Hey Baby! Nice to finally meet you =)

Hey baby!

You're here!

At the moment, you are sleeping in you pretty bassinet, looking cute as button and threatening to wake up at any minute. Please don't, as I've been trying very hard to write this post for a few weeks now and every time, you wake up!

So...wanna know how we've come to this amazing predicament of you being here with us, 4 weeks and 1 day old?

Last time I posted, I was around 37 weeks pregnant. After that photoshoot at the park, a lot has happened: Grandma and Grandpa arrived from Brazil. You auntie Sandra and cousin Julio also arrived, you Daddy took some days off work to relax and we all (and when I say all, please remember how many people were thinking of us in Brazil and New Zealand. It was like waiting for the Second Coming. And in the end, it almost was.) were counting down the hours to see you. We shopped, we cooked, we ate all sorts of yummy things, we planned for Christmas.

Christmas Eve, December 24th 2013, morning came and I started feeling some pain at 2.30am. I will spare you the gory and minute details of labor, let's stick to the short-story version.

I labored at home, making a beautiful trifle (never tried it though, it looked delicious.) and decorating cupcakes for the Christmas Party. Daddy woke up and went to work at 5am. Everybody at home woke up too and hang around with me while I had contractions. Daddy came back home at 9.30am, around 10.30am we finally went to hospital (This song was playing in the car when we drove and I'll never forget it because it also played in other relevant car rides in this story) and met Hannah at the door. In her words, I was laughing and smiling when I came through the door and she tought your birth would take forever and a day.

Waters broke, birthing pool. You came out at 12.30pm. Yes, around 1h30 after I walked in laughing. Disney-style, that's how we do it baby!

Welcome baby Oliver =)

 I was so shocked to actually having created a human being that I didn't even cry. I should have, because we were so so happy to finally meet you, and scared to bits too.

And that is the point when this story takes a weird turn, one that nobody suspected or expected.

You were born very mucousy, breathing heavily and wet like a 80-year-old with a bad cold. The midwives at the Maternity centre tried to aspirate your throat, but found that the tube wouldn't go further down. You breastfed for a little bit but that only made it worse. They put a monitoring thing on your wrist to keep checking your breathing and heart rate.

While phone calls were made to Chch, family came, Daddy left to spread the news at our Christmas party, food was consumed, flowers received, pictures were taken and joy was felt all around. You are so cute, with a crease in the right eyebrow and a dimple in your bum and smell of newborn. We fell in love and became mum, dad, grandma, grandpa. We became family right there.

At around 9pm, the midwives became concerned about your breathing and that's the moment right there when it all became this surreal tale: "We want to send baby Oliver and you to the hospital to have that checked out. The ambulance will be here to pick him up in a couple of hours."

Daddy rushed back from the party, everybody went home to pray, we cuddled and waited and worried at the Maternity centre. St. Johns ambulance arrived with a pediatrician and a nurse from the hospital. They worked on you, took blood, aspirated, measured, pricked, stuck, injected, examinated, all that to have you safely transported into town inside an incubator that looked like a spaceship ready to eat you up.

In the meantime, I cried, Daddy cried, midwives and nurses were the kindest people on Earth trying to console us and explain everything that was happening. All I can remember is you looking so tiny, so small with wires and tubes inside that horrible contraption. I would've put my own heart in that incubator instead of you then.

Your first car ride was in an ambulance to Christchurch Womens Hospital. Daddy and I followed in a sleepless daze and that song played again as we got in the car. 

Ok, I have to stop now, because this post is already a mile long. I'll write the rest as soon as possible, promise!

Family photos

Hey baby!

Not a lot to say today, I'm feeling very pregnant, round, large, tired and my feet are swollen. Not a good look, so I'll quickly post some pretty pictures from our shoot and run.

You'll see Pepsi the pooch in the pictures. He's your big brother. No, it makes no difference that he's furry and has four legs. Watch out for your cookies or he'll take them from you. 

Photo credits: Tatiana Resende Photography

Week 37 - Watermelon baby

Hey baby!

You are now the size of a leek and the weight of a small watermelon, I can feel it all on my lower back. Also, you're all cooked up and done at 37 weeks, just gaining some weight and chilling in the womb from now on.

This is how we look from the outside, from a lovely photoshoot done on Tuesday at the Ashburton Domain with Tatiana. I've always dreamt of taking this photos and having a visual record of the pregnancy. She was kind enough to help us and the result was way beyond what I expected!

Daddy and I have been in a sort of frenzy, getting things done, cars washed, Christmas things sorted, instructions given, bags packed, rooms ready, meals freezed. At 37 weeks, you can come knocking anytime. It's probably the scariest moment of our lives, in true honesty.

Actually, if someone else asks me "So, are you excited?!", I might smack them on the back of the head.

I am terrified. Of course I'm excited, that's a given. But mostly terrified. Scared out of my mind. How can someone not be?? Lives are changing, what we know, what we do, who we are, all of that will fly out the window doing somersaults with the code-phrase "Honey, I think it's time.".
It feels like we're watching a movie that will suddenly be cut off and we're just waiting for that moment when the screen goes blank with a screeching sound. We won't know the ending and something else we never heard of is about to start. It could be a comedy, a drama or a horror movie.

I've never met the people that will come out of the hospital, this new cast - Mommy, Daddy and Ollie. There's also heaps of new characters too: grandmas, grandpas, aunties, auncles. I hope they're all nice, patient, loving, creative and smart.

The next couple of weeks will be insane, I hope I remember to write, but hey, at least summer is here and we can bask in sunshine and hope for wondrous things.

What I'm obsessesd about watching: Scandal on wednesday nights. OMG it's bad, it's good, the coats, the dresses, the side-dish. I hate politics, but wow.

Oh My Godparents!

Hey baby!

The day before yesterday I happily found out that two wonderful friends of mine are pregnant. They both are very special ladies, very dear to me, with surprising similarities even though they never met and likely never will. They are both gorgeous, caring, kind, smart, funny and to top it all off, they both have a very strong set of beliefs that sets them apart from the ordinary folks. They are women of un-shakable Faith.

You see baby, when you grow up a tad, you'll find that life is a complicated mess and sometimes it feels overwhelming and horrible and dark. It's not, I promise you. That's where we come in. Hang in there, I have a point.

In a while after you're born, you are going to be baptized. We are going to take you to a special place called a Church where a funny looking man in a dress will pour some water over your head, you'll cry, we'll take pictures and that's it. The people who will be there through this process will be my big brother, your Uncle Du and my best friend Mari. Themselves and their amazing partners Auntie Bru and Márcio will be very important people in your life forever. They will be your Jedi masters, your spiritual guides, your safety net.

The reason we do this, chosing these people and having a ceremony, is to give you a very important gift.
We want to give you Faith. I cannot stress this enough: we are giving you Faith. Not a religion. The two are as different as apples and chairs and lots of people get into trouble when they are mixed up.

I am a Catholic, Daddy's too (in some way, shape or form), so we are giving you our Faith the only way we know how, by baptizing you. Doesn't mean it forces you to be Catholic too. As far as religion goes, you are free to pick your own or none, and that's completely ok. Nobody has the right to pick it or force any on you. If they do, there'll be some serious ass-whooping involved. We don't care who you pray to. We don't care if you believe in the details and stories of one or many ancient books or if you worship a Giant White Potato (ok, that might generate some discussion...).

We want to know that when things are hard, you will believe that it will get better, and that you have all these wonderful people to help you through. That's all, that's Faith: believing in love. We want you to feel loved and supported, no matter what you decide to do or whatever pickle you find yourself in. It does get better.

As a loving and caring family, we want you to always have Faith. Faith is a little light that lives inside of you, even when life sucks the light of everything around you. It should never go out. It's this little light that will shine just enough to always give you Hope.

Because no organized religion in the world can give you the reassurance of having Faith and Hope. So these people we chose, plus everybody else in this blessed family, are now in charge of giving you Faith.

Not a random or easy task, and one we thought long about. It's a burden and a joy to give you Faith and we, as parents, can only hope your light never goes out.


What I'm doing: sending happy and healthy vibes to my friends, may their pregnancies be easy and joyful!

P.S. I got a haircut yesterday, so we're all set.

Week 35 - Melon Baby

Hey baby!

I remember last week (you know, last week, when I first found out about this pregnancy) going through the week-to-week fruit comparisons and when it got to Honeydew Melon - the 35th week - I just assumed they were joking, because there's no way a melon would fit whole inside a belly. No way right?! Way.

Here's proof:
(and I took and edited these pictures myself, only so I could insert here that "selfie" was nominated Word of Year 2013. It's a sad sad world you're coming into, baby, sorry about that.)

So yeah, way! Whole melon right there!


This was a big week: Daddy and I participated in Antenatal/Parenting classes during the weekend and it was great! We met other first-time mums and dads from the Ashburton area and Cara the instructor was so nice and helpful and answered all my never-ending questions. On a side note, I baked oatmeal raisin cookies and over heard people commenting on how good they were. Yeah!

We talked about labour and pain and all the things that can happen, we visited the maternity centre to get a good feel for the place, we saw the birthing pool, we learned about hormones, breastfeeding and taking care of a newborn and so many other things. It was nice to know that every pregnant lady has the same fears and doubts I do. Daddy liked it too and it made me love him just a little bit more, because in general he hates lessons and classes, but this one was very important and he really stepped up.

I'm feeling great even with the heartburn still going strong. The Bump is huge but beautiful and you keep squirming and squiggling like there's no tomorrow. I waddle ( = to walk like a penguin.) now and make grunting noises when getting up from the couch. I believe I'll give up the couch soon and just park my large pregnant bum on the computer chair that offers good back support and no grunting. It's taking me a bit longer to settle down, but sleeping is still my favourite sport and I do it beautifully. Still haven't got that haircut sorted, so hang in there. And birth favours are driving me mad, because I can't find anymore Owlivers to buy.

Only a couple of weeks till Grandma and Granpa and Sandra and Julio arrive, it's so exciting!

I do have this nagging feeling we should be doing more, buying more stuff like endless books, crayons, swimming togs, cricket bats and superhero costumes. I feel like I want to be prepared right now for your whole life, birth to college.

We learned in class that one of the early signs of labour is Nesting, a feeling you have to complete projects and have your "nest" clean and ready for baby. At 35 weeks, I can't tell if my sudden urge to clean the fridge and kitchen drawers is "nesting" or just a normal Tuesday in my life. I cleaned it anyway.

What I also did this week: decorated the Christmas tree. Looks awesome!
 

Week 34 - Cantaloupe Baby

Hey baby!

For the record, when we were at the produce shop on Sunday, I held up a cantaloupe and you feel a lot bigger. And oh the moves you make, my little John Travolta. Sometimes my belly stretches to the side or to the front and I have a distinct feeling you're trying to grab whatever it is I'm eating holding. We call you Alien-Baby, because the resemblance is totally there.
During the few moments when you're not moving, stretching, rolling, squiggling, squirming, doing backflips or diving into the deep end of my poor body, my belly is actually cute, very round but not too big. Enough to leave me breathless, because you're taking up all that precious lung space. Bending forward is out of the question and usually met with a grunt,  but in a last heroic glimpse of vanity, I managed to paint my toenails today. Next week, haircut!

I confess having a "turtle" moment today, when I was lying flat on the couch and suddenly could not get up the normal way of rolling upwards, so I just lay there, waving my arms and legs, like a panicked upside down turtle. Not pretty, but funny. The whole reason why we didn't go camping with friends last weekend. I can't be trusted on low surfaces anymore, I may never be able to get up again.

Not a lot happening on the outside world, to be honest. We finally got that shelf in the nursery. The shopping check-list is done, tiny little clothes are washed, hospital bags are perfectly packed, Christmas is fast approaching and my mind is trying to figure out if I should prepare for it, ignore it or assume you'll be here by then. Or if I'll be in labor while the rest of NZ eats turkey. This thing were we don't know the exact date of your arrival drives me crazy.

Crazy, because planning is my thing and if I can't plan and organize, the world as we know it may collapse in a state of chaos. But crazy is better than anxious, I guess.

I'm not anxious yet. I'm enjoying this pregnancy very much and will carry many good memories from it. No need to hurry, baby, unless your original plan is to be a New Year's Eve baby. If you're thinking about the drama effect, just drop it right now young man! Hurry all you want. We are, at least on the outside, ready for you. But please, I really need that haircut, so hang in there for a little while longer. Oh, and we have antenatal/parenting/birthing classes this weekend, so maybe wait untill we actually know how to change a nappy? Thanks.

34 weeks, only 6 to go. How can this be, if only yesterday I was holding that stick with a faint second line?

This is last week's bump picture, not that great, but we keep forgetting to take them! Can't wait for Tatiana to take some really good ones!

What I'm reading: blogs I keep losing track of, news articles that make me angry, "The book thief" made me cry, Twitter makes me laugh. Just read this and want to share:

Things I wish I'd known before

Week 32 - Bok Choy Baby and a BIG thank you

Hey baby!

I can understand the lenght of a bok choy, but volumetric-ly speaking, it feels like I've eaten a cantaloupe whole. The Bump doubles in size every morning. You're huge. You've got the moves like Jagger, my son. Some pretty painful ones lately.


Ok, getting down to business. Last Friday, Nov 1st, our amazing friends got together to celebrate your arrival. It's called a baby shower and involves some good food, cute baby themed decorations, games for the parents-to-be, cake and heaps of presents. You are going to be a very well-dressed baby thanks to them; we got gorgeous clothes, blankets, lotions and even a rubber duck! The best surprise ever.

A baby shower is a tradition for new mums and dads, and as much as I wanted to throw it myself (trust me, the planning in my mind was beautiful, with theme, checklists, suppliers, shopping lists and plan of action. It was going to be epic.), we had two problems. One was Preston, the lovely mechanic who fixed our cars and took all our money. Second problem and a lot harder to fix, was the fact that we live in New Zealand.

You see, my mom, aunties, in-laws, nieces, bffs, cousins, friends, all the ladies and gents who are very happy about your existence, are NOT in New Zealand. They are far far away. All my life, they were always in this dream-picture of my baby shower, we'd be having tea, playing games and dishing advice on how to deal with cracked nipples and that sort of thing you say to a new mom. I felt a big hole whenever I thought of having a baby shower without them. I felt like I'd be betraying them, depriving them of celebrating you.

Then these fantastic women came along and fixed it. Everything was done to perfection, the food was great as usual, the love was overflowing, so much fun was had. They planned, shopped, cooked, decorated, made something beautiful out of a long lost dream. They showed me how loved you are. They told me, with a ribbon-laced-diaper-cake, that this is YOUR family and our family, the friends we chose to share our lifes with here in New Zealand. I still miss all those people, but know you won't have to. I feel showered with blessings.


 For that I'll be forever grateful, beyond words. Humbled by a display of affection I did not expect.
Thank you thank you thank you, a thousand times. One for each ribbon, ballon, cupcake, coxinha and marshmellow. Thank you.

 

 

What I'm doing right now: I'm trying on a moby wrap, which is mainly a large stretchy lenght of fabric that ties you to myself. Except you're still inside, so I'm using a borrowed baby doll (the size of a 7month old baby). All that on top of The Bump. Pepsi is about as confused as he could possibly be. Well, aren't we all?