The end.

Photograph by James Farley

You can follow my goings on here on Instagram @sophiekurylowicz

Or see my business baby grow over here: www.littletriffids.com.au or @littletriffidsflowers

Holiday

R&R in Bungendore, NSW. With our besties & Eddies Godparents.

Not a mummy blogger, clearly.

Blogging with a baby. How do you do it mummy bloggers???

Life has become a beautiful monotony broken up by visitors, and events.

Edwin Hawke chats away, blowing bubbles, bashing his dangling dino, eating his fill, filling his nappy. And I do loads of washing, loads of dishes and loads of staring.

I'm trying to be present.

In the midst of a flurry of guests and meal planning on Sunday afternoon I stopped and breathed.  In a beautiful short ceremony on the banks of the Murrumbidgee river, downstream of where Tim and I were married 8 years ago, we gave thanks for our baby. Parents, Grandparents, Godparents and baby were anointed. Edwin was passed through eucalypt smoke three times and had sacred indigenous ochre smudged on his head. A very special ritual gave me a brief moment of pause that I hadn't felt for some time. And on a rainy day in winter, the sun came out as the ceremony commenced, a kookaburra laughed and two juvenile magpies played above our heads. The minister was not the only one anointing us, but nature herself was present too.

A big birthday...

...Calls for a big dreaming wish list. Beautiful objects, stylish grown up things...

Greg hatton stool

Rachel Castle penny rounds

Amazingly wonderful, and entirely unaffordable aesop

a beautiful armchair

Rose bushes. My wish list is so long, but this one is called Skylark.

Floret Growing Guides

And a one acre parcel of lovely land...

The birth of Edwin Hawke

It is hard to pick a starting point. All the important decisions that you make along the way from the very first moments of being pregnant have an impact - they're all part of the story. Settle in with a cuppa - it's a long one..

When did your journey to meet us begin little one?

Could it have been the vigorous dancing to TV on the Radio on Tuesday night? The hot curry your daddy cooked? The acupuncture Wednesday morning, the real café coffee straight after, or the long (ish) walk I took at lunch time? Whatever it was, at 1pm on Wednesday I had a whiney text conversation with my midwife about how over being pregnant I was and how we wished you would hurry up! Whenever I walked I got regular tightening’s and as soon as I sat or slept it all stopped. Still, I was expecting you to begin your journey at night... of course with birth the only thing that's certain is no one stayed pregnant forever...

Bump - minus 1 week.

Discoveries:

* Being awake at 2am is much more fun with scones, jam and cream.
* If you leave your hair in the top knot it was in when you gave birth for 5 days straight - it kinda stays there when you eventually take the hair band out. (And requires a LOT of combing to fix!)
* I can survive pretty well on 6 hours of broken sleep.
* Lola is the perfect big sister (and takes her new job of guard dog very seriously).
* My ankles! I have ankles again!
* Baby hormones are amazing - I was high as a kite for an entire week!
* I couldn't really walk for 3 days after giving birth (might have a lot to do with the tear I sustained too.)
* Watching your partner fall in love is precious and beautiful.
* This baby farts really really loudly, it's hilarious. (Maybe especially because Tim has done most of the nappy changes).
* Baby wearing is not quite as simple as the pros make it look!
* Writing a concise, yet thorough birth story is hard (especially when typing one handed!)

(photos from last week - Eddie is 2 weeks new today!)

Introducing....

Edwin Hawke.
Born at 1am on the 26th of February after a 7 hour natural labour.
Weighing 4.04kilos and 51.5cms long.
Blissfulness factor: Very High.

Back soon :)

Nursery Tour

Our little ones room! Yes I know my height ordered books won't last more than the first couple of months but you've gotta do something with the interminable waiting for baby to arrive time amiright?

Sail Boat Kite: Haptic Lab
To the moon and back pennant: Homely Creatures
Cross blanket: Jamie Kay
Cross sheet and bassinet lining: EIvie & Co
Lamp, blue wire baskets & blue stool: Kmart
Blue trolley & Lamb skin: Ikea
White cube storage & baskets: Bunnings
Morrocon Pouffe: Cush and co
Cloth nappies: Sunshine tots

Everything else is either vintage, opshop or a gift. Other fabrics come from spotlight.

Bump - 40 weeks

Here we are: DD.
Lola decided to cooperate, sort of. Come on baby K - how about you???

Bump - 38 weeks (again)

So, a little late, but look! Professiona-mal photos! The lovely Tina of Peppermint studios needed a model for some creative stuff she was trying out and being on maternity leave I had the time. Not only did we get to hang out and have a cuppa, I got some lovely bump photos too!

So right now we are actually 39 weeks + 4 and I've been overwhelmed with feeling like it's my fault baby hasn't arrived yet. So many people have told me I look like I'll come early that I feel cursed to be late (I'm kinda superstitious like that). Not to mention my own propensity for timeliness makes this waiting all the harder. I reason that statistically a bunch of my friends due at similar times have been early now and so there's no way I will be. Patience, patience, no one stayed pregnant forever - thats for sure.

My productivity has dropped to an all time low now (probably a good thing really), the desire to cook or garden is non existent, and alarmingly my ability to sleep is pretty much completely disappearing. Most frustrating. 

Little baby is wiggling around happily still, but has definitely dropped judging by the new all time highs for toilet trips in the night - about 6!

But we are just so excited to meet this little person and find out their name (we have options but are waiting to see what fits). The house is clean, the dog is clean, heck Tim even washed the car! 

Oh, and that's a little sneak peak of babies nursery there too! More on that soon.

One year ago today.

This is my miscarriage story. I felt like writing it all out today. Getting it out. Please don't feel the need to read it. I don't know if it will help anyone.

I'm about to birth my first child and it's been wonderful, wonderful. But doctors and ultrasound technicians ask how many pregnancies you've had, not how many babies. So occasionally this little reminder comes up. This is my second pregnancy. No, no children. And it's a year today.

Bump - 38 weeks (on holiday)

Oh hi!

It's true what they say. There comes a point where you get really over being pregnant - no matter how much you love it and were excited for it. The 37 degree heat probably isn't helping...

But we are ready and waiting! I've had 2 weeks of leave and finished babies room, not to mention a gazillion other little jobs around the house. We made it to my cousins wedding even, 5 hours in a car is also not recommended at 38 weeks pregnant - but being in the sea - what bliss! Here's me happy as a clam, 38 weeks pregnant and about to run (okay scrap the running part - there is NO running over here) into the ocean.

My back is aching, my sleep is very interrupted, moving is generally awkward, and my ankles are balloons and yet this has been the most amazing experience. All that I hoped for and more. And. I am so so excited to meet this person so soon.

Bump 32 & 34 weeks

Yes. It's late. Very. But you know christmas happened and stuff.

Our beautiful friends spent a week with us over New Years and we went up to the sugar pines in the mountains. We had the most wonderful relaxed week and we used our friends camera skills to finally get Timmy in a bump photo too.

Lola wasn't really up for participating this week. She had important matters (bones) to chew on. Can you see I'm getting tired?

Meanwhile: The big count down at work is on, the last of our visitors have left and so I can turn the spare bedroom into a nursery (so. pumped.), and I had a baby shower. Kinda. Frankly the idea of a traditional baby shower freaks me out a little - I hate being the centre of attention and so when a band we know and love announced they were doing a house gig tour I thought - perfecto! It was so fun - Fanny Lumsden and the Thrillseekers are fantastically talented and bloody awesome entertainers, we served up pizza, garlic bread and cake and somehow Tim did a "set" in the middle consisting of jokes he learnt form 8 year olds...