant seem to get used to… The amount of times i have to pee… I know i know, i was warned, but it really doesnt help when your baby seems to love to kick you right in that spot that makes you need to go – NOW
10. Finally, Discharge… I have plenty to say about this, but lets just leave it as…. You thought the pessaries were bad? Enough said…

Know what’s weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon, everything’s different. Bill Watterson

13 weeks to go! One week left and i am in the last trimester… Scary huh? I have said on many occasions before that these past 6 months have been nothing like what i expected, i really did think it was going to be peaches and roses… And aside from the fears, there are some things that may just be TMI, they may just be things that doctors go “well thats all part of being pregnant” and they may just be things that i probably would have realised if i had just actually thought about it…

So the Top Ten Things about pregnancy i really didnt expect / didnt even cross my mind.

1. Stretch marks, and no not on my belly – on my boobs WTF?
2. And speaking of boobs, they now rest on my belly when i am sitting down… humph – how uncomfortable!
3. Leg cramps, agonizing leg cramps that wake you in the night and make you scream to the heavens.. Twice now i have woken my husband up screaming in pain.
4. I am itchy all over, for no reason… What is that about?
5. Hair…. I have hair on my belly! Not too dark, but it is there – i can see it, and i have been told not too pluck… Someone please tell me that it falls out… That i am not permanently going to have a snail trail…?
6. Again, speaking of hair…. Why does the hair on my head grow so fast, yet fall out in chunks?
7. Indigestion, yup i got it, i got it good….
8. And here is the TMI bit… discharge, way to much of that for my liking…
9. Oh – blood noses, who ever knew that was a part of pregnancy?
10. More TMI, i am clogged like i have never been before, and the silly part, i am too scared to push… Yup you heard right… Someone pass me some more fibre?

Is there more to come? Have i neglected anything else here? Should i really be reading more about what to expect?  Please i beg of you – warn me, i am all ears because i am not too sure i need anymore ‘nasty’ surpises!

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us. Ashley Montagu

This morning as i walked on the treadmill at the gym, i turned on the TV and there on The Early Show was some inspiration…

How many times in the past have i been down in the dumps, thinking of all the bad things in life, wondering how this world could be so cruel, wondering what was the point…  And as i watch the show i was reminded of some great advise that was once given to me, when you are feeling hard done by, when all seems lost, each day write down five good things that have happened, five awesome things that you love, and five things that made you smile…

Today The Early Show reminded me that while life can be overwhelming, while we can get so caught up in what we believe is important, we often forget that sometimes it really is about lifes little pleasures, about those five awesome things of each day.

So today i give you , my ten most awesome, the things that could cheer me up on the dullest of days…

1. My puppy’s uncontrollable excitement as i open the front door
2. Laying on the cold tiles on a hot summers day
3. A warm glass of milk before bed
4. Snuggling my favorite childhood stuffed toy
5. Taking the pins out of my hair at the end of the day
6. Reheated homemade lasagna
7. Finding just enough money in the bottom of your bag for a skinny latte
8. Nutella out of the jar
9. A perfect sunrise, and my most awesome right now
10. Feeling my baby kick me, so that i know everything is ok

1000awesomethings.com

It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth — and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up — that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross