Continuing on Dave’s post last week, he felt he should add a few downsides as well re: baby vs. pet. - If they get ill and rack up a medical bill of more than $1000, you can’t elect to have it put down.
- When you go on holidays, you can’t tie it to a tree, because police will most probably make an effort to track you down.
- You can’t blame the breeder if it turns out ugly.
Awwwwww……there’s nothing like a father’s love!
Over the weekend we held our baby shower at my parents’ house. It was a fun filled day and we had a great time with close family, friends and work mates. The weather was just superb so we sat outside in the sun for most of the day. We decorated the house with baby photos of Dave and I, and anyone else who brought their baby photo to share. And we shared funny stories from our childhood as well as tales of unfortunate baby names (yes, Julia, I'm talking about how you avoided being named 'Igor'!).
One of the highlights would have to be the silly games, including 'Guess What's in the Nappy'. Basically it consists of spreading suspect diarrhea looking food items onto nappies and asking everything to sniff/taste to guess what it is. Other games include: speed drinking out of baby bottles, guess the ingredients of baby foods, guess how big my tummy is. Prizes, such as a Kinder Surprise, were given for each game – although my workmate Adam felt like the ultimate winner after winning the 2 hour baby sitting voucher.
Another highlight would have to be the insane amount of food we all consumed. We had some of mum's famous deep fried wontons, my latest favourite recipe of mango scones (courtesy of Master Chef), not to mention my pork dumplings which my friend Rachel claims doesn't taste like pork (I take that as a compliment?). We had prepared enough food to feed another 10 people so everyone was grateful to take home some left-overs with them.
We also received the best gifts for our baby, everything from clothes and burp cloths to towels and toys. One of our favourites would have to be the musical octopus which makes a note when you squeeze its tentacles. I started playing a few tunes on it last night and baby was definitely dancing to it in my tummy!
We also invited everyone to write a little note to our little one in our baby book. It is now filled with beautiful words of love and inspiration and we feel so blessed that our baby is surrounded by so much love.
I know that baby showers are not a common event in Holland so check out this link for a little about the history behind baby showers.
So at 31 weeks, I’m only 9 weeks away (or it could be 6 or less weeks if baby comes early) from the big day. I will be working for another 7 weeks, unless I get so massive that it becomes uncomfortable to travel to and from work.
A baby development update: baby should now be about 1.5kg and measuring around 41cm. So really, it is now running out of room to move around inside my tummy. That doesn't mean it has stopped though! Baby should now start to move to the head-down position to get ready for the birth but our baby definitely hasn't as yet. He/she is still enjoying trampling my bladder from time to time.
I’m full of excitement and anticipation for baby’s arrival, most of all I can’t wait to meet our baby for the first time – what will he/she look, smell, feel, sound like?! As for the labour itself, I’m keeping calm by reminding myself that it’s a natural process, that I’m not sick, and it’s only 1 day of pain for so much gain. Though please check back with me again after I’ve given birth, my perspective might be very different by then :)
During our second last pregnancy class, Taryn talked about the view today's society has that a good baby is a baby that cries very little and sleeps all the time. I couldn't agree more, that sounds like the perfect baby to me! But then she said: “ if you want your baby to sleep all the time, get a pet rock!”. While that particular idea hadn't occurred to me yet, I have long considered a baby as the ideal pet.
Whenever Viv and I get the chance, we'll have a look at a pet shop. As it turns out, that happens at least once every one or two weeks, because that's how often we visit the shopping centre in Bondi Junction (or BJ's as we call it). Vivian usually looks at the designer-handbag dogs, and the tinier and uglier they are, the cuter she thinks they are. I generally look at the cats, and don't really care much for the rest. Vivian might have a look at a rabbit and a few hamsters if they have them, but I can't be bothered with those.
Throughout my childhood I remember there were always pets around of some sort. I'm not sure which was the first one, but I think it might have been a big rabbit. We usually had a rabbit around, although they aren't that much fun. You let it out inside and it will pee on the carpet somewhere, and chew through cables. You hold your finger out in front of it and it will take a horribly painful bite deep into your flesh. Let them roam the backyard and they will dig holes, once even digging itself underneath the fence and escaping into someone else's backyard. As a result, they spent much of their time in a small cage.
I can recall a canary-type bird (I think it was yellow) that we'd let out of it's cage to fly around the living room every now and then, until it one day flew straight into a window. I remember a goldfish who's bowl I managed to smash on the floor (I think... but the fish definitely ended up on the carpet one way or another!). I'm not sure if it was the same fish, but I once asked myself and my parents the question: Why don't fish have birthdays? That same night we turned off the light,s lit a couple of candles, and sang happy birthday for the goldfish. The thing with goldfish is though, they don't live very long, or at least not in our house. I was never too upset when one died, because #1: I got to flush it down the toilet, which I thought was kind of cool, thinking it would end up in the ocean, and #2: we'd go buy a new one that same day.
We went through a dozen or so Russian hamsters, and I think they were all named Boris (Boris 1, Boris 2, etc.). These were mostly my sisters pets. They were cute, but boy was that cuteness short-lived. I think the shortest might have been 3 months. I think they'd rarely get past their 1st year, and if they were really unlucky they would grow some sort of horrible bleeding tumor by the end of it. One lucky hamster escaped without ever being found again, a mystery to this day. And I vividly remember the day my sister accidently sat on one, boy can these little buggers screech! They sure were good to teach a child how to deal with grief, backyard burial rituals, and the beauty of hamster-heaven.
Finally, after a small army of pets came and went we wizened up and got a real pet; A cat. Cats are close to the perfect pet, as you can let them roam the neighbourhood the whole day while you're out, they come home in the afternoon, you feed them, they keep you company, that's it. They wash themselves, they don't bark, not even when there's an intruder in the house, and they generally don't run away because you didn't put them on a leash.
Vivian on the other hand, doesn't have too many pet memories. Here memories revolve around pet ducks who through some unexplained mystery from one day to the next where not there anymore. To this day she doesn't know what was the reason behind that, and I never had the heart to explain to her it's because Chinese people, and especially the Cantonese, have this irresistible urge to eat everything with a pulse. I don't know what turn of events made her a dog person, but luckily that won't be an issue for some time yet. Our own pet is on it's way.
What makes a baby the ultimate pet:
- If all goes to plan, you outlive them.
- If all goes to plan even more, they'll look after you when you're old. Ask a dog to do that for you.
- Until they're 7, they'll have no reason to run away, and until they're 10, you can outrun them anyway. Dogs? No leash required.
- They cost you nothing to get. Have you seen what a designer dog costs nowadays?
- Train them well in say, golf, or tennis, and you're set for life. Only horses can offer a similar return on investment.
- If you rent, like we do, you're not allowed pets. Babies however, no problem.
- You can decide yourself what mix you want to have. With pets, you're at the mercy of the breeder and their flavor of the month (Shitzu x Labrador = Shitrador). Instead, we made our own Chutchie (Chinese/Dutch/Aussie), exactly when WE felt like it.
- As a result, it looks like you, instead of you starting to look like your dog.
With the media’s recent focus on the ‘too posh to push’ trend, especially amongst celebrities, we can be driven to think that having a Caesarean is the lazy way to give birth and we should be ashamed of ourselves to even consider this as an option.
Our class on this topic has dispelled a lot of the myth of Caesarean birth for me and I feel a lot more opened to the idea that this may be a real possibility for my own labour (given that about 1 in 3 births in Australia results in a Caesarean).
Under normal circumstances, a woman is encouraged to have a vaginal birth as that is how our bodies are designed to work. But sometimes, this is just not the way it works out. Maybe she’s had previous complications/surgery which would make it dangerous to give birth naturally, or maybe somewhere along the line of the labour something goes wrong. It is such a routine procedure that the risks to mum and baby are minimal.
There are also some advantages such as:
- No pain
- Quick delivery – it takes 5 minutes between the time of the incision to when you meet your baby
- Baby born with perfectly shaped head – as it doesn’t have to pass through the birth canal or have bruising from forceps or vacuum
As we wrap up on the birth itself, we started to learn about taking care of the baby after birth. We were advised of the immediate tests and injections for the baby (the Apgar Score – test of baby’s reflexes and general wellbeing, Vitamin K shot – to help baby with blood clotting). We were also shown some normal yet unusual things we might find on the baby (rash, blue hands and feet, pimples etc) as well as a quick run down of breast feeding (I will be attending a separate class on breast feeding).
But nothing was as interesting as seeing photos of what you can expect to find inside baby’s nappy during the first week. Basically its bowel movements changes from thick black tar, to dark green lumps, to brown mush and then to mustard yellow poo. We were even given a ‘poo chart’ to put on the fridge for a quick reference! I’ve attached this chart in this post for your enjoyment :) Now you’ll understand the reason that on Funniest Home Video they always show clips of dads trying not to vomit while changing baby nappies!
Next class will be our final one. I hope we’ve learnt enough to at least understand what is going on with the labour and those initial days with baby. The rest is up to us – what a daunting thought.
Update on baby – he/she should be around 38 cm from head to toe and weighing about 1kg. Baby should now be responding to light and sound a lot more, and while it practices breathing it may start to hiccup (I’m feeling baby’s hiccups at least once a day now).
Update on baby shopping – cot has arrived and we’ve picked a spot to place it in our room – at the end of our bed for easy access. Still undecided on the pram, the latest one we’re leaning towards is a Bugaboo Bee (see here). It’s a bit pricey but has everything we want whilst being light weight so it looks like a winner. Plus we can get it in a bright yellow colour, how uber stylish is that?!
Until next time…
Love, Viv + Baby
P.S. Can daddy David please write the next post?
Continuing on Dave’s post last week, he felt he should add a few downsides as well re: baby vs. pet. 
