I am meant to be clearing out and painting our *residence lounge / dining room now that the youngest is back at school for the year. Grade 5 so now able to ride up and back by himself (it's only up the road and I can see him the whole way) Instead I am procrastinating listening to some songs and typing this..lol...

Our first major renovations involved replacing the extremely loud old fashion window type air-conditioning units with nice quiet split system reverse cycle ones. Still believe this was our most successful reno to date. Imagine if you will the Queens Birthday long weekend in June, freezing cold and all 10 units full and all running these darn units full boar. The noise was so bad that MD and I couldn't actually sleep, so pregnant sleep deprived and trying to keep it together as strangers walk into your kitchen because "the previous owners didn't mind" Thankfully nobody caught me in my knickers and bra doing a mad dash from  ironing board to the bedroom, but I feel they would have had their just desserts to have gotten an eyeball of that!!! New policy in place, kitchen door to be locked at ALL TIMES. 

It's now November and things are warming up, very pregnant now and on the home stretch, baby due in 5 weeks, so getting ready to start pre-natal classes. It's been 11 years since my last birth and MD hasn't had children before so much needed refresher for me and will answer many questions for him. 
 

We have had a busy week and now that I am so advanced we had employed some staff. Kept it simple by employing some friends who I have worked with at the golf club. It's only a few hours a day so works well around their shift work. We are booked out for the weekend so when my friends doesn't turn up to work and I can't contact her I have to bite the bullet and go out and clean the rooms myself. The didn't even think anything of it, all was progressing nicely this time around, no gestational diabetes, no sign of pre-eclampsia this time around either so I didn't hesitate. It was only later that afternoon after MD had returned home from his shift at the golf club that things went wrong. I started to spot, then bleed quite noticeably. So off to see my doctor after a few phone calls. She sent me home to take myself into the nearest maternity hospital (an hour away) so before we went I insisted on showering and shaving my legs, underarms ect .... hubby can't believe it. 

Get to the hospital and they connect all sorts of stuff to me to monitor the baby. Lying there trying to stay positive for MD as he is starting to freak a little, but by now so am I. The baby heartbeat is pausing every once in a while. I am also noticing that I am having contractions. Trying not to worry MD too much I mention that I am now beginning to get a little concerned and asked him to check the monitor and see what he thinks. Next thing we know the nurse is back along with a doctor and I need to go in and have an emergency caesarian as the baby is indeed not breathing with each contraction. So in we go, MD get's my parents to look after the motel for the night along with the  eldest. 

All goes well except for them filling me too full of fluids, apparently I have some thing that makes it look like I am dehydrated but I'm not, so I puff up like a balloon and they have to drain it all out of me again. The little fellow is whisked off to the premie units but luckily falls within the age that he doesn't have to be take to the Sydney or Melbourne Childrens Hospital. Sydney is about 8 hours away and Melbourne is 3 hours. 

I wake up the next day covered in blistered up my chest and neck and my lower arms...blood hell. So I get isolate as I might have something contagious and can't see the little one.  Of course this makes sense, who would want to be the cause of giving something infectious to all those vulnerable babies. MD is travelling between our 2 towns twice a day, luckily my parents are happy to keep helping out and MD got maternity leave early. They run a myriad of tests on me and then they suspect I may have post natal depression. I had to explain that while I was a little sad not being able to see my son I was actually crying as MD had purchased some books for me and the character in it had just died and the nurse had seen me crying over that. Turns out I had just had an allergic reaction to a combination of the post op meds and the wound dressing. My system had just had enough. 10 years later I still have faint scars on my lower arm and chest. 

So we had to leave bub in hospital until his expected due date and he was a health weight. SMd still driving us over twice a day as  I can't drive for 8 weeks.  Bub is able to come home in time for Xmas as he is doing so well, then we discover what exhaustion really is!!!!


HOUSEKEEPER TIPS: If you want your motel room cleaned properly don't leave dirty undies/jocks/socks ect all over the floor. It's impossible to vacuum properly when you are dodging other peoples crusties. Pop them in a plastic bag or back in your suite case. Your housekeep will love you for it.

*motel speak for the place on site that the managers / owners live. Usually small 1 or 2 bedroom units with reception plonked on the front of it.