Haydon and I are delighted to announce the safe arrival of Natalya Rose.
Natalya was born at 2:27am on Christmas Eve. She weighed 3140grams (6 pound 15 ounces).
I managed without an epidural -boy is that gas good stuff!!!
I do remember telling the obstetrician all about Minti  in the delivery room while he was stitching me up.

This is Natalya Rose in the delivery room just after her birth.


Natalya with her proud parents later that day (you might need to turn your head sideways).

I just read an article in the Sunday Times (Perth Western Australia) called Parents read the riot act.
I don't like the journalists heading on the piece but I do like what the new Western Australian Education Minister has to say.

The general gist of which is that parents have to take some responsibility for their children's basic education. He is talking about running tv ads that ask "why are you sitting here watching TV when you should be reading to your children". He is quoted as saying

"And I'm not saying that parents should be telling teachers what to do,'' he said. ``What I mean is, parents assuming some responsibility for their children's education when the children are not at school.

"So at night, reading to them, assisting them with their homework, doing sums with them, talking to them about the value of education _ particularly when they're young, to get those fundamentals right.

"I actually think that is probably the most important thing that you can do to really support your child.
"And all the studies I'm aware of, all the things that I've read about education, show that parents who do that, their kids normally do very well."

I was lucky my parents did these things for me and I fully intend to do them for my child. As a Speech Pathologist I came across many other parents who also did these things for their kids and I have to tell you their children had better outcomes.

I know that there are a lot of parents out there that do do these things. Unfortunately I also came across a lot that did not and it was the kids that suffered.

It will be interesting to see what happens, if the ad campaign goes ahead and if it makes an impact. Now I would really love to see a politician that says we should have income tax splitting between couples so that more families can afford to survive on one income and allow one parent to stay at home and raise the children.

I have to admit that pregnancy seems to have sapped my creativity.
I used to enjoy cardmaking and other crafts but all through pregnancy  I have not felt much like doing my craft stuff.
I started pottery a few months ago but often have trouble with ideas or even getting motivated to make something when I am there. I have wagged pottery several times lately too.
I go to a craft group on a Thursday but sometimes I really have to force myself to do something.
I am really hoping my creativity returns after bubs is born.
One of my close friends is also pregnant -Maree  is due in the first week of February. She is a very creative person and a great painter but has not been painting through pregnancy as she too has found her creative spirit zapped.
We just bought a sewing machine so I can make some new curtains. The current ones are letting in too much heat. Todays hot weather should hopefully give me a push to get onto them. I have had it for about two weeks and so far I have just made two sheet sets for the bassinette.

Did anyone else find that pregnancy reduced their normal level of creativity?

I got up this morning and then had to go and lie down a bit later because my feet were swelling (oh the joys of pregnancy). I had fallen asleep when the phone rang and a male voice said "Western Power here - is your fridge running?
Luckily I was awake enough to say - "no I don't need to chase it down the passage". I guess I spoiled his fun cause he hung up on me before I had a chance to tell him that Western Power recently changed their name to Synergy and something else.
It reminded me of the prank calls my brother used to make with a friend of his. They once had a guy clucking on the end of the phone thinking he was going to win a bucket of KFC.

Our due date is the 30th of December but 38 weeks is considered full term so I told Haydon to expect plenty of curries (and other things rumored to bring baby on ) in about two weeks time.

He said baby is not allowed to come early as he doesn't start holidays until Christmas Day and it would be hard for them to get staff to change the roster at this time of year. I tried pointing out that I would be in hospital - and he works there! But he was adamant that he wouldn't have time to see me while he was working so baby would have to wait until he starts leave.

Given that we have spent a night or two in hospital together in the week leading up to Christmas for the last 2 years and that things come in threes I just can't help thinking baby will turn up in the week before Christmas - despite the hospital staff rosters!

Guess we will just have to wait and see!

The termite man finally came today. After he had crawled under our house and through the ceiling he said that we would be better off using a baiting system rather than spraying.

Our house is very difficult for workmen to access - can't get under the laundry toilet bathroom area (the termites we have found are in the toilet door frame) and we have a flat roof - not enough crawl space for a human to get over those areas either. The only man hole is in the top of my wardrobe! Whenever a workman needs access to our ceiling I have to empty my entire wardrobe so they can climb up into the roof space.
We also have stone walls under the house under where the interior walls are and built in stone planters along the foundations at the front. With all of this it cost us a a fortune to get a few power-points put in recently - they were at it for hours - If we had known the cost in advance we probably would have just run extension leads!

Anyway - back to the termites - which ever option we go for it is going to cost us about $2500 . That is money we hadn't budgeted on. Guess we just extend the mortgage again.

The termite man recommended a baiting option which he said would work better given the access difficulties at our house. It also has the advantage that we don't need to use toxic sprays. I had arranged to stay at a friends house for a few days - we loaded my bags into the car again today (did it yesterday before we found out that the termite man was not coming because he was sick).
So - I get to stay home and we don't have to have toxic spray through the house. We are going to think about our options and give him a call on Monday but at this stage it looks like we will go with the baiting option

Yesterday I was complaining that I wasn't going to be able to put my Christmas tree up today as we have found termites and I have to go away while they spray. Today the termite man didn't turn up, I rang and left a message asking where he was and then his wife rang and said he was sick. So now he is coming tomorrow which means I got to put our Christmas Tree up today with Haydon.
There is a silver lining in every cloud - provided the termites don't do too much damage in the meantime! Haydon discovered some live termite activity on Wednesday when he went to fix up some timber that was damaged ages ago by termites.

This will be our third Christmas together but our first Christmas Tree. We bought the tree the other week and it has been sitting in it's box tempting me ever since. We still need to buy some more decorations to go on the tree. I wanted to put it up and see what we had before I bought a whole stack of decorations.

We haven't had a good run with pre Christmas preparations for the last two years.
We spent the lead up to our first Christmas down in Perth waiting to miscarry our first baby (before returning Home on Christmas Eve so Haydon could work Christmas Day) and then the lead up to our second Christmas together down in Perth while Haydon had major brain surgeries (3 in 5 weeks) . The positive there was that the surgery was more successful than we had even dreamed to hope. He had his last op 5 days before Christmas, was out of hospital two days later and was able to come to my Dads place on Christmas Day for a family Christmas. What a man!

I keep expecting baby to come early. Given that we have spent at couple of nights in hospital the week before Christmas for the last two years and the theory says that things come in threes. I figure that we will be in hospital at some point in the week before Christmas.

I declared last Christmas the best Christmas ever because Haydon came out of his surgery so well, but I think this Christmas has the potential to top it!

We also get to spend this Christmas together at home, Haydon doesn't have to work and we don't have to go to Perth to do the family Christmas thing. Who knows if bubs will be still inside kicking me a Merry Christmas or on the outside to give us both a Merry Christmas cuddle. Which ever it is - it is going to be a Very Merry Christmas!
Hey I just thought  - if bubs has already popped out then I get to have a glass of wine to toast a Merry Christmas.