Category: Stuff

First Day

/ Renae / 1 Comment

Remember this post? Remember this photo?

Here’s what 4 and half years of studying medicine will do to a man:

Hubba hubba! The Doctor is IN! Today is Hubs’ first day on the job. Well, actually he has a week of orientation first, but this time next week, he will be elbow deep in some kind of surgical rotation. This also means it is my first day of solo parenting in a very long time. I would have taken a photo of myself as well, but it’s just too scary! Okay okay, Here’s one from the other day: (Excuse the bathroom scene; up until a couple of days ago, it was the only mirror in the house!)

Woah nelly! Ha ha. Anyway, we have had a great day – we headed down to The Strand (fenced-off playground! WOO!!) and met up with one of my friends who lives up here. We haven’t seen each other in about 6 years, so it was so lovely to catch up. Then Chanbe went down for a sleep at 1, as did I, and while I only woke up 20 minutes ago, he’s still asleep! I can really get behind this sleeping til 4pm thing. It makes the afternoon very enjoyable indeed!

So here we are, back on line, still with boxes to empty, but getting there. It’s my birthday on Friday, and Hubs is taking me to some fancy-shmancy Interns dinner. Ah, such a romantic! We also have our dear friends popping in on their way home from Brisbane to Cairns, so I’ll have enough to keep me occupied. And Baloo seems like he/she is staying put for now. But what do I know! I hope to resume some type of regular blogging soon, but let’s just see how we go 🙂

a 7 minute post

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I’m sitting in a shopping centre, using one of those internet stations. It reminds me of being overseas when I’d pay for a certain amount of time and have a certain number of things to do and the last few minutes would be a frantic rush to get those last few emails etc out.

We turned up to my 37 week antenatal appointment this morning, only to realise that it’s actually tomorrow morning. But we already asked my Mum’s cousin to baby sit Chance for the day so we could go shopping afterwards, so we thought we might as well take advantage of the child-free time. Well, the outside child-free time. The inside baby is kicking away nicely and sapping all of my energy, but we are all doing well.

We really do love the house. It’s exciting to imagine what it will be like once we’ve finished unpacking. The flat-pack fairies visited for a bit last week and only left 1 set of drawers for us to put together which was nice.

This isn’t a very exciting post, sorry. This is Hubs’ last week off before he starts full time work. And he won’t have holidays again until  the end of July. That is a very long time! But I’m sure it will fly by. I have given Hubs his 10 day heads up of my approaching birthday. I actually had forgotten about it!

Well I have a couple of minutes to go and need to check a few other things so I’ll leave it there! Hubs is currently sorting out internet so I’m hoping my next post will be from home and will contain photos!

Dear Me

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Dear Blogger,
I’ve missed you. I’ve been wanting to share so much with the blogging world, but due to lack of internet (other than on my mobile which is, let’s face it, super annoying for anything other than a quick post) I have been unable to share my world with you. This will be ongoing for probably a few more weeks, but knowing Hubs, internet connection will be amongst the top priorities once we move.

Dear Baloo,
You remind me almost every minute (okay, at least every hour) of your presence with your kicks and tumbles in my tummy. I can’t tell you how excited I am about meeting you, but don’t be in a hurry to arrive, little one. We have a lovely home to prepare for you and our little family and we can’t wait to give you “outside cuddles”. You are already loved by so many people, and your big brother Chanbe promises to be gentle with you. There is so much I want to know about you, and I truly can’t wait to look into your eyes. I’ll see you soon.

Dear Chanbe,
My sweet, superstar son. You are an angel and have been so well adjusted in these crazy few weeks. You want such simple things (walk on beach? Fruit?) and have slept through almost every night, even though your routine has been out of wack. There is so much more change to come, but I know you will handle it well. Your resilience makes me a better mama, and I can’t wait to see you and Baloo together.

Dear Brisbane,
You have been preparing me for the heat in Townsville. It has been a tough month of heat and humidity, but I do love you and I wonder if we will live here again some time soon. Only time will tell.

Dear Townsville,
Be kind to me when we arrive please. I will be big and you will be hot. Some summer storms will be much appreciated to cool things down and green things up. See what you can do?

Dear Me,
You’re almost there, Wifey. You keep saying to yourself “once we are all together in Townsville, I can relax.” That will be a reality in a matter of days. This past year has tested you in so many ways, but you have gotten through it with the love and support of family and friends. The last month in particular has thrown some extra curvy balls, but you have hit them back and made a few home runs as a bonus. You rock. Be kind to yourself and your family in the weeks and months to come. There will be time for adjusting and settling in, and as always, you will make it out the other side, stronger than ever.

Dear Hubs,
You are a saint. I love you.

Dear kombi,
Start. For the love of all human kind, please start.

Lists

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My list of things I don’t need right now:
– Chanbe had a temperature last night and was generally miserable, so neither of us got any sleep. Barely keeping my eyes open right now.
– An obstetrician at the hospital has ordered another glucose test to rule out gestational diabetes, even though the first one I had came back clear. The test takes 2.5 hours and you have to drink this disgusting sugar drink and get blood taken 3 times. Cos I have so much time to spare right now.
– I have a rash on my neck that has come out of nowhere and is itchy.
– I’m still getting pains in my guts that stop me in my tracks and force me to lie down.

To do:
– Keep packing boxes. (just keep packing, just keep packing)
– Attend my last mother’s group tomorrow (heartbreaking)
– Pick up trailer from Albury
– Buy a sexy dress for the Rural Clinical School graduation dinner on Saturday night in Ballarat
– Plan Chanbe’s 2nd birthday party

Up until yesterday I was feeling like I was being productive and really getting stuff done. Today, I’m yet to achieve anything and just want to go back to bed. Maybe I should do just that and try and have a productive afternoon and evening. Hubs get back tomorrow evening after his boys camping trip (he’s having a great time) which will take the pressure off somewhat.

This time next week we’ll be on the road. So much to do before then…

Random photo for your viewing pleasure.

I told you so!

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As I knew it would be, the last week has been huge, and today is the first day I’ve had more than 10 minutes to sit down and play on the computer. Sunday was a glorious day and we had a lovely walk to Paradise Falls, followed by lunch at Dal Zotto winery. It was such a lovely day with lovely friends, though I was having some annoying pains in my stomach that wouldn’t go away. I was pretty certain it was ligament pain and it eventually subsided in the evening so I wasn’t too concerned. Monday night we had a crowd over for dinner and Revenge and both left us wanting more. Tuesday we dolled up and headed to the races, and, as usual, Chanbe stole the show:

Suspenders were certainly the order of the day for the boys!

I wasn’t happy with any of the photos that were taken of me, so you can just tell me how dashing my boys looked instead!! Mum and Dad were running a bit ahead of schedule and ended up on our doorstep at 6:30pm Tuesday night, much to Chanbe’s delight! Hubs headed to Shepparton on Wednesday for his final med exams which was very exciting! Thursday was supposed to be spent preparing for the garage sale on Thursday, but the pains in my stomach came back and I thought it was best to get them checked out at the hospital. After 3 hours of monitoring, I finally got to see the doctor who said it didn’t seem like anything too serious, and sent me home. Which was good, but frustrating that he couldn’t tell me what it might be, other than “probably ligaments” which I wasn’t convinced about as it was so isolated to one spot.

I got a fair bit done Thursday night which was good, but at 9am Friday, the pains came back and I couldn’t stand or walk, so back to the hospital we went. It was so much worse that day, and I saw the doctor immediately and he said we’d try and get to the bottom of it. He did an examination and assured me that the baby is absolutely fine, then gave me some morphine and let me rest. He said it was most likely either a kidney infection, appendicitis, or an ovarian cyst that was twisting on itself. After bloods and an ultrasound, they could rule out appendicitis and kidney problems, and although he is pretty sure it’s an ovarian cyst, they couldn’t actually see it on the ultrasound as Baby Baloo was in the way. So he gave me some strong pain killers and said that we’d touch base again the following week, but really there’s not much they would  be happy to do until after the baby is born.

So needless to say, not much got done on Friday for the garage sale until I got home at 6pm. Hubs is now officially finished medicine (woooooo hooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and we decided to postpone our dinner til Saturday night. The garage sale was a HUGE success yesterday, and it was so nice to just relax in the afternoon and know that all the hard work over the last few weeks/months of getting all the stuff ready and making pretty signs etc had all paid off.

That’s enough from me for now. More on our romantic night out soon….

Inspections

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Since we gave plenty of notice of our intention to leave this house, we have already had 6 lots of people come through with the real estate agent to inspect the house. We are not breaking our lease – I signed up until the 17th of November – so I just thought I would be extra nice and give over 2 months notice, so they could find new people to rent the house.

As I have mentioned, I don’t generally keep our house in a particularly tidy state, mainly because, since we moved in in April, we never fully unpacked and a lot of our stuff has never had a “place” so often I don’t even bother trying. For the inspections, however, I have always made sure things are relatively tidy, vacuuming done, and kitchen spotless. We have been excellent tenants, in my opinion, so today’s inspection left me feeling quite deflated.

I’ve just started feeling okay with our huge move coming up – we’ve sold a couple of things, have interest in a couple of other things, and designated a lot of stuff to give away. I have picked up some packing boxes, and have already filled several bags for the op-shop. After showing the prospective tenants around, the real estate agent came back to where I was on the computer, gave me a look, and said “So, you’re still right for your vacating date? I noticed the back garden is getting out of hand. Are you getting someone in to professionally clean it up?”

“Ummmm… yes?”

“Have you got the checklist that you need to complete before you vacate? Are you still okay with the date you’re leaving?”

“Ummmm… yes?

And it went on like this for a bit longer.

Seriously. I’d just started feeling okay. And now, not so much. Maybe she was just doing her job. Maybe she thought she was being helpful. (And maybe I made a face at her as she walked out the door.) But if she had known the crazy life we have lived in the last year, she would have BACKED OFF. I do NOT need that kind of “help” and yes, moving house is a big job, but I know it will work out. You know how I know? Not just because we’ve done it 4 times in the last 4 years, but because it has to work out. There is no other option.

So excuse me for letting the gardens get “out of hand.” I’ve had other things on my mind thank-you-very-much.

 
Chanbe helping Mama with the vacuuming
 

Our 10 hour trip, 8 hours in the ED, and threefold guilt PART II

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Did I mention that Chance had a rash? No? It started 2 weeks ago as little pimply patches on his shoulders and was diagnosed as “post viral”. When you go to the doctor and you get a diagnosis, you believe them, right? I had heard that there had been a case of school sores reported at his childcare centre, but the doctor ensured me it wasn’t that. So I went on my merry way with my not-so-well little boy and had a fitful night sleep on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, the rash had gotten worse and it had spread. 

But I had been told it was post-viral, and that it should get better within a week. My instincts were telling me otherwise, but I was trying not to overreact. Plus, Chanbe was fine. No fever, no fuss, so we went about our day. Though, I avoided contact with kids in case his “virus” was still contagious, as per the doctors orders. By Wednesday night, I was starting to wonder, and after another sleepless night, and a worsened rash on Thursday morning, I booked him back in to the doctor.

The look on her face when she saw him made me so upset and angry. Definitely school sores. The rash was all over his shoulders and arms, and covered his legs and butt, and it was no longer pimply, but red and angry. I was given the antibiotics script and assured that we would be okay to fly to Brisbane the next day. When I got into the car, I burst into tears. I knew there was more to it, and had the doctor said at the first visit “if it gets worse, bring him back” I would have been back on Wednesday. I felt so guilty and horrible. Just thinking about it now makes me feel ill.

So Friday we set off for Brisbane on our 10 hour trip, and on Saturday morning, I was overcome with “the rash should be getting better. Why isn’t it getting better???” There were going to be other kids at the party and I was paranoid about them getting sick too, and after a couple of outsiders looked in, I insisted we take Chanbe to the Emergency Department at the Hospital. It was 10:45am when we got there. For the next hour or two, I was either crying or about to cry. We got in to see at doctor at 12:15pm, but he was called away 5 minutes later and never came back so we had to wait some more. At 1:15pm we saw another doctor who stuck around, looked at the rash and scratched her head. “Not a typical case of school sores. I’d like to run some tests and call my boss to have a look.”

The party had already started, and I was told to go along as there was no point in all of us missing out. I felt SO guilty for leaving Hubs there, especially since he was pretty sure it was going to be the same diagnosis as before, but he insisted. So after arriving at the party, having a cry with Mum, and getting hugs from my gorgeous family, I settled down somewhat. This was the third lot of guilt I felt – for not having Mum’s only grandchild at her 60th birthday party. Of course she understood, but I felt awful.

At one stage I got a text from Hubs to say that the big Dr was thinking it might be chicken pox, infected with staph. More tears. I left the party around 5pm when it was wrapping up and went to see my boys. They were doing great, under the circumstances. I kept apologising to Hubs and he kept telling me it was okay. Chanbe was an absolute trooper, playing with a balloon I had left him, and watching YouTube on Dadda’s phone. The Paediatrician came in around 6pm and said it was not a typical case of anything, and the best they could determine was that it was school sores, but they weren’t responding to the treatment. They changed his antibiotics and sent us home just before 7pm.

We took our little Chanbe home and he was fast asleep in no time. The rash started clearing up over the next couple of days, but it is still there, 2 weeks later. So now I feel like I don’t want to send him back to ChildCare in case he gets sick again. An irrational fear, yes, but one that I have to get over in my own time. The lesson I learned is to trust my gut. Even if I get told the same thing, I won’t be left wondering.

Our 10 hour trip, 8 hours in the ED, and threefold guilt

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The weekend before last was supposed to look like this: Arrive in Brisbane at 7pm Friday, have dinner with the parents, sleep, wake up, attend Mum’s 60th birthday party Saturday lunch time, have a leisurely brekky with Hubs Sunday, drop him off at the airport, and relax.

What actually happened, was this: We left Wang at 12:30pm Friday for our 6pm flight from Melbourne. We wanted to leave plenty of time as the Melbourne Ring Road can come to a standstill and can delay you for a hour if there is an accident (that happened to me one time with Chanbe in the car) and we had to drop our car off at long-term parking and catch a shuttle. And we were travelling with a 2 year old. Chanbe didn’t sleep the whole car trip which was weird and a little concerning, but nonetheless, we arrived at the parking at 3:30 and were at the airport at 4. After almost being able to get on the 5pm flight instead, and our hopes being dashed, our boarding time was 5:30.

By the time we grabbed sushi for Chanbe and Hubs and got through security, we had an hour to kill, so Hubs mostly looked after Chanbe and took him for long walks up and down the terminal. He was so well behaved! And so was Chance!! 🙂 We got word that the flight was delayed 20 minutes, so we kept pacing. Then it was delayed another 20 minutes, and we didn’t end up boarding until 6:30, and the flight left close to 7pm. Not fun. But still, Chanbe was a dream. Not long after takeoff, he was asleep in my arms while Hubs and I did the inflight magazing quiz.

We arrived close to Brisbane when the captain informed us that we were to be put in a holding pattern, delaying us by another half an hour. Grumble grumble. We FINALLY landed at 8:40pm local time, 9:40pm Victoria time, and we had the pleasure pain of experiencing Brisbane’s new Pick Up Zone. It sucked. Big time. After his little nap, Chance was again happy as can be. I, however, was whingy and whiney and wanted to sulk. After doing a sneaky avoiding-the-pick-up-zone pickup, we got to Mum and Dad’s at 9:30pm local time; 10:30pm Victoria time. And Chanbe didn’t go to sleep for another hour because it was time to play with Gran and Grumpy.

And the worst was yet to come….

Catching up

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Today has been a good day. I heard Chanbe stir at 5:45am this morning, but then he went back to sleep for another hour and was ready to get up as Hubs was getting ready for work around 6:45am. He was in a good mood, and so was I! We said goodbye to Hubs and had brekky together and then had a lovely play before going for a walk. He then went down for a nap around midday, after lunch, and I thought I’d have a little lie down 2. My alarm went off after an hour, then an hour and a half, and then after 2 hours I felt rested. Chanbe is still asleep, 2.5 hours later! Which means he’ll wake up happy and we’ll have a lovely afternoon together.

Last week in Townsville was hard work, but it was a very successful trip. My main reasons for going were to get a feel for the town and look at some houses in the areas we are keen on. I looked at 14 houses for sale (yes! We’re getting all responsible and grown up!!!) and there were 3 that I/my support crew felt would be a good investment. You see, we’re only going to be living there for a year or 2, then we want to rent it out indefinitely. We are currently in negotiations about one of the houses, but I’ve started having some doubts about it so we’ll see how things progress over the next few days.

We had such a great week up there, Mum, Chance and myself. We stayed with family friends who are around my age and who have a 5 year old girl and 3 year old boy and the kids had a nice time playing. Chance was an absolute dream and had a great week with his Gran looking after him while I raced around (drove sensibly) looking at houses. It was hard without Hubs there – he had to work – but we might make another mad dash up in November/December before we move there for good at the end of December.

Only 4 and a half weeks until we move, and I’m trying my hardest to get things organised. Mum and Dad get here in just over 2 weeks, so it will help having them around. In 2 and a bit months time, we’ll be in Townsville. Hard to imagine…

A bit of an update

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We’re off to Townsville in a couple of hours, and I just wanted to give you a heads up on what’s been going on! Well, actually, I want to give you a teaser of posts to come. Like how it took us 10 hours to get from Wang to Brisbane on Thursday; and how, instead of going to Mum’s 60th, Hubs spent 8 hours in the Redcliffe Emergency Department with Chanbe on Saturday (he’s fine); and how I felt mothers guilt, wifeys guilt and daughters guilt, all in the same day!

So, lots to come when I have a moment. In the mean time, I have a few houses to look at in Townsville! Exciting!