Sunday, November 18, 2007
Okay...
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
I'm Back for an Update :)
Yup, I've pretty much dropped off the face of the planet huh? LOL... having a baby is a lot more work than I thought it would be (how naiive was I??). So lately I've just been using the time I've got on the computer to design and that's pretty much it. Except if I'm procrastinating, which is what I'm doing now!
Wow, so Josh was only a couple of weeks old when I last posted! So much has happened in that time, it's gonna take a bit of catching up, so I apologise in advance for the mega long post if it turns out that way - LOL!
My sister got married on the 1st September over at Stradbroke Island, and it was just lovely. Travelling with Josh was not the nightmare I thought it would be, and the place we stayed at was just awesome! I kept saying to Marty the whole time that it would be nice if we were still just a couple cos it would have been a good romantic getaway type thingy. Except for the 4 week old baby... heehee! She made a gorgeous bride and the day went off without a hitch. They'd asked everyone to wear white to the wedding, and at first everyone couldn't see the point, but when we got to the beach and everyone was standing there in white, against the sand, sea and perfect blue sky, it looked so lovely! Because I was pregnant when they were planning the wedding it was a bit hard for me cos I'd always wanted to be her bridesmaid, but because they had the wedding when they did it was pretty much impossible. I was really sad about that, and it made me feel really bad that they knew I was pregnant when they chose the date. But, in the end they made me a part of the ceremony, and it was lovely, except for the fact that I only knew about it 5 minutes beforehand - LOL! So, I looked like such a third wheel standing there in my post-natal outfit, and them looking so glam... anyways it all turned out great, and they had a wonderful day, so all is good :) Here's some pics of the beautiful couple:

Just after he went wholly to formula, he started to get a bit constipated, which is pretty common, and we did go into the hospital one night when it was particularly bad and they told us it would all clear itself up in good time, and not to worry too much. On the advice of a health nurse a couple of weeks later we switched to another formula, and it was great for a couple of days. He wasn't having any more troubles, and we thought it had all sorted itself out. Then one night, a week after the wedding, he started to poo pure blood. It was terrifying. You see, Marty had been giving me the day off and was looking after him, but he's colour-blind. So he hadn't noticed the blood - he just thought it was brown. Anyways, we raced him into the hospital and he had to be cannulated and put on a drip. It was the most awful feeling - they asked us to leave the room while they inserted the cannula, and I felt so helpless! It was all quiet and then he started screaming in the next room, and there was nothing I could do but cry and hope they weren't hurting him too bad...
Turns out he was allergic to the cow's milk protein in the formula, which apparently is very common and they usually outgrow it after 12 months. So they put him on a prescription formula, and initially it was a hassle because he hated it, but it seemed to be going fine... Then we went back to the specialist the following week for a check up and he'd started to lose weight. They said it could just be an adjustment phase, and they'd check him the following week. And for the next 2 weeks he lost weight :( It was awful, he lost 600g total, and they had no idea why. Each time he went in, they'd give him blood tests and on one occasion his neutrophils (?sp) had dropped dangerously low and we had to keep him "in quarantine" because his body wouldn't have been able to fight any bacteria it came into contact with.. OMG what an awful time that was. I've never been more frightened or my nerves so shot in all my life!
Thankfully, after about 6 weeks it all settled down and he finally started to gain weight - yippee!! Now he's healthy and a little chubber and so damn cute - I just love him to bits! The best bit is, he's been sleeping through the night since he was 6 weeks old, so that was a huge turning point for us as well. Makes life so much easier when you can have more than a couple of hours' sleep at a time! And, of course, now he's smiling and cooing and doing all that stuff that just makes my heart melt... Man, I've never been so fiercely in love with anything in my life! He's a good baby too - only really cries when he's hungry. Although, I think his teeth are starting to move around cos he's getting a bit grizzly, but I can't complain cos he's been so great until now!
Here's some more recent pics that I think are the cutest... please excuse me and my tuckshop lady chins/arms/body, but I've let myself go - LOL! I guess there's plenty of time to get my figure back :) Not that I had that great a one to start with... ah well :) And the quality of a few of them isn't the best because I was just holding the camera and blind-shooting, but the expression on his face is just priceless and they're some of my faves...
Monday, August 20, 2007
Finally!!
HE'S HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Finally *LOL*)
My little man, Joshua Martin Pearn, arrived a week early on Wednesday 1st August 07 at 10:58 am... He weighed 7 lb 7 oz, and is just the cutest, sweetest, handsomest (is that a word??) little guy in the world. But I'm biassed of course!! Here's a couple of snaps:





I so wasn't prepared to be going into labour when I did! Because he was posterior in the last weeks of my pregnancy, every midwife I saw said that there was no way he'd come on his own, and it was most likely that I'd have to be induced... So, I was originally booked for an induction on the 17th August, and I thought I had heaps more time being a lady of leisure *LOL* But I woke up at around 4:15 am on the morning on the 1st August just feeling like I had to go to the bathroom really bad, but nothing would happen. Then it clicked that these pains were coming every 5 minutes and were getting worse... It took me forever to work up the courage to wake Marty up at that time of the morning, especially because I was convinced it was a false alarm.
I stayed at home until around 7am thinking that I'd have HOURS to kill, and I rang Mum and told her I was off to the hospital, but not to get here hopes up because I was sure it was either a false alarm or that I'd have hours and hours to go, and they'd send me home!
So, off we go to the hospital in peak hour traffic... Me with a severe case of Tourette's Syndrome on the way there *LOL*, and Marty trying to keep calm for both of us. It was so funny now that I look back on it - I was petrified all the way there that I'd have a contraction as we were pulled up next to a bus stop or something, and I'd be going off my tree like a lunatic, and everyone would think I was mad!
We got to the hospital around 8am and wen't straight to the labour ward, where they had to examine me first, and I was still convinced it was a false alarm... I said to the lady "How can I tell if I'm really in labour?", and she was like "Honey, you're in labour"... I was freaking out so bad! So not even 4 hours after contractions started, I was 6cm dilated!! I kept saying to them "I'm not ready!" I think I went into denial at that point *LOL*
Straight off to the birth suite I go and I had the most awful midwife! Man, she was nasty! I was begging for drugs by that point and she'd only give me gas (which does bugger all) until I told her (very firmly) to get me some f**ing pain relief, and I got some morphine (which also didn't do too much!). Anyways, I said to her, "how long will this take?" and she told me that it'd most likely be another 6 hours or so at least... and continued to ignore me because she had to "write up her notes". It was so funny, every time she'd leave the room, I'd flip her the bird - I hated her!
About an hour later I had this really bad feeling that I wanted to push, so I told the midwife. She's like, "you just push love - it won't be a real one, you're only 6 cm dilated". So I go, "no, I am about to SPLIT IN HALF!" Her: "But I have to write up my notes, we'll give you an internal in another hour or so". Me: "NO! SOMETHING"S HAPPENING HERE". Her: "Okay, (cranky and snippy) I'll give you an internal examination now then". Me: "Thank You".
So, lucky she allowed me to have an internal exam then, because baby was about 1 cm away from crowning! Her: "Oh, baby nearly here!" Me (under my breath) "No shit Sherlock". Who's the midwife here? Man, I swear I wanted to rip her eyes out!
So then it was a mad panic to get me pushing properly, and by that stage the Morphine had only just kicked in, so I was in lala land and didn't want to push anymore - actually it was more that I was freaking out about having to push a baby out - like when you know something really bad is going to happen and you put it off as long as you can... But once he crowned, all the pain went away and I had this little baby in my arms (who was about as high as his mother at that stage because of the Morphine). You know, I didn't believe all the people who say that you forget the pain, but you really and truly do - it was amazing! And for all you girls out there who've heard horror stories about labour, don't listen. It really isn't that terrible - I was actually disappointed because I thought I'd get to yell and scream at the bitchy midwife, but I was saving it until the pain got really bad, but it never got that bad.. Should've went off at her anyway! Damn...
We were in hospital for 2 nights, and came home late on the Friday night... It was funny, I was so desperate to get out of hospital, and as soon as I got home I wanted to go straight back there! I was absolutely petrified of being responsible for this little guy!
The first week and a half was pretty bad - I was an emotional wreck, Marty lost his job not even a week after we had Josh, I haven't officially lost my job, but in not so many words they told me that they won't be renewing my contract past my maternity leave, and I was having so many problems breast feeding. It was really scary - I thought it was always going to be like that, but luckily Marty got a new job earlier this week - we were so lucky! Since then, I've just been relieved, and thanking my lucky stars that we're okay again...
Anyways, the little dude is crying for his dinner, so I'd better go - sorry it's such a saga! Lots to catch up on... Hopefully all of you are well and happy! Thanks for reading, and hopefully I'll get some spare time soon to do another update!
Zoe
Friday, June 29, 2007
I suck...
Well, if I could describe the last six weeks in one word it would be atrocious. If I could add one more, it would be crazy... I feel like there's so much to do in so little time, and it's all just flying by in one big fat blur. Then to top it off, all these lovely little things keep popping up to make it that little bit more annoying, and there you go!
So, I'll start where I left off. The last Friday in May was looking to be a great day. I had the day off, my Mum was coming for dinner, and I was really looking forward to having a nice night with her, catching up, etc. So just after I put the food in the oven, she calls and she can't make it. Fine. Whatever... I'm a bit cranky, but I'll live. Long story short, we have a massive fight, she comes over, we make up, all is good and dandy! So, she's just about to leave at around 11:00 that night, and we get a phone call from the hospital where my Nana was admitted earlier in the week. They say Mum needs to go to the hospital now - Nana's having trouble breathing, and they don't think she'll make the night...
Mum takes off. I'm in shock. So, the decision - do I go to the hospital and possibly face seeing my Nana, who I am terrified of losing, die? I swore to myself years ago after my brother died, that I would never ever see another dead body in all my life, no matter who they were. But then, would it give Nana comfort to see the people she loved in her last moments? Then I have to ring my sister to share the great news with her - fair enough if I don't want to go, but it's not fair for me to make that choice for her. So, we end up deciding to go to the hospital and I pick her up and we prepare ourselves for the worst...
Nana was in a bad way when we got there, but thankfully she was stabilised at that point, on a breathing machine, really tired, but doing okay. It was such a relief, but at the same time I was pissed off at myself because I see people in that condition every day as part of my job, and it doesn't phase me... maybe I'm just a heartless bitch. I think I have a switch on my emotions that I flick most of the time... I don't know.
So it turned out that Nana had had a heart attack, and she was doing great again the next day, so all is good there. She's now out of hospital and back to her old self, so that's all good news!
So on the Sunday of the same weekend, I wake up feeling like absolute crap. And it doesn't get any better either as the day goes on. Turns out I had a chest infection - great!! So, I have to miss work for a couple of days, and my popularity at work drops a few more notches (as if that was possible). I worked from home for the rest of the week while I got better, so that was good, but I was going out of my brain with boredom by the end of it!
Then, the following weekend, it's a long weekend, so I was really looking forward to spending a nice, relaxing weekend with Marty, just hanging out, maybe see a movie or something... Nope! Not to be - LOL! On the Saturday, Marty was stomping around the house, goofing around (he was paying out on me, so what happens next is a bit of karma coming back to bite him in the arse - LOL). Marty has a bad knee. Goofing around and a bad knee that are well overdue for a reconstruction do not make a good combination. Next thing I know, his knee has dislocated while he's stomping past me in the kitchen... And I copped 80kg at full force straight to the baby belly. At this point I don't have much sympathy for Marty - kind of reminds me of when I first started posting in forums and I thought that DH stood for "Dick Head".
So, we got to spend all day Saturday at the hospital. I dropped him off at the Emergency Department so he could get something done to his knee, while I sat in the Maternity Department being monitored to make sure the baby was okay! And the best thing about the whole situation was that the nurses all thought I was a domestic violence victim or something!! I may as well have told them I fell down the stairs... gees!!
Everything was good with bub, but Marty's knee was still jiggered, so on the Sunday we spent most of the day trying to find a physiotherapist that was open who'd pop it back in for him. And paid $150 for the pleasure - yay! :)
The next couple of weeks went by nice and smoothly - had a couple of baby showers - one of them the girls at work threw for Emma & I, which was so lovely of them! It was really nice to have that in the midst of all this other crap going on... They put on a lovely day for us, beautiful food, and we both got a hamper with heaps of baby stuff in it - yay!! We were spoilt!
Nothing too eventful the following week, apart from another couple of run ins with the boss at work. Nothing unusual there! Thank goodness there's only a couple of weeks to go there - not that I'm counting of course!
So this pretty much brings us up to the beginning of last week, which turned out to be flipping fantastic as well - yeah right! On Wednesday, we had accreditation (where they licence your medical facility), so it was all pretty hectic and stressful. So I choose that day to spill not one, but TWO boiling cups of coffee all over my chest and tummy. Ouch! Luckily I work with good nurses, so they all got me under control with cold compresses and stuff, but it hurt like hell! So I had to leave early again... down a few more notches in the popularity stakes - yay!!
So, then last night to top it all off (you thought that'd be it, didn't you), I slipped while I was getting out of the shower, and did the splits to stop myself from falling. Not a good move when you're 34 weeks pregnant. It feels like I've broken my pubic bone - I swear! And the fact that bub's dropped and is sitting right there makes for a really nice feeling! So, now I can barely walk, I'm tired, I'm cranky (if you can't tell from my tone - LOL), and I JUST WANT TO STOP HURTING MYSELF!!!!! Do you think I should maybe wrap myself up in cotton wool for the next six weeks to make sure I don't fall off a cliff or something?
I swear, if I didn't laugh about it all, I'd cry! Well, I've been doing a bit of that too, but hey, I can blame it all on hormones - heehee!! So that brings you up to date on my very messy and frustrating life... If I don't write again in the next few weeks, be concerned - I might have chopped my arms off or something, you never know! :D
Whoa! How long was that?!? Sorry if I sound pessimistic, but I feel pretty pessimistic at the moment, so I can't help it... All of this, on top of the usual terrified feelings I'm sure all new Mums get at this late stage of pregnancy, just gets a little bit overwhelming so... I'll try and be a bit more upbeat next time - LOL! I'd delete the post, but it's taken me half an hour, and I can't bring myself to waste it!
Anyways, I'm gonna leave it at that for now... I hope you are all having a great day, not injuring yourself constantly, and are not as hormonal as yours truly :D
Seeya!
Zoe
Monday, May 14, 2007
I'm Back...
I'm starting to get to that yucky hormonal stage of being pregnant that is no fun at all, I swear! I was just starting to think how great it all was, how nice it is to have a bump and wear pregnant clothes, etc, etc... then the hormones kicked in - LOL! I swear if I look at another piece of maternity clothing in black, black, black, I'm going to scream! Not to mention the fact that I burst into tears at the drop of a hat... I think it's just getting to the point where the initial excitement has, I don't know, not worn off, but isn't the main thing anymore. And now the reality has set in... it's really going to happen, only 12 weeks away (yikes), no work, living on a really tight budget, no experience of having a baby, and it's just starting to freak me out. Just a tad. Don't get me wrong, I'm so excited still, and I just can't wait to meet this little person and hold them and love them... but the other part of me is absolutely terrified of being a mother, of having a huge responsibility. I won't be able to just pick up and go out when I feel like it because I'll have this little person who relies solely on me for every need, and I guess I'm scared of change. I'm not good with change... What if I don't know how to look after a baby? How will I cope with no sleep? And what if my work doesn't want me back after my maternity leave? I don't know, I think I'm probably thinking too much into everything, and freaking out about things that I really don't need to be, but I'm just so emotional at the moment, and it's driving me batty!
In product news, on NSD I released a few little goodies:
One of my fantastic CT members, Kresta, put this little album together with My Sunshine, and I think it is just the cutest!
I'm just loving the colours in this one, and it's so summery and whimsy!
Anyways, that's pretty much it for me this week... I've had a whinge so I feel a bit better now! Thanks for reading if you got this far, and I hope you are all having a wonderful day!
:) Zoe
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Yay! It's Saturday!! :)
These photos are so long overdue to be scrapped - they are from the day we found out we were having a baby! Like back in November - LOL! I got the template from the Cookie Decorating 101 Challenge at Sweet Shoppe from March 28th. If you want to see the full credits, you can check it out here.
and these are some photos that DH took with our new DSLR last weekend, of me and my number one little fur-baby, Bonnie... LO was inspired by Jamie Waters' "This Floppy Hat" LO in the March issue of Creating Keepsakes. Full credits here.
Apart from that, nothing much new to share... I decided to dye my hair last night cos I was looking through photos from my Hens Night when my hair was a little bit darker. So, I went and got a hair dye from the shop, "Natural Light Golden Brown" was the name. So, I'm thinking that it sounds perfect, won't be too dark, just a nice change from blonde... well...

... turns out me & Clairol have very different ideas on what "Light Natural Golden Brown" actually is - LOL! That'll teach me to colour from a box... Ah well, a change is as good as a holiday, and it's growing on me... slowly - LOL! I keep getting a shock every time I look in the mirror...
Anyways, that's it for me this week. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!
Zoe
Sunday, April 15, 2007
A New Home!
Well, I thought it was time for a bit of a change, so I've moved my blog! Yay!! I absolutely hated my last blog - it'd take me a good hour to post anything because it'd freak out if I had too many pictures, etc, and it just wasn't functional for me... hence why I never posted - LOL! So, hopefully this one will be a lot easier to keep updated, and I'll be able to fulfil one of my New Years Resolutions (to blog more) - LOL!
So... first up I'd better get the business end of things sorted. I have a new kit in store this week, and I have to say I'm so excited about this one! It just seemed to come together so nicely, and I'm really happy with how it turned out:
You can check out My Sunshine HERE
... and because I just couldn't stop on this one, and kind of to celebrate my new blog, I've created a little goodie for you guys! This little kit will co-ordinate perfectly with the My Sunshine Kit, but is pretty cute on it's own too!
