Last post before Souvlaki comes

Well lets start with things that have been happening lately
I went to hospital last Monday to get the final word on whats been going on with all these pains and if I do have preclempsia and lucky for me everything was fine which is what always happens to me. I wonder if it was all the chocolate I have been eating that helped when I found out I might have preclempsia I thought I should read up more about it and there were studies that showed that pregnant women eating chocolate helps prevent it so I thought it would be a good idea to start eating a bit of chocolate ( well maybe allot lol).
Most of the rest of the week was spent doing very little the pains were still there and they didn't know what they were so I just had to deal with it. My glasses finally gave way and to tell you the truth I really don't blame them they were not treated the best and I would only wear them when I really had too. But where they broke was not the best place and so I was without glasses and I quickly discovered how much I kinda needed them and used them so I made an appointment to get my eyes re checked and some new glasses. When I got there I had left my old glasses at home but I thought it wouldn't matter that much but it turned out they needed them with me being pregnant it can change your eye sight and so they needed to make sure that my eyes hadn't changed that much. Otherwise I would have to wait till after bubs was born and there is no way I would've lasted that long without glasses. Turns out there was like no difference in my eyes so that was good and now I have 2 pairs of glasses for the price of one and they seem to be doing the job.
Ruthie had her hospital appointment on Friday to see how she was going with the bladder spasms and how the tablets were going. It was a really good appointment turns out we can start taking her off the tablets now and she should be all fine YAY. We caught the bus home which is a nice little treat for the kids they love going on the bus and the train.
I have also been spending the past week getting the house ready for when I go into hospital for bubs its all getting so close who would've thought it has gone this fast. My biggest concern is Ruthie she has swimming the week I'm due which is next week. I'm worried that Adrian wont get her to school on time and who is going to do her hair Adrian doesn't know how to put hair up. I'm sure we can work something out and the chances of baby coming on the 2nd is highly unlikely (by the way Happy Birthday for that day Amy).
On Tue I went and got my legs waxed then meet up with Paula for lunch it was good to finally meet up with her I haven't seen her for like forever I love her but sometimes ppl amaze me. I know she hasn't given birth but it was funny for her to turn around and go what time on Monday is this baby coming out so I can come down LOL like baby's just come out on your due date and at a particular time. Plus with past history with me the chances of that are like zero which is so annoying but hay not much we can do about it they really shouldn't have a due date they should have a due week or something like that. I think it would make it a little easier on expectant parents that way when the day comes and goes they don't get too upset.
Thursday was my last hospital appointment which was great NO more going there and seeing ppl and getting poked and prodded and asked millions of questions. So ppl next week is it next time I will be writing about my little souvlaki except it might have a different name by then ;)
Today (Fri) I took miah to mums so she could give him a dad hair cut hehehe. Then mum took Miah and Charlie out for lunch to Maccas so that's where they are atm. Its so great that mum gets to spend time with the kids grandparents are so important to a kids life they are where they came from they are their heritage. Sometimes you can learn so much from them the other day I was thinking about Gpa and a few questions I wished I had asked him. Its a shame that allot of ppl miss out on that its such a great blessing to have grandparents in kids lives and to miss out on that is a shame but I guess everyone is different and I really need to remember that not everyone can be as lucky as I have been in my life and not everyone feels the same way about things.

Well better go and get a little rest in before mum brings the little cutie home
Chat to you all when Souvlaki comes ;)
Love you all and glad to have a great family like I do
Mwah
Ruth

The life of the Van Den Berks :P

Life has been a little hard in our house lately with the last few weeks left before little Souvlaki is born
The heat wave was not bad for the first few days/nights then it just got too much it was just too hot all the time. We were so glad for the cool change especially at night we only have our poor little split system and it was running quite a bit we didn't have it on at night and managed ok. I wanted to give it a rest I figured if we used it all the time then it might die on us and then we would be in trouble.
We went to the beach one Thurs night for a cool down and that was nice the problem we were having was it was still 40 at the time I would leave to take the kids to the beach so it was still just tooo hot for them to be out in the sun. But Thurs managed to be ok by the time we got to the beach. Adrian took Miah in with him and Ruth kinda went in a little by little I went in knee deep cos I knew I would end up being the one on the beach looking after Miah (hes not a fan of the beach) He seemed to be doing ok until Adrian let him go in about waste deep and a wave bowled him over I'm thinking he wont be going back in that water for some time :(
It was really nice to get out as a family and spend time with each other it can get so hard with Adrian's job and his year I wanted to make it a point that we did a few more family activities now that Adrian only works every 3rd weekend instead of every 2nd
Jeremiah has now started up another day at day care he has been asking me for a while and about 2 weeks ago he got upset after dropping Ruth off at school cos he wanted to go to day care and I kept saying that his day wasn't till Thurs but he really wanted to go so I rang them up to see if they had another day free so Miah can go and they did have a spot for that day so I figured why not so we hoped into the car and I took him to day care. He loves it there playing with his friend Kyle and even tho him and Ruth can be horrors together he still misses her and gets lonely when she is at school. Well all I have to say is what about me I dropped him off and then I was lost I'm used to the Thursdays but now Tuesdays as well I really missed my little boy he didn't come up to me and do cute things cos he was at day care.
I have to add this little bit about Ruth as I was so impressed with her a couple of Sundays ago she cleaned the playroom all on her own even vacuumed it without being ask then came into the kitchen and asked if there was anything else I wanted done. How cool is that my little 5 yr old helper I love it when she does stuff like that.
The last week Adrian has had a week off work which has come at a good time its actually quite odd I had so much stuff I wanted to get done this week with baby coming soon so I thought this week would be great little did I know that this week I ended up getting sick all over again. On Monday we managed to put some of the baby stuff together which was good but by the end of it I was getting really bad pains and had to lay down. Well that night I ended up being sick half the night so hardly any sleep along with pains and sick it was not fun and I did get a little envious of the rest of the family enjoying there good night sleep.
Tuesday I had to get up early as I had a hospital appointment which as always was loads of fun but I have to say at least this one had good news for me they agreed to induce me not long after my due date if I go over. Which means they wont make me go term +10 that was a relief I don't think I would be able to go that far.After the hospital cos I was so sick it was back to bed for poor little me and this is when I really started hating it I could see my house getting messier and messier. Adrian has a tendency to not finish what he starts or to leave a mess behind him and not clean up after he does something around the house ( As I'm typing there is at least 2 jobs he has done that he hasn't finished)
Wednesday I was starting to feel a little better so we went to bunny's (bunnings) for a few things so Adrian could do a few more jobs around the house but I didn't last long there before I had to go home and lay down. Thursday was pretty much the same except I had to go shopping for a few baby supplies I had forgotten about well the baby supplies were more for me. But after trying on a few PJ's and bras I had had enough and needed to go home and go back to bed. Then that night I was really sick again well not so much sick but in allot of pain my upper body just felt like it had been filled up with toxins and then it started moving from my upper body to my face then topped it off with a headache. This didn't seem normal so I rang the hospital and they told me to come in. (FUN FUN FUN )
Adrian was at Michael and Natalie's so I had to call there to get him to come home as he never takes his mobile anywhere I don't even know why he has it. So he came home and Sarah came around to watch the kids while we went in to the hospital. We were there till 3 am so poor Adrian and Sarah had like no sleep that night I managed to get a little off and on. They think I might have the early stages of preclampsia.
Friday was spend recovering form the night before and lucky for us I had arranged with Natasha for Jeremiah to go around there and play during School so that gave me and Adrian time to recover and catch up on some sleep. That night we went to Sarah's going away party it was not bad I really wanted to smash a pineapple tart in her face just cos its something I always wanted to do but I would've gotten into big trouble so I was good.
Saturday Dad Damien and Rory all came around in the morning to help us (well Adrian) put up the base of the cubby house (which was something I wanted done before baby) So they worked hard out there putting it up and got it done which was fantastic. So now its all cemented in and almost ready for the sides to go up yay.
I think I might take this time to point out how great it is to have such a great family that helps us out and spends time with us its really good for us to have such a great family support base not everyone is lucky to have a great family that cares and helps out when they can there is allot of things I wouldn't be able to get done if it wernt for the love and support of all you guys.
Having said that of course Mum and Dad and Sarah were there again last night to help out when I had to take another trip to the hospital to get checked out as those pains were getting worse and don't seem to stop I will have a bit of a relief but then that's it they come back. I would really love to know what they are. I have to go into hospital again tomorrow to finally find out if it is preclampsia so I guess we will have to wait and see.

TTFN
Ruth

Catch up

Well there isnt alot we did during the school holidays so I think I could get it all in one blog
Thurs the 8th was Jeremiahs first day back at day care so Ruthie and I had a mother daughter day we went to the movies and saw Bedtime stories it was a really good movie and Ruth loved it. We both really liked the hamster he was sooo cute. Then it was shopping time for school clothes and stuff. They didn't even have half the stuff they had in the catalogues not to mention the stuff they did have were either too big or small they had size 3s what 3 yr old needs school clothes.

On the 13th I had a hospital appointment for baby that was fun that day was a 40 degree day lucky my appointment was early in the morning and they were running on time. I was able to make it home before the real heat set in. In this appointment they sent me off to make an appointment to see if the baby was breech and how big it actually was. I kept telling them that the baby was head down but they couldn't feel it. So to be on the safe side they made me go for an ultrasound.

The next day I had an appointment to see the anaesthetist because of the problems I had when I gave birth to Jeremiah they wanted to make sure that it didn't happen again (well try their best to prevent it) Mum came with me so she drove us into town to the hospital and then we caught the bus back. The kids loved it I think they liked getting out of the house as well as going on a b

I cant believe the amount of fights Ruth and Jeremiah had over the school holidays I don't know if it was just cos they didn't get to do much because of baby or if they were just being them. They were shocking sometimes it was one fight after another. So these school holidays I introduced the naughty chair not sure its actually making an affect to the kids at all cos their fighting and behaviour hasn't really changed allot but I guess in time we shall see.

On the 22nd I had my ultrasound that they wanted me to have and guess what the souvlakis head was down so of course I was right. But at first measure the baby's head was 33cm and that freaked me out i was only 34 and a half weeks i still had 5 and a bit to go its head was going to be huge. She did another measure and it was 31 so that wasn't too bad but with the size and the growth chart my baby was at 36 weeks which is like a week and a half ahead in growth but I bet u I'm not that lucky to have it a week and a half early if anything it will be a week late. They measured the weight too which is odd I don't know how they do that but at that point in time it was 6 pound which I thought was OK it means Ill prob have another 8 pound baby and I like that.I think 8 pound is not too small and not too big its just right lol.

Over the long weekend we didn't do much I wanted to get the house in order ready for School to start but we did go fishing on the Sunday night and that was funny Adrian wasn't even trying he just had the line in the water while he was sorting out a twist in the line and he caught a fish. The kids loved it we threw all of them back as they were all small but I was amazed that we actually caught anything usually we don't.

On Tuesday
I finally got my insulation in and its working a treat I thought it would help but it seems to be working really good so Im soooo happy about that YAY

Ruth is now back for her second day in YR 1 and loving it. I offered to pick her up early as it was going to be a really hot day but she really wanted to stay the whole day so that is what she is doing. Lucky for me nice Natasha is picking her up and bringing her home so I don't have to go out in the heat so Thanks Natasha. What a good choice I made sending them to the same school it has worked out good for the both of us when Natasha was pregnant and needed help I was able to take them to and from school and now Natasha is able to do the same for me.

Well that's all from me I have now caught up I wonder how long it will last :P
5 weeks left and counting ppl I cant wait
Love Ruth

Horse Riding Dirt Bikes and Guns

Well in the first week of January we all went up to Paula's property for horse riding dirt bikes guns and a BBQ( the kids were well looked after when the guns came out ). We ended up staying till 9 that night which made it a really long day. I was a great family day out the kids loved it as they always do and who wouldn't when they are lucky enough that I have friends with horses and dirt bikes so they can go riding. Well when we got up there we waited for Maire and Steve to arrive which is nothing new for Marie to be late :P. We had our BBQ lunch then the kids went horse riding. While the kids were horse riding Steve was teaching Adrian how to ride a dirt bike he seemed to do a pretty good job from what I saw. He was in the top paddock and we were down in the ring. Then by the time the kids had finished horse riding it was a bit hot for the dirt bikes so we waited around till it got cooler. So this is when they pulled out the guns I got to shoot a 22 rifle that was the only thing I could do being pregnant and all. We had a few shots shooting coke cans and water bottles. Adrian didn't do to bad at the shooting either but for some reason they all thought I was cheeky with a gun like I had a naughty smile on my face :D. After a few shots the guns went away and we talked for a while as the kids played. Then it was dirt bike time the kids each got a turn then Paula and Marie took off. As Paula was getting off one of the bikes she fell into horse poo it was sooo funny. But she broke the bike so that was the end of our dirt bike riding. It was such a nice day and we all really enjoyed it I love going up to Paula's its so country and nice up there the kids also really enjoyed playing and horse riding and going on the dirt bikes

Jeremiah Riding he loved it didnt want to get off

Of course Ruths turn shes becoming a natural

Steve starting Adrians lesson

Adrian shooting the gun watch out

Me and the gun

Ruth and Steve riding around on the dirt bikes

Jeremiahs turn he loved it

Christmas and New Year

Well where to start

This year was the first year we didn't spend lunch at Mums I was really funny about it call me attached but I love my big Christmas lunches at mums. But this year Adrian's sister in law and brother invited us to their house for lunch so this will be the first time we have spent Christmas day with his family. So being the good wife I was I made the sacrifice and decided that Adrian needed to spend it with his family. I was really nervous going there as we hadn't seen them in a year (yes his family isn't that close) and Paula's (Adrian's sis in law) family would be there too. But it turned out to be great we were even late for the Park cos we were there for so long we lost track of time. The kids loved it and I enjoyed spending time with his family its something that really should be done more often. So in 2009 I'm going to make it my goal that we spend more time with his family. After lunch we went to the park like always and spent time with Mums side it was nice just sitting down and sorta relaxing. Jeremiah got a toy lawn mower and spent the rest of the time mowing the grass at the park he loved it. There was a little boy that kept trying to take it off him tho but Jeremiah was not giving up his toy it even got to the stage where Juliet stepped in and told the little boy off which resulted in him hitting Juliet but having big brothers taught her to be tough and she hit the kid back. Then we went back to mums so the kids could open their presents from the aunties and uncles. Poor Ruth got a great present but didn't realise that because it was a big one that was it. But we managed to make her happy. By the end of the night I had enough all I wanted to do was go home and crash I was so tired.

Ruth and Miah playing with Ruths Barbie Van

Christmas morning

Dad opening his present from us not sure where

the photo of mum opening hers has gone :(

Jeremiah with his scooter from Craig and Kirsty

thanks guys he loves it :P

Ruth opening her bike from all her aunties

and uncles she loves this too so thanks

The next day we went to Mums for lunch cos she loves me and cos I was so upset we missed out on Christmas lunch she made it for us the day after. It was really nice and we ate it out the back on the deck. For the record Adrian was holding the water over Sarah's head i kinda just helped it along. So of course I got water tipped on me which was nice as it was hot out there and I wasn't going inside Charlie had done a poo and they had no nappies so it stunk out downstairs plus it was quieter outside cos all the kids were inside. After lunch I had a little time to rest before having to go to the Slug and Lettuce for Marie's birthday it was a nice night out and then they all came back to my place and all us girls chatted about stuff.

The next few days were spent recovering from the big two days it took me longer than I thought to recover but I guess that's because I was 30 weeks pregnant :P

New Years EVE

Well this was interesting I knew it would be a big night so I spent the day not doing allot to make sure I could have fun. Marie came to my place and we drove to Yvonne's and Luke's well I didn't exactly have the time of my life the whole night I was getting Braxton Hicks and who ever said they weren't pain full doesn't know anything. I was getting them all night so much for celebrating the New Year oh well the kids had a ball and it wasn't toooo bad. I think next year I wanna make it better might have something at my place.

Well that's about it for Christmas and the New Year

Love you
Ruth

Santa

This year is the first year Ruth has actually gone next to Santa. He scares her but this year she had a present she really wanted to ask for. She wont get it as its a Nintendo DS and it is way to old of the little girl. But I think it was cute that she wanted it so much that she faced her fear just to ask for it. So this year I took the opportunity to take advantage of the fact this is the first year I have two kids with Santa so I got a photo. Santa doesn't look tooo crash hot but the kids look good and that's all that matters to me hehehe.

12 Days of Christmas

This year we have had someone doing the 12 Days of Christmas for us.

I have been very quiet about it trying to sus out the ppl doing it but so far have had no luck.

For those of you not aware of the 12 Days of Christmas what happens is someone anonymous drops presents off on the door step every night or morning. It starts 12 days before Christmas and the presents usually involve the number of things for the day as you will see in my photos. I did it one year for a friend it is great such a good feeling to Christmas and brings in what Christmas is all about. I am big on that this year I'm loving all the giving ppl are doing its fantastic. I got snow maned on Sunday as well that was cool I didn't know what that was till I got done. Snow maning is you leave a gift with a piece of paper on someones doorstep and on the back of the piece of paper is instructions for you if you choose to snowman 3 more ppl and so on so if everyone did it it would be like pay it forward how cool is that. So now the kids get to get involved and learn the real meaning of Christmas.

On the 12th day of Christmas we got

12 Christmas Tree candles

On the 11th day of Christmas we got

11 Christmas card holders

On the 10th day of Christmas we got

10 Christmas decorations for the tree

On the 9th day of Christmas we got

9 animal ballons
On the 8th day of Christmas we got

8 balls to put on the tree

On the 7th day of Christmas we got

7 candy canes

On the 6th day of Christmas we got

6 bon bons

On the 5th day of Chirstmas we got

5 Ferrero Rochers

And finally for now

On the 4th day of Christmas we got

4 giant cookies yummy