Meal Plan Monday

And I'm back to meal planning with a vengence! Yippee!

In our kitchen this week:

Monday:
Beef stroganoff, brown rice and steamed veg

Tuesday:
Vegetable and noodle stir fry

Wednesday:
Chilli con Carne

Thursday:
Megadarra - Random Recipe from AWW Cook, p 400

Baking and Extras:

Wholemeal bread, meusli, 3 cheese muffins

Planning a 'Different' Kind of Birth

Settle in for a long read, I apologise in advance!

I am a massive natural birth advocate who has, due to circumstances beyond my control, never experienced a natural birth! I had a Caesarian for each of the boys for different reasons and it is something that while not technically 'regretting' it, I'll always wish things had turned out differently. But, I'm coming to peace with the fact that it is just part of my motherhood journey.

Due to having two previous Caesarians I wasn't really interested in attempting a natural birth again (for the record, I know VBA2C's have been done and I applaud those amazing women that have done it, but for me and my circumstances, not worth the risk), one of the main reasons being that we're now living in a regional area and the facilites at our local hospital would not have been favourable if something untoward had happened. Sure enough, during my first appointment with my Obstetrician he said that he wouldn't be comfortable supporting me through a VBA2C (Vaginal Birth After 2 Caesarians) so we'd book in for an 'elective' C-section. I was expecting this so negotiated with him to have the booking made as close to, if not after my due date to give the baby as much precious 'womb time' as possible (Most 'elective' C-sections are done at 38 weeks). He was fine with this and I was so impressed with his confidence in my opinions and thoughts. He listened and took copious notes!

A few weeks ago a friend gave me some information about Maternally Assisted Caesarians, in which the mother plays a key role in delivering her baby during a Caesarian section. She scrubs in and is kept sterile and after the Obstetrician delivers the head and shoulders, she reaches down with her sterile, gloved hands and delivers her baby the rest of the way and straight onto her chest for immediate skin-to-skin! How amazing! I knew as soon as I read the article that that would be my ideal birth situation, as the immediacy of skin-to-skin contact after birth is so important for mothers and babies and something I had missed out on with both of the boys.

After talking it through with my Doctor at my last appointment I was so encouraged (yet again) by his willingness to listen to my opinions and viewpoints. He seemed very keen to talk and read more about the procedure, which he'd not heard of. He was very supportive of immediate skin-to-skin and when I said that I was unsure of the hospital policy because our eldest children were born at a different hospital his response was 'stuff the policy, let's see what we can do!' I mean really, he could have knocked me over with a feather after that!

The appointment ended with him asking me to email him all my info, plus a birth/breastfeeding plan that we can go through at the next appointment. I'm beyond excited to even be discussing this with him, the possibilities are just too much to contemplate sometimes!

The Chicken Tractor

We are housing our 6 chickens in a second hand chicken tractor. Matt is in the process of building a permanent coop, but you know how things are, it's taking a while. :)

Our wonderful tractor. So glad we were able to purchase one second hand from a friend. It was less than half the price of a new one and in excellent condition.

The plan is to have the orchard area fenced off so the chooks can free range while being safe from the dogs (there has already been an incident, but we won't go into that) and the permanent coop will have a little chicken door we can open from the inside to let them out into the orchard (once we cage the trees and build the fence of course).

 

The girls working over our horribly grassy and overgrown veg patch. The a-frame to the left is the half-built permanent coop with the orchard area behind waiting to be fenced.

Until then they are in the tractor being let out to roam around for a couple of hours in the afternoons once the dogs have been put away. We've moved the tractor onto the veg patch so they can get rid of all the grass and plant remnants and get it ready for more planting. Once they've done their bit we'll move them onto another section of overgrown veg patch and plant out where they were. We'll keep moving them around, following their progress through the garden with seedlings and directly sown seeds. Hopefully this will prove more successful than our last lot of vegie gardening which was an abysmal failure!

 The area where the tractor was for about 2 weeks. Grass is gone and the soil has been turned over and full of valuable chook poo. We've now sheet mulched and are waiting for seedlings to be ready to transplant.

Who Needs Fancy Craft Activities?

A pair of scissors and last year's calendar kept this boy happy for well over an hour.

All pieces were then dutifully picked up and kept for a collage activity later.

My not-quite Wordless Wednesday. Head over here to see some more.

We Survived!

First day of Kindy done! No tears shed by either of us (I'm so glad I didn't make a scene!) and while the day was not 'wave goodbye to Mummy at the door, come at pick me up later' it was not as terrible as I was expecting.

All Elliot wanted to do was explore the fort and outdoor play area and then get stuck into the collage table. He wasn't such a fan of mat time and just wanted me to sit with him. He also sat as close to the edge of the mat as possible! He was hesitant about joining in, but once Mummy was a flippy floppy scarecrow he was fine! Archie and I left during Morning Tea time and came back about an hour or so later to see him playing on the fort (yet again!) with a couple of other little guys, chatting away, so that was heartwarming.

 Another half-day today and then a few days off until proper hours start next week.

Feeling the Bloggy Love

Over the past week or so I've gotten a few new followers! Yay!

Thankyou for stopping by and showing your interest but I have a request. Firstly though, an admission - I'm not the most technically-minded person on the planet and I'm having trouble finding the blogs of some of my followers. I click on their name and see their profile, but sometimes a blog isn't listed.

If you're a follower and I haven't visited your space, I'd really love to! Please leave a link in the comments section of this post and I'll pop on over.

If you are more technically minded than me, please tell me if this is my doing and how I can fix it.

Thanks again for reading,
much love,
Vic xx

My Safe Little World

This Friday marks the end of my safe little world of having my boys home with me. Next week Elliot enters the big wide world of Kindy. Here in Queensland, that is the year before full-time school. A part-time, non-compulsory year at a private or community Kindy.

He will be doing a five day fortnight from 9 - 2:30. This is his first time away from me without being in the care of a close family member or friend and I'm a little nervous. I'm not nervous about the care he will receive while at Kindy. His teacher is amazing, her ideals are very much in line with mine when it comes to Early Childhood Education, she runs a fully play-based curriculum, completely child-led and child-centred. She is passionate and dedicated and just a warm, caring personality.

I'm nervous for all the things he'll be exposed to that will be out of my control. Things the other kids will say, things the other kids will do. I'm nervous about him needing me and me not being there. I'm nervous about his sweet little innocent personality being walked over by more dominant children. I'm nervous about other people not getting his funny little quirks that are just par for the course around our house.

Despite my well-hidden reservations, he is so excited. I know he'll relish the routine of Kindy, he's already practiced packing his bag and he's picked out his clothes for his first day. He's practiced telling his teacher that "I have special suncream in my bag that is just for me because the other suncream might make my face go funny" (he's allergic to regular suncream and his face comes out in hives!)

So Monday is going to be a big day in our house. I'm hoping I'll be brave, but I can't promise anything!