Wishing for the Spring!!!!

Hello world,

I wish winter would end today. I feel like the grey sky and the icy winds are making me curl up in a cloud of my own depression. I don't think I'm clinically depressed, I don't think I need medicating but I feel depressed and the awful winter sky isn't making it easy to shake. Maybe the weather is coincidental, maybe I would feel like this today even if the sun were shining brightly, warming my skin and taking the grey twinge from the world. But I feel like I've spent the past few weeks curled up in my bed or curled up on the couch, cold and blue, just waiting for it to change.

I feel like the miscarriage is a wall between Kev and I right now. I feel so angry yet sad and just want to hide deep within myself so I pull away from him. I always pull away when I am hurt or scared to be hurt. But I don't want to pull away from Kev, with him it should be different. I also feel like he is angry with me even though he probably is not. The awful voice inside my  head tells me he should be mad at me, my body didn't do its job and because of that our baby went away.

I feel like we are snapping at each other continually, I know I am short with him but I don't think its all just from me, I think Kev is doing his fair share of snapping too. A friend pointed out that its because I know he loves me and he won't stop loving me that it feels ok to take it out on him. Kev is stuck with me when I am at my best but also when I am at my worst.

The worst part is that I know Kev's hurting too, he blames himself sometimes, he feels hopeless that he can't 'fix' me or the situation and he feels rejected that I keep holding him at arms length. I feel like a bad partner that I'm not helping him more to deal with it too but I'm scared of facing his sadness and falling apart again. I don't know if that even makes sense but seeing his sadness hurts and I feel like I can't handle more hurt at the moment.

I wish I knew how to grieve faster.

Jodi x

Facebook assault

Hello world,

If I don't blog I may scream (or end up sobbing for hours in my bed again tonight - either or!) I feel like Facebook is rubbing shit in my face! I log on last night and top of my news feed is this:

Don't get me wrong, its beautiful and there should be more things like it but I came to Facebook for a distraction, instead there are tears running down my face as I see my own situation in statue form. I scroll down and there are little newborn feet with a quote about the joys of new babies, then beautiful maternity clothes on gorgeous glowing pregnant women. Its a bit much really. So I click on my Facebook mothers group instead and photos of gorgeous pregnant bellies, newborn bundles of joy and beautiful 3D ultrasounds hit me - pow, pow, pow! The ache of jealousy I feel really surprises me. Its not that I'm not happy that they are happy, its that I'm devastated that I am not happy like that too. But I am happy, I love my beautiful daughter and husband and if Pie is the only baby I ever get I will still count myself as very blessed BUT I'd be so much happier if I wasn't so sad wishing our little baby had stayed stuck and was growing deep within me right now. And its that happiness that I'm jealous of. I'd even take a big dose of morning sickness with a smile on my face (well a smile in my heart maybe - its hard to smile while vomiting!) right now. I hope the sadness and jealousy doesn't change me for the worse, make me bitter. I just have to remember how blessed I am and take the hurt as a constant reminder of how wonderful every moment as a mummy is. So before I lose my shit and let my miscarriage hulk loose on the world I'm logging off for the night and putting a DVD on - fingers crossed it isn't filled with all the stuff that Facebook is hurling at me!

jodi x

The Club

Hello world,
Today I got my official membership to that dreaded club :(

There really isn't much to say about it but I thought I'd put this poem that I came across here - a little dedication to my little angel baby...

jodi x

The Wait

Hello world,

It has been a long time since my last blog post, I've been slack but I was planning a triumphant return. I'd start blogging when I got a positive pregnancy test and we were expecting baby number 2, I thought it'd be a great way to keep a journal for baby number 2 and a great way to share my exciting news without actually sharing my exciting news (cos I have a reading audience of - ummm me ;) We decided about 2 months ago it was time to start trying for baby number 2. Cycle 1 wasn't the winner but cycle 2, with some help from 50 shades of Grey had us well on our way to making a shades of grey baby. (If u haven't read it and want to make a baby, I recommend it)

Anyway, the first positive pregnancy test happened on Monday last week and yet there was no blog post - yep, slack! It was very faint and the line wasn't where I'd expect a line to be for a positive result. You see, I cheaped out and bought the ebay cheapy test strips because I used about a dozen (I'm exaggerating, but only slightly) tests when I fell pregnant with Pie and I thought, 'hey if I'm going to pee on sticks I'd much prefer to pay 50c for them then $8'. So I tested again on Tuesday with one of the aforementioned $8 sticks (cos I used all the cheap ones I'd bought peeing on them in the days before Monday when I suspected something was going on it there - see I told u I have a tendency to pee on sticks) and there it was - a faint little pink line in the 'Pregnant' window. I took it to hubby, he could see it to, we hugged and smiled and were so happy. New home and now a new baby on the way :)

In the week up to that (between peeing on 50c sticks) we had been moving house, so it's been a pretty busy time. Tuesday was spent doing the final outgoing clean, so by Tuesday night I was in agony from over doing it and certainly not in the mood for blogging.

Then it was Wednesday and I woke up to find I was bleeding - not heavily enough to ruin my brand new awesome bed (which I will no doubt blog about in the future but right now its not that important in my head) but heavy enough to think that I'll never hold this little baby in my arms or feel its little fluttery kicks or know if it was a boy or a girl. And that certainly didn't lead to a happy return to the blogosphere. It did however bring me to be a member of the club.

So whats the club? I'd always been aware of 'the club' and, especially since having Pie, I'd felt a lot of empathy for its members. I'd share remembrance posts about miscarriage and the loss of a baby and women would ask "do you have an angel baby?" and I'd almost feel ashamed to have been so blessed - 1 for 1, 1 wonderful pregnancy and 1 amazing healthy baby. Go me. The day my little Pie was born, 3 other women that I know gave birth too, 4 little babies but only 3 of them were to stay in this world. Knowing that my baby survived and her baby did not is a constant reminder of how blessed I am.

This club is for mumma's who have suffered the loss of a child. Of course, I didn't want to join it, I never want to join! I'd take the shame of being so, so lucky when others aren't any day of the week over a lifetime membership to a club of heartache and grief. I know how loving a baby feels and the loss of one is a pain I never want to feel... and yet its Wednesday and here I am, registration papers in hand, bleeding heavier than I have bled before, feeling excruciating pains in my back, all set to join the club. Just 24hrs ago I was showing my husband the faded little pink line that held so much promise.

I think thats the worst part - only 24hrs so I feel like I don't deserve to grieve, like my loss is insignificant because I only really knew about this baby for such a short time and to be honest, I had a bad feeling too. It was like a ball of stress in the pit of my stomach, swirling with doubts that I was trying to ignore - 'The test result is too faint', My symptoms aren't strong, I don't feel like I'm pregnant',  'It's nothing like when I was expecting Pie'... With Pie I had my first faint positive when I was 3 and a half weeks - according to my dates it was 5 weeks now and all I get is this faint glimmer of a line to tell me the little bubble in my head is real. And now I'm bleeding and cramping and its just not fair. I come back to bed sobbing and tell my husband that I think I'm losing our baby. He holds me and we cry together.

Wednesday I stayed in bed, I made my husband tell my family, I cried, I grieved. My family came, my friends circled around to see if I was ok and although I was sad, I was ok. Everyone told me to go to the Dr but I wasn't ready to be that strong. Offspring broke my heart when my favourite woman on TV bled like me and yet got a happy ending - I wished for it, hoped for it but knew it wasn't the same. So Thursday I made a Drs apt.

I told the Doctor about the pain, the agonising backpain and the cramps like a bad period. I told the Doctor about the bleeding and how it hadn't eased. The Dr read my file, he said things like "It was only faint positive but you should be 5 weeks? You may need to go to the hospital." and "You had a cervix tear when you gave birth to your daughter? You'll have to go to the hospital." and "You have a negative blood type, you will have to go to the hospital, you need anti-D shots for the safety of future pregnancies." I felt scared, I squeezed my husbands hand while the Doctor rang the hospital "I've got a girl here with a probable or impending miscarriage." he said. The hope I'd let build up sank again... The M word, from the doctors mouth. He hung up, printed out his notes and said to me "Do you know where casualty is? Go straight there now." and sent me on my way. All the little tad bits of information I'd picked up without realising began to scream at me in my head

Was this cos I didn't have enough anti-D shots during my pregnancy with Pie? Was I supposed to go back and get one? Was this all my fault?? Or had my bad tears birthing Piper made it so I simply won't be able to carry another baby?? A light positive... maybe its ectopic?? Or worse, was this all my fault because I had insisted on not going home to rest but working so hard to clean the stupid old house? What could I have done differently?? Why was this happening to us?

We got there, they took me in, they asked me all the questions, was this my first pregnancy? Had I miscarried before? How was the pain? How long since I'd had pain killers? How heavy was the bleeding? How pregnant did I think I was? They took some blood and asked me to pee in a cup and then they sent me to the waiting room to wait... The longer I waited the more my head played games with me - at one point I was half expecting them to come to me and say "I'm sorry, we checked your blood and urine samples and you weren't pregnant, this has all been a Nina-esque figment of your imagination you drama queen." One of the nurses even looked like Dr Klegg. And then finally a Doctor called me back in.

She said she was sorry I'd had to wait so long, she asked how I was feeling (not peachey funnily enough), she told me that my hormone levels test results were in and the levels were very low - 32 (now a number I'm not such a fan of). She explained that a level of 32 would suggest a very early pregnancy, not a 5 week pregnancy or... and she couldn't look me in the eye and her lip had a little quiver and I said "or it means I've had a miscarriage." she nodded and asked how I was feeling, "Ok, we sort of knew." I say. She explains they have to do further blood tests to confirm it but if my bleeding or pain gets worse I need to come straight back. She gives me the number for the early pregnancy clinic who will handle my case from there and do the follow up care and talk to me about what next.

Now I just have to have an anti-D shot and then I can go home - so I wait... and finally a nurse comes and takes me to a different room. She goes to get the right medicine from maternity, she chats to another nurse about her slow day, she gets her little nurses tray organised - I wait, I feel like it takes a year and I so desperately want to be out of there. She comes back and jabs the needle into my arm, "This ones a stingy one." she explains sympathetically as she slowly injects it in, drop by agonising drop. But I can't feel the syrum, physically I am numb. Being stuck there trying to hold in the sobs that want to escape me, thats what hurts. And finally she rubs the injection site for a lifetime, puts on a little bandaid and lets me go home. As the doors close behind us the tears start to stream down my face and I sob to Kev "I was hoping I was wrong, I wanted it to be ok so badly." That night Piper stayed with Nanny and Granddad so Kev and I cried and grieved together again. Kev wondered when we could try again, I wondered if this baby would have been like Pie. My wonderful friends offered me their strength and love and support. Those who were in the club already, so knew, held my hand, I cried more, I wondered when the miscarriage would be over. And I slept.

Friday came and I got a call from the EPC, they told me to come in and pick up blood test forms so they could get a full picture. They told me to get the blood test over the weekend and they would call me Monday to make an apt for the clinic that week. And life went on, I was sad but I was ok, sometimes I burst into tears for no reason but I had a perfectly acceptable explanation for that. Monday morning I had my blood test and I waited for the EPC to call. And waited and waited... At 4pm they called, the nurses asked me how far pregnant I should be and I told her it would be 6 weeks this week and then she said the strangest thing "You haven't had a miscarriage. We got your blood test results and your hormone levels have more than doubled since Thursday."

Unfortunately, its not entirely good news yet - the hormone levels are low and although rising it wasn't a huge rise. There could be a perfectly healthy little embryo growing in there, or it could be ectopic or not developing properly in some other way. So the nurse made me an appointment for Thursday at 2.15 and since Monday at 4pm I have been waiting... Waiting for the appointment when they will do more tests and scans so we will actually know where we stand... Waiting for the bleeding to start again... Waiting for morning sickness to kick in...Waiting until its safe to stop fighting the happiness and excitement I feel... Waiting for my world to come crashing down again... Waiting, waiting, waiting...

And now its Wednesday again and I'm still in limbo but tomorrow it will be Thursday and tomorrow I might know more.

Jodi x

A Very Hungry Caterpillar 1st Birthday

Hello world,
Just wanted to share a few pics of Pie's birthday party which had a VHC theme :)

 The start of every good party is ofcourse the invite! It lets the guests see just a sneak peak of what to expect at the party AND when to turn up and where!
We planned a party at the park as you can see but it got rained out so we moved to my parents house. Things were alot more hectic with close to 60 party goers stuck in the entertaining room but atleast we all stayed dry.

The invites were created in paint with some googled graphics cut and pasted with the party info and one of the photos we had taken of Piper last year by Willowtree Moments in her VHC bcheeks nappy with her VHC toy. The headband she is wearing in the photo is by GemmaJoy. I printed the invites out as photos - 10c each thanks Big W.

The loot bags were pretty simple but not quite what I had planned! I REALLY wanted butterfly shaped crayons but couldn't find butterfly moulds the right size anywhere so instead husband and I sat up til midnight a few nights before the party melting crayons and pouring them into star shaped moulds to make chunky crayons for little fungers to hold. I included a copy of the VHC colouring page from The Eric Carle web site, some bubbles, a fruit bar and a fruit sherbet (for looks, not for the babies to eat! But I hope the Mums and Dads enjoyed them) OH and the tags were just the invites that I didn't get around to delivering, chopped up with thank you printed on the back!

 

The menu wrote itself - apples, pears, plums, straberries and oranges obviously and icecream cone cupcakes (above), cheese, salami, sausages, chocolate cake, cupcakes, gherkins/pickles, lollipops, watermelon etc
The cake I had big plans for then decided to save some money and make my own! I again had big plans for it BUT couldn't find the props I needed so instead we had a simple marbled madiera cake (marbled in orange, purple and pink to match Pies outfit!) which I covered in dots and I made some little smartie caterpillars along the side too. Pretty boring but my first ever birthday cake and it tasted good atleast. I wanted white icing but didn't realise when you make butter frosting its yellow like butter (hehe) so instead (at husbands suggestion) we went with pale green. If I had my time again I'd have covered the top in smarties (aldi's M&Ms to be precise) rather than leaving gaps between the lines and I'd buy white food dye but oh well :)

For the party decorations I recycled some of the white paper lanterns we used to decorate our wedding. I bought them on ebay (along with red and black ones) nice and cheap but they've been in storage since then. I got some out, dusted them off and I painted a very hungray caterpillar. Now let me say, i LOVE this guy! I love him so much that I'm redecorating Pie's room so he can live in there with her! All I did was use a sponge brush and paint the lanterns - 5 green ones for his body and 1 red head. I painted the eyes and nose on paper which I cut out and glued on and voila! No antenae BUT I'll put some on before I hang him up in Pie's room - maybe some pipe cleaners will do the job. I then used some VHC theme fabric and pasted a big 1 on another lantern to hang up too. These all would have looked gorgeous hanging in the trees if the weather had been good!

And the VHC fabric also leant itself to some party bunting
- this will also be going in the newly decorated room!

And of course - the birthday girl needed a special birthday party outfit!

A 5 minute tutu in purple, orange, yellow and green.
Simply cut and join elastic to the size of the
wearers waist, cut strips of tulle to twice the
length you want the tutu to be - fold them
in half and loops them on! The more strips
you add the more it'll stick out. There are
tutorials for these everywhere!

A lolli-pop top!
I cut some VHC dot fabric to fit in her shirt, ironed on some
backing, pinned it inside her shirt. Then used chalk to draw
a swirly pattern for the lollipop on the shirt (make sure u draw
where the inside fabric is not off its edges!) closing off the
outside line so it touches onto itself (see in the picture?).
Sewed along the spiral then cut out the excess fabric
between the lines inside the lollipop (careful not to cut
the backing fabric) Sew on a ribbon 'stick' and ur done!

The birthday girl (see how the lollipops
stitched outline seals off at the end?)

And ofcourse a matching hair clip!
This cute little birthday 'fascinato' was
created especially to co-ordinate with
the whole outfit by our friends at
Little G designs.

And a simple birthday bib to keep the cake off her pretty top!
Appliqued a one and used vintage buttons to create a very
hungry caterpillar :)

jodi x