Ray Ready

The Ray Readying has been going well. Now we just need Ray to come home!

I just love woolly blankets. We're getting quite the collection.

Framed print from my Mum, via Hello Polly

My sweet friend Roses made this cute embroidery

A dugong toy for the Tiny Dugong! From Ray's Godmother

Much coveted Beci Orpin dream catcher from Ray's Aunt

 Toys! I always had heaps of toys when I was little, and it looks like Ray will be the same.

Tiny Dugong sneak peek!

Ray's due date is next Sunday, and I am really hoping he will be home before then. We are so ready!! I really thought he'd be home by now, so it's really hard still having to say goodbye to him and leave him in the hospital every day. He had been going so well, just growing and chubbing up nicely. Then a few weeks ago he caught a bug which had him moved all the way back to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. It was so unexpected. He'd just made it to the end of the Special Care Nursery, which is the area with the babies that are almost ready to go home - last stop! So it was a huge jump backwards and a massive scare. Thankfully he is all recovered now, and he's back in the Special Care Nursery again.

He's still taking his sweet time with getting strong enough to come home though. Maybe I should show him these pictures, "Look at your nice room Ray, all ready for you!"

Anzac Day

My grandad, and baby Ray's namesake, Ray Adair

Last year on Anzac Day I stayed home and baked Anzac biscuits. This year I'll be doing the same thing as every other day since February 21st - heading in to the hospital to see baby Ray. We're nearing the end of the hospital road now FINALLY, and hoping to bring him home next week. I'm so looking forward to a cosy Winter spending lots of time at home having bebeh cuddles!

Ray Readying

My Easter plan is to get the house ready for when Ray comes home. There's such a lot to do! When I was in hospital one of my roommates mentioned how it would be hard being on bed rest when the 'nesting' phase of pregnancy kicked in, only I think I am permanently in nesting phase - I've been so excited thinking about how we are going to rearrange things at home, I was planning things in my head the whole pregnancy.

Last weekend we had a garage sale to get rid of stuff to make room for all the baby things we'll be getting, and we've had countless brainstorming sessions trying to map out how we'll be able to squish our lounge, computer desk, and dining table all into one room, without it actually looking like it's squishy! Here's a whole bunch of inspiring small interiors that I've been getting hints from.

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Tiny Dugong has arrived!

He came early after all! On February 21st, at just 29 weeks plus 4 days gestation, Ray Ngaei McKinlay decided it was time to make his entrance. It's been a crazy emotional rollercoaster over the past month, but wee Ray has been a total trooper going from strength to strength. He's still in the hospital as he is too teeny and precious for us to bring home just yet. He started off in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with oxygen tubes and monitors and wires everywhere. Thankfully he's been breathing on his own from day one, but needed to have the oxygen tubes there just in case. These have now been removed, and he has been progressing down the hospital ward, and is now in the Special Care Nursery, where he'll stay for another 3 or 4 weeks until we can bring him home. We have been extremely lucky that he hasn't had any serious setbacks. Being at the hospital every day and seeing all the other families and tiny babies makes us realise how lucky we are. Although - I cannot wait to not be at the hospital all the time!

It's surprising how busy things have been, and Ray isn't even home yet. All Ray's grandparents have come over from New Zealand to see him which has been so lovely, and we have been scrambling to get things set up at home. Soooooo behind on all of this and our house is a shambles! And then we need to spend as much time as we can at the hospital. Some days I arrive and sit with Ray and wonder what I'll do with myself there all day. But the days always go by in a blur; there's nappy changes, and 'kangaroo care' which is when we can get Ray up for a few hours to sit and hold him, and my milk expressing schedule - which is so weird! Did you know that your breast milk will contain the perfect combination of nutrients for the time your baby is born? Premature babies need more proteins and things to help them grow and develop, and your breast milk changes as they do, so that it has everything they need for each stage  - so weird and amazing! He's still too little to be able to swallow, suck and breathe, so actual breast feeding will start in a week or two once he gets the hang of all that. For now he has his 'feeding tube' which goes in his nose to his tummy. I can't wait for the day that is removed, as it is the last tube he has on his wee face, which can't be very nice for him.

Okay, enough breastmilk talk, I better get going to see our Tiny Dugong! It's such a relief to finally check back in with an update. I love blogging so much, so I need to make the effort to keep up with things around here. I don't think things will change too much, I'm not going to turn into a mummy-blogger, but there will likely be more Ray related posts than usual for a while!

Karen Walker Autumn/Winter

Karen Walker showed her 'New Rose' Autumn/Winter 2013 collection last week in New York. Here are some of my favourite looks.

It's been so hot and sunny this year in Melbourne. I'm ready for a cool change to be able to wear some cosy knits like this hat and scarf combo.

Love all these long wool socks too.

And this green jumper - so much cosiness!

I probably wouldn't wear this pinafore myself, but it is definitely adorable!

Tweedy cosiness.

pics via karenwalker

Also adorable are these backstage photos.

photos by Sonny Vandervelde via katherine is awesome

The new karen walker eyewear campaign has been around for a while, but I still totally love it.

I'm not so into the actual sunglass styles this year, but this advanced age stunner totally pulls them off!

Preggo eats

I was going to include this picture of a cheese plate I had last year at The Yarra Valley Dairy in my Spring Eats roundup, but then I thought it would just look too weird to everyone because who has a cheese plate with just one type of cheese on it? Well, you do when you're knocked up because you can't eat any 'soft cheeses', or any other delicious mouldy type cheeses. When we ordered this we had to explain that I was pregnant and could have hard cheeses only. I loooooove cheese, so this felt pretty odd. And I wasn't 'showing' at all at this stage, so I felt like people would think I was making a fuss, which was silly of me because most people are really understanding once you explain that you can't eat specific things because you're pregnant. I have had one older lady tell me that she drank and smoked through all her pregnancies and her kids all turned out fine! Things are mighty different these days.

Here are some other things that are off the menu if you find yourself knocked up. There's actually a lot more than just this, it's quite the minefield. And I thought it was just alcohol!

• poached eggs, or any eggs that are runny or not completely cooked. This has been the toughest one for me because I love my poached eggs! Homemade aioli and hollandaise are also out. I usually make tiramisu for Christmas, but not this year as it has raw egg whites in it. Had trifle instead, yum.
• any cold meat, including paté, and smoked salmon - meat has to be cooked and hot! We had beautiful seared tuna at a restaurant a while ago which had to be sent back. I was too embarrassed to ask for it to be well cooked so Mr Meet-Cute had to do it for me. I'm such a wuss!
• sushi. I really had to rethink my lunch options after learning I had to steer clear of sushi.

I guess I think about food and my stomach A LOT so this took a bit of adjusting. It's only for nine months though, and then I shall eat all the poached eggs and hollandaise I can get my hands on!

TD update

Mr Meet-Cute made me this ace card for my birthday yesterday. Was a pretty low key day seeing as I'm still in hospital! But, even though it's quite depressing having your birthday in hospital, it's good I'm still here because it means that Tiny Dugong has been staying put. I'm in my 28th week now, and third trimester, so if I did go into labour now the risks associated with premature babies at this stage are a lot lower.

Thanks Grumpy Cat!

I'd been feeling pretty emo and crappy all week, I blame preggo hormones and being really really over being stuck here! I wasn't going to bother trying to do anything birthday related, but then last minute changed my mind and ended up having a lovely birthday evening, with pizza and cheesecake and faux bubbles!

Boys with a dress on

Hello friends! Thanks so much for the lovely comments on my last post, all those kind words mean so much. Tiny Dugong and I are still hanging in here!

My good friend Phoebe's Mum kindly sent me this fantastic surprise, a book that Phoebe wrote years ago when we were both in primary school. Phoebe and I go way back, we used to tell people that we met when we were 'in our mummies tummies', but then we found out that our parents ran into each other when Phoebe's mum was pregnant with her, and I was a few months old. Then Phoebe was born, and we've been BFFF ever since!

In primary school Phoebe and I would wear shorts under our skirts, then at playtime we'd whip those skirts off. We were pretty cool. We were friends with some funny older boys, and when one of them put my skirt on we thought it was the most hilarious thing that had EVER happened. I laughed and laughed...

Knocked up! And more…

Dugong family, with hapu dugong. Drawing by Mr Meet-Cute.

Things have been preeeeetty quiet here this year, but with good reason, I assure you. The thing is, I'm knocked up - about six months gone in fact! I've been wanting to share this news on banana meet-cute for some time. I had planned to do a bloggy announcement around Christmas time, but much like Kate Middleton, things didn't quite go to plan. I may not have hyperemeses gravidarum, which sounds like absolute hell, but things haven't gone exactly smoothly. 

Pregnancy is often a touchy subject, I feel incredibly thankful to not know the heartbreak of miscarriage, or problems with fertility, but I've had some troubles. I also don't want to freak people out about getting knocked up, but I do want to share what's been going on.

Early in the pregnancy I had some very heavy bleeding (maybe I ought to warn you now that this post may be a bit TMI for some. Shit is gonna get real) This was only a week after I found out I was pregnant, and when you first find out everything seems to go incredibly slowly, so a week had felt like a month. However, everything turned out to be fine, but that was one of the scariest nights of mine and Mr Meet-Cute's lives, and our first of many trips to emergency. I had another bout of bleeding a few months later, then, right after my last post, and the first night of our camping trip I woke up with bleeding, and leaking fluid - another trip to emergency! Luckily we were only an hour out of the city, and I was too wired/scared to get any sleep so Mr Meet-Cute and I decided to abandon the campsite and drive back in to the hospital. The fluid tested positive as being amniotic fluid, so I was admitted for 4 nights, including New Years! The leakage didn't continue, so the Doctors then decided that I could go home, under strict instructions to rest and stay off my feet, as they thought the test may have been a false positive.

Unfortunately, my troubles did not end after this. I got to go home for three nights, then had a follow up appointment at the hospital, including scans where I was found to have a shortened or 'incompetent' cervix. This means that my baby will not likely go to full term, so I was admitted then and have been in the hospital on bed rest ever since. The first few weeks were terrifying, and I was so scared I could barely sleep. I've been here nearly four weeks now, and am in week 26 of the pregnancy, which gives Tiny Dugong (just a working title) better odds of survival if I go into labour. It feels like a real milestone and I've finally stopped feeling so terrified all the time. 

This is stuff that I never dreamed could happen, I had no idea. My plan was to keep working, and being really active, doing heaps of antenatal excercise and yoga classes and to be super healthy and glowy until giving birth! Early on I was advised to stop doing anything strenuous, including no swimming or riding my bike, and my bike is my main transportation! I don't want to freak anyone out about scary pregnancy stuff, but since going through this I've heard many similar stories from friends who've had weird things like this during their pregnancies. The friends we were camping with included three mums who had all had dramas and hospital stays, but - all their kids are absolutely fine. In fact they were all running riot like happy feral beasts round the campsite!

More than my blog, my instagram has really suffered these past weeks. I was thinking of starting a 'hospital food' hashtag, but it'd probably lose me some followers. See below for some examples!

I must disclose that the strawberries in the top left pic were not hospital provided.

Even though the hospital food is depressing, and it's noisy and there's no privacy, it's free for me to be here, and I certainly feel fortunate to live in a country where I don't have to worry about hospital bills. And what's even better, I have friends and family who have been amazingly supportive, bringing me healthy treats, and not so healthly treats, and baking, and books, and DVDs - I've got about a million hours of telly and movies to get through. My friends have just been the absolute best, organising bedside craftanoons, and making me laugh, even though I'm a crazy worry wart who thinks that laughing might somehow upset my stupid cervix, before then convincing myself that laughing is the best so I should stop being an idiot worrying about every little thing. 

And Mr Meet-Cute has been too bloody fantastic for words, I'm sure he knows how much he means to me (moon of my life), so I won't go into too much gushing here. Although, my roommates and hospital staff have all told me how lucky I am to have a partner who brings me home cooked meals and is so supportive. Except they keep calling him my husband and I can't be bothered correcting them!

So, this epic post explains the quietness around here. I'm out of the scary danger zone now, but I want this baby to stay in for a lot longer still. I've heard stories of other patients like me who've been on bed rest and just waited it out and lasted to almost full term, so that's really encouraging. And Tiny Dugong is growing and healthy and kicking! I'm just taking things a day at a time, and each week is another milestone.