I’m so excited to share that yes, we’re pregnant again!
We’re expecting our 2nd bean in August and for a short period of time we’ll be having 2 under 2! It’s going to be a crazy time but I’m looking forward to welcoming our newest family member very soon.
If anyone has any tips for surviving 2 under 2, do please let me know!
Marie xo
Just over a year ago Miss K was born and I wanted to share the story of her birth.
Leading up to my due date, there were concerns that the baby’s growth had slowed down and the amniotic fluid surrounding it was low. This meant that that the baby was potentially not receiving enough blood and nutrients. So as I approached full-term, the decision was made to induce me at 37.5 weeks.
I always imagined that my waters would break in the middle of the night and I would be rushed to hospital Hollywood style but I suppose it wasn’t meant to be!
The day before I was due to be induced, I was admitted into hospital. After settling in, I went into the delivery room where a Foley balloon was inserted to soften my cervix and encourage dilation. When the balloon was inflated inside me, the pressure felt much like bad period cramps but it went away after a while. I had to leave the balloon inside me overnight, which wasn’t painful but quite uncomfortable.
My husband stayed with me as long as visiting hours permitted. After he left, I tried to get an early night’s rest but it was difficult with the balloon inside me and knowing what was happening tomorrow! In the end I asked for a sleeping pill and was able to get some shut eye before the big day ahead.
The next morning was a flurry of activity as I showered and got ready to be induced. We were told that I would be induced early morning around 8am, so when my husband hadn’t arrived yet I was feeling a bit stressed! By 8.30am he still hadn’t arrived yet, so I texted him and went into the delivery room first.
Inside the delivery room, I had the balloon removed and got hooked up to 2 different machines. The first machine was a cardiotocography (CGT) machine used to monitor the baby’s heart rate and the second machine to administer the drug Pitocin to stimulate contractions.
By the time I was hooked up to both machines, I was relieved to see that my husband had arrived – turned out that he was busy getting all the camera gear and last few bits and pieces organised!
Around 9am the obgyn came in to check up on me and manually break my waters. It was an unpleasant feeling but I figured it was nothing compared to what was coming up! After my waters broke, I could feel the liquid seep out of me. It was an odd feeling lying there waiting for my contractions to begin.
Active labour started around 11am and that’s when I experienced my first contractions. They were relatively mild at first and similar to the pain level of bad period cramps. I was able to breathe through them lying down but soon enough I needed some pain relief.
I wasn’t opposed to having an epidural but I didn’t want to have it unless I really needed it, so I opted to have some gas. The gas was a welcome distraction but it did little to take the pain away. I decided to walk around and found that leaning over the bed during contractions helped.
During this time the obgyn was popping in and out to check on my progress but stated that I still had a while to go. One of the last things that I remember clearly is him asking me whether I needed any more pain relief and me saying no. Shortly after he left the contractions hit me hard and things became hazy.
I like to think that I have a relatively high pain tolerance but the intensity and seemingly never ending rolling waves of pain were nothing I’d ever felt before. After I experienced another excruciating contraction I asked the nurse for an epidural, which had to be approved by my obgyn. It was approved over the phone but unfortunately the anesthesiologist was running behind on schedule.
I’m not sure how long I waited because I can’t really remember anything beyond the pain. All I remember is suddenly being in a sitting position on the bed with my head in the arms of a nurse and gripping my husband’s hand. I could hear the anesthesiologist telling me what he was going to do and me just thinking hurry up and just do it!
The anesthesiologist and nurse were having a good old chat about his cows and I almost screamed at them to shut up as I had another contraction. Finally, the epidural was in place and not long after the pain subsided. I was finally able to relax!
As the epidural made the lower half of my body numb, I was able to lay back down with my legs propped up. My obgyn came in to check on me and told me that I’d be able to deliver soon! Even after all that I’d gone through, that still took me by surprise!
After a short while, I started to feel the pressure to push and was encouraged to start pushing. Similar to the contractions, the urge to push came in waves but it didn’t hurt. I could vaguely feel the baby at the entrance and was using all my strength to push. Finally, the obgyn asked my husband if he wanted to grab the baby and I could feel our baby coming out!
Around 4pm our beautiful daughter Miss K was born. As the nurse laid her tiny, naked body on my chest I felt such a rush of love, joy and protectiveness. Everything I’d gone through hours before was forgotten except for the beautiful little girl I had in my arms.
Marie xo
When I was pregnant, I loved watching those “what’s in my hospital bag” videos on Youtube, so I thought I’d share what I ended up packing. I used a medium sized suitcase, which was the perfect size to squeeze everything in!
Marie xo
Welcome to my Pregnancy Diary series! You can read about my first and second trimester experiences here and here!
When we arrived in Albury it was cold. I always thought that pregnant ladies ran on the hotter side but apparently not! Since we were moving from Perth we arrived with extra suitcases, so it took forever to get a maxi cab into town (downside to moving to a small town!). We checked into Quest Apartment Hotels, which we would call home for the next few weeks.
My first week in Albury was a busy one. I had appointments to see my new GP, obgyn, and book myself into hospital. Interestingly, due to the small population, there’s only 1 hospital that has a maternity ward and it delivers babies for Albury-Wodonga and the surrounding towns.
My new obgyn was Dr Simon Craig and he came highly recommended by a leading retired obgyn in town. It was interesting to note the stark differences between the 2 doctors. While Dr Aitkens was full of energy and brilliance, Dr Craig exuded a calm and gentle energy. Both were great and I would recommend either if you’re in Perth or Albury-Wodonga!
We hit the ground running when we arrived in town and was fortunate enough to get our first and only rental application approved, yay! The house we chose was only 11 minutes drive from hospital and in the heart of town. With no family support and a new baby on the way, we figured that living walking distance from everything would be the best.
Since we sold most of our furniture, I was tasked to setup our house while my husband was busy at work. There was so much to do and so little time! Thank goodness for online shopping and fast shipping times!
At 32 weeks, we decided to have one last hurrah and spent the weekend in Melbourne. After many toilet stops along the way, we finally arrived after a 4 hour drive. I had massive Asian food cravings, so we spent most of our time in Chinatown feasting!
With only a few weeks left to go, we attended antenatal classes across two weekends. They were run by a midwife at the hospital. The classes were informative and interactive, primarily focusing on the different stages of labour, pros and cons of various pain relief, different labour positions, and what we expected from our support person during birth.
While I enjoyed the classes and learnt some new information, I would have liked to have covered more time on topics that followed the birth such as post birth recovery, baby blues, breastfeeding and sleep deprivation.
At 35 weeks, I used the pregnancy massage voucher that I received at my baby shower and it was glorious! I’d been busy putting together new furniture for our rental and running lots of errands, so it was nice to relax and get pampered. It also felt so lovely to be able to lie on my stomach again!
Leading up to my due date, my obgyn became slightly concerned that our baby wasn’t growing enough and there wasn’t enough fluid surrounding the baby. While I’d always imagined my waters breaking in the middle of the night and being rushed to hospital Hollywood style, it looked like I would have to be induced. I was advised to rest more and had to have another check up in a few days.
On my next visit, I was hooked up to the CTG (cardiotocography) machine to measure the number of fetal heartbeats and movements made. My baby generally wasn’t very active during the day, however a cool glass of water helped to wake it up! While the CTG results came back fine, there were still concerns regarding the slow growth and lack of amniotic fluid, so the decision was made to be induced just before I turned 38 weeks.
During the last week of my pregnancy, there was a last minute flurry to get the house in order with the help of my husband. We put the finishing touches to the nursery and cleaned the house from top to bottom. I prepped some freezer meals and my husband even made some lactation balls. Some people might call this nesting but I like to think of it as being as prepared as possible before all hell broke loose!
Two days before I was meant to be induced I made myself relax and enjoy my last few days. I slept as much as I could, went out for brunch, spent time with my husband and had a mini maternity shoot. I even prepped a pregnancy and baby scrapbooking album that I thought that I’d have time to finish after the baby arrived (spoiler: their still not done!).
On Wednesday night, I checked into hospital to have a Foley bulb inserted to help soften my cervix and help to induce labour. The next morning, I was shown to the birthing suite to get my waters broken and kick off the contractions. After 4.5 hours of active labour and a lot of yelling, we joyfully welcomed Miss K into the world!
Thanks so much for reading my pregnancy diary and I hoped that you enjoyed reading about my journey! I would love to hear about your pregnancy experiences!
Marie xo
Let me preface this post by saying that there’s nothing wrong with stretch marks. In fact, I have stretch marks from my puberty years when I seemingly grew overnight! However since I suffer from extremely dry skin, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to switch to some stretch mark lotion to try and prevent any stretch marks.
During my second trimester I started using Palmer’s Cocoa Massage Lotion for Stretch Marks. I’ve always liked the Palmer’s range and it had great reviews online, so I thought I’d give it a try. The lotion has a special blend of cocoa butter, Vitamin E, Shea Butter and Bio C-Elaste (combination of Collagen, Elastin, Centella Asiatica, Sweet Almond Oil and Argan Oil). The consistency of the lotion was slightly thicker than a standard lotion and slightly oilier but it absorbed well into my skin. It had a delicious cocoa scent and I loved using it as part of my daily moisturising routine.
When I reached my third trimester, I started using Palmer’s Tummy Butter for Stretch Marks. On its own, I found that the butter was very thick and difficult to spread, so I used it on top of the lotion. It took longer to absorb, but I found that if I applied it first thing after my shower, it had completely absorbed by the time I’d finished getting ready.
The combination of the lotion and butter seems a bit intense but my belly and chest grew so quickly during my third trimester, that I felt that it really helped to improve the elasticity of my skin to prevent any stretch marks.
While my belly and chest were free of any stretch marks, I did get some angry red stretch marks on the sides of my glutes in the last few weeks of my pregnancy. This wasn’t an area that I was actively moisturising, so I’ll have to remember to test the efficacy of these lotions on my glutes for next time!
Marie xo
During the first half of my pregnancy, I was able to wear many clothes from my everyday wardrobe. I have a pretty relaxed style with lots of stretchy items, so it was easy to squeeze into things. However, as my bump (and the rest of me!) grew, it became more uncomfortable and it was evident that I’d have to buy some actual maternity clothes.
While searching for items, I was surprised by how expensive everything was, and dare I say it, how frumpy some of the clothes were! While I ended up indulging in a few expensive pieces for special events like my baby shower, my main focus was finding affordable maternity clothes that I could wear on a daily basis.
What did you wear during your pregnancy? Do you have any other recommendations?
Marie xo
Welcome to my Pregnancy Diary series! To read about my first trimester experience, click here!
By the start of my second trimester, most of my morning sickness had eased and I was slowly getting my appetite back. Food no longer triggered my nausea but sometimes I’d have to wait and see whether it would come up or not! I started developing strong cravings for Asian food and a strong longing to go back to my home country, so my husband and I booked a sneaky babymoon back to Singapore!
Most of my extended family live in Singapore, so I felt bad not telling anyone (sorry guys!) but I wanted to be selfish and make this trip just about us before we announced our pregnancy. When we touched down and entered the airport I took a deep breath to take in the distinct smell of home. I felt very emotional and teared up thinking about my dad.
Since we were only going to be here for a few nights, my husband spoiled me by booking us in at the Shangri-La. We stayed in the one-bedroom suite in the Tower Wing and it was by far the most amazing hotel experience I’ve ever had! As part of our stay, we had access to the Horizon Club Lounge and spent most of our time enjoying the hotel’s facilities.
By now I had a small bump and when we weren’t relaxing at the hotel, we ventured out to eat some local food and posing for my very first baby bump pictures! Since I only had a tiny bump I spent most of my time trying to puff it out for the pictures, ha!
When we returned home from our babymoon, we had another obgyn appointment and after receiving another positive check, up I felt confident enough to announce our pregnancy to our immediate families. I organised a combined family dim sum at Eight on the Point and my plan was to surprise everyone with cute baby onesie cookies on everyone’s plates. Since one of my sister’s wasn’t able to make it, I surprised her first the day before and everyone else the following day. It was so fun seeing everyone’s reactions when they sat down and my mum especially was very emotional.
By now we had confirmed our move to Albury, so the next few weeks were a flurry of packing and organising an obgyn in Albury-Wodonga. Since we had so much trouble finding an obgyn in Perth, I was worried about finding one in Albury at such late notice but was glad to get our first choice!
Since my husband was swamped with work, I was charged with overseeing our move and getting our house leased. Fortunately my energy levels returned during second trimester and I was able to get started on the packing. Since we had about 12 weeks until our move date, I was able to pace the packing and declutter as well.
At 20 weeks, we had our most important ultrasound scan to check the baby’s anatomy and ensure that everything looks normal. Defects such as brain, heart or spinal cord abnormalities, can now be seen and I was worried of course, but everything turned out to be fine. The technician took her time measuring every part of our baby’s growing body and it was reassuring to see that everything was developing as it should be.
During the scan our baby was very shy and had its body turned away from us with its face covered, so unfortunately we weren’t able to get any good ultrasound scans but we had a good laugh about it. Even if we wanted to take a peek at its sex we wouldn’t have been able too!
A few weeks before our moving date, I had my baby shower at Gordon Street Garage with my sisters and some of my closest friends. It doubled up as a farewell as well and it was nice catching up with everyone before leaving. The venue and food were amazing, and I indulged in their homemade hummus even though technically it isn’t a recommended pregnancy food.
Initially throughout the pregnancy I had been pretty strict about adhering to the recommended guidelines around food but as my pregnancy progressed and I did more research surrounding the risks, I allowed myself to eat certain foods at certain places. At the end of the day I think that it’s about using your common sense, knowing the likelihood and probability of something bad occurring, and being comfortable with the foods that you’re eating. I’ve indulged in raw to semi cooked sushi at a high end restaurant but wouldn’t be comfortable eating sushi from a supermarket chain. If you’re pregnant, you do you, and don’t let anyone tell you what you should or shouldn’t eat!
My husband and I attended our first baby expo at the Claremont Show Grounds. To be honest, up until this point I hadn’t been very interested in learning or researching baby hardware, so I thought it might be useful to get a broad idea of things we should buy before the baby comes.
When we arrived it was pretty overwhelming. There were many stalls featuring variants of the same product and many things that I felt were ‘nice to have’ but not necessarily essential. We took our time wandering around the stalls and stopping to get a demo of things that interested us. In the end, I decided to focus on cloth nappies as that was one thing I’d been looking into and I ended up purchasing a starter pack from Pea Pods and Grovia. I also picked up some reusable food pouches, which I thought was such a fantastic idea!
At 23 weeks, I had my last obgyn appointment and thanked Dr Aitken for looking after me.
The last two weeks of my second trimester were spent finalising the packing and getting our house ready to rent. By now, my bump had grown considerably and made it difficult to lift items, so I had to leave any heavy lifting for my husband. My energy levels also dropped and I found myself squeezing in naps in the afternoon when I could. There were some days when all I could do was make a few calls, answer a few emails, and head straight back to sleep!
In between all the packing we had various farewell dinners and drinks with family and friends, which was nice but exhausting. Both mum’s were also doing weekly food drop offs, which was helpful as it meant I didn’t have to cook as often. In between, my husband and I would visit our favourite food haunts mostly focusing on Asian cuisine, as it didn’t look like Albury had much in the way of Asian foods.
On our last week, we said our final farewells and hopped onto a plane for our next adventure!
Stay tuned for the final part of my pregnancy diary!
Marie xo
Our beautiful darling baby recently entered into the world, our lives and hearts. As we focus on spending time together as a family and recovering, I hope that you enjoy a look into what my pregnancy journey was like. These will be long, so grab your choice of beverage, sit back and enjoy!
On Good Friday, I took a pregnancy test as soon as I woke up. I hadn’t planned too – in fact, just earlier that week I had asked my husband to hide all of our pregnancy tests, as it was killing me to get a negative test result every month. However this time, my period had been late for 2 weeks and my breasts had been feeling tender and sore, so I had a gut feeling that I was pregnant.
When I saw those double lines appear, I almost couldn’t believe it and made sure that enough time had passed by before walking out to my husband saying, “I think I’m pregnant!”. I hugged him and we cried and laughed together in disbelief. By this stage, we had been trying for almost 12 months and were thinking of going down the IVF route due to my maternal age. We spent the next hour or so cuddling in bed and relishing in the moment. Sadly, we had had a miscarriage a few months prior, so while we were incredibly happy, we were also cautious about not getting too attached at this early stage.
Following the long Easter weekend, I booked an appointment with my GP to confirm the results and get the standard blood work done. The results confirmed the pregnancy and also showed that I had a significant vitamin D deficiency, so I started taking Ostelin twice daily. I also booked my dating scan for week 8 of the pregnancy to confirm exactly how far along I was. Although I would have loved to book this appointment earlier, I was advised to wait a few more weeks to ensure that the baby would be picked up on the ultrasound.
Up until this point, I had been going to the gym regularly and eating well, however it wasn’t long after the pregnancy was confirmed that morning sickness started to kick in. I had been meal prepping on and off for the past few months and literally days before the morning sickness came in, I thought it would be a great idea to prep some soup for the upcoming week. Bad idea! Just looking at those containers full of soup made me sick to my stomach and my poor husband had to help me eat them instead.
My diet primarily consisted of Vegemite toast, crackers and plain biscuits. Strangely, I had an aversion to fresh fruit and vegetables but could stomach fast food. The smell of cooked meat made me feel sick and I felt absolutely miserable.
In addition to the nausea, I also felt tired all the time and lacked the motivation to do anything other than lie on the couch all day. Fortunately I had quit my job a few weeks earlier, as I had no idea how I would have handled going to work during this time. Hats off to all of the working pregnant ladies out there, as the first trimester is tough! I felt so guilty and lazy as my husband went to work each day but he was so sweet and supportive, saying that I should rest if I needed too.
At 8 weeks, I had my dating scan done at Western Ultrasound for Women based upon a recommendation from a friend. Many medical professionals get their scans performed here as the practice is run by obstetrician and gynecologist’s that specialise in ultrasounds. Prior to the scan, I had to drink 2 glasses of water half an hour beforehand to help the baby show up better on the screen. For the past few weeks, I had been making frequent trips to the toilet, so fortunately I didn’t have to wait long before we were shown in.
Despite the positive results confirming our pregnancy, a part of me still couldn’t quite believe that I was pregnant, so it was amazing to see our baby for the very first time! At this early stage, our baby was no bigger than a raspberry, and was an unidentifiable blob on the screen but it made me so happy to see it up there. As it was still early days, we could still see the yolk sac sitting above the baby and was told that it would disappear in a few weeks once the placenta became fully formed.
A week later, we had our first obgyn appointment with Dr Mike Aitkens who is based at St John of God Subiaco. As I’m due near the end of the year, at the same time as many doctors are taking their holiday leave, Mike was the 4th or 5th doctor that I called! Every office I had called was either booked out or unavailable, so I was relieved to finally get an appointment with someone. At this point in time, our move hadn’t been confirmed, so I wanted to make sure that we would be able to deliver at St John of God if we ended up staying in Perth.
I’m not sure if this is the case with other obgyn’s but when we arrived for our appointment, the office was busy and we had to wait for approximately 3 hours before we were able to see Mike and it’s been the same waiting time for every other appointment that we’ve had. Fortunately my husband works nearby and has flexible working times, so he was able to attend the appointment. However, I did struggle with a full bladder (as instructed) and was starving by the time we left.
The appointment itself was relatively short. Prior to seeing Mike, most of the work and discussion was with one of the midwives, who noted down my medical history and went through my blood work results. My vitamin D deficiency was flagged as well as my low thyroxine levels, which is the main hormone secreted by the thyroid gland. Thyroxine helps to regulate important bodily functions such as brain development and impacts baby’s development, so I had to start taking thyroxine twice daily as well. I also found out that I had low immunity to some serious infectious diseases despite having some recent booster shots, so was also told to avoid sick kids or kids with rashes!
As the weeks progressed, I slowly got my appetite back and the morning sickness slowly eased off. As the nausea and accompanying vomiting lessened, and I was able to stomach a greater variety of food, I started to feel human again. I was also getting my energy back and I think that was partly due to having my thyroxine levels corrected. As much as I want to have more than 1 baby, I don’t think I could go through another pregnancy if the nausea and tiredness continued!
So far I haven’t had too many odd cravings, however I usually have a favourite food of the week that I can’t get enough of. One week it was Hungry Jack’s whoppers and another week it was tomato sauce and pickles! While my food aversions come and go, there is 1 thing that I’ve been able to eat consistently and that is – mandarins! Specifically, Imperial mandarins from Coles! Throughout my first trimester my husband has been great and has let me indulge in whatever I’m craving at the time. I’ve had some people tell me to try and eat healthier but the first trimester is all about survival, so don’t let them guilt trip you into eating foods that you can’t stomach!
At 11 weeks, I got my blood work done for the Harmony test and First Trimester Screening. While people usually only get 1 test or the other done, we decided to get both done after speaking to our obgyn as they test for different abnormalities and for my own peace of mind. I’m a worrier and even though the pregnancy seemed to be progressing normally, I just wanted to be sure that everything was okay with our baby before we announced the pregnancy to our friends and family. The wait for the results was less than a week but it still felt like forever! Finally, I received the call from the midwife who confirmed that everything came back fine and I had a low risk pregnancy.
Stay tuned for part 2 of my pregnancy diary and my very first baby bump pictures!
Marie xo
Since our baby will be the first grandchild for both of our families, I wanted to do something fun and special for our pregnancy announcement. I researched a lot of ideas online and decided to organise a dim sum with surprise baby onesie cookies as place holders. The wonderful Katie Prince from Charming Treats made our cookies for us and they were absolutely gorgeous!
My husband and I organised a combined family dim sum at 8 on The Point. Before everyone arrived, I had placed the cookies on everyone’s plates so when they came to sit down they got a nice surprise! Everyone was really happy for us and my mum especially was very emotional. The cookies were a hit as well! If I know both of our mum’s well, those cookies will be kept on display for a while!
Ever since we found out, I’ve been bursting to tell everyone so it was lovely to finally be able to share the joy with our families.
Marie xo
I’m so excited to share that we’re expecting our first baby at the end of the year!
Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing my pregnancy updates, thoughts and experiences, so I hope that you’ll enjoy coming along with me on my journey to motherhood.
Marie xo
Our gorgeous baby announcement cookies were done by the lovely Katie from Charming Treats!