Mothers Day

It's my first Mothers Day as a mother. Though it still feels weird to call myself a mother. When I got my hair cut a few weeks ago the hairdresser jokingly called me a MILF afterwards. Very jokingly, but it took me a while to realise she meant me! And it's not just me, the other night Mr Meet-Cute complained that a jersey I like him to wear made him look 'like a Dad'. I told him 'You are a Dad'!

Becoming a parent makes you super emotional. If you're a new Mum, do not watch things like The Wire. I got almost to the end of Season 4 (the one with the kids) and had to shut it off. It's soooooo bleak and awful! Mr Meet-Cute and I went to The Place Beyond the Pines the other night, which was great, but afterwards Mr Meet-Cute told me he couldn't watch things with babies in them anymore. Not that anything bad happens to babies in the movie, but just seeing other babies makes you feel so teary and protective! There was a preview beforehand for the film Broken, which looks amazingly good, but there was a second long shot of a baby in an incubator, which started the tears flowing for me! Because of course, it reminded me of Ray. Also, anything about children in the news, or any kind of violence makes me feel terrible, because you realise that everyone has a mother, and everyone has someone who feels about them how I feel about Ray.

Ray is past his due date now, but because he's still having trouble with taking his feeds properly we haven't been able to bring him home. He's been fed all this time through a nasal gastric tube, which goes in his nose to his tummy, and my expressed breast milk gets put in the end. By now he should be taking bottles and/or breastfeeding, but for some reason it's taking him a long time to get the hang of it. He just doesn't seem that hungry, which surprises me as both his parents are huge greedy guts's! Because everything else is fine with him we should be able to take him home this week with the nasal gastric tube still in, and we can continue trying to get him taking just the bottle and breastfeeding while he's home. We just want him home now, he's so alert and aware now, he needs to come home!

Three Good Songs

With good videos (do people still call them 'videos'?)


Say That, Toro Y Moi



Amanaemonesia, Chairlift



Step, Vampire Weekend

Dreamweaver

I attended a little weaving craft-a-night with the super talented and lovely Maryanne, who you may have read about a few weeks ago on the Design Files. This is a work in progress shot of my first little piece, I was too excited about these new skillz to wait any longer to share it. Weaving is so fun, and rewarding! After struggling with learning to crochet earlier this year, and pottery classes all last year, I have to say, weaving is something that you can get amazing results from right away. Though, if you've seen Maryanne's awesome weaving on instagram, you'll see that I still have heaps of room for improvement!

I'll share the finished results as soon as I'm done with this little guy. In the meantime, here are some inspiring shots of the lady herself, working her dreamweaving magic.

Photos from the Design Files

And some pieces from one of Maryanne's influences, New Friends. The colours and textures used in these are amazing.

All photos from New Friends

Ray Ready

The Ray Readying has been going well. Now we just need Ray to come home!

I just love woolly blankets. We're getting quite the collection.

Framed print from my Mum, via Hello Polly

My sweet friend Roses made this cute embroidery

A dugong toy for the Tiny Dugong! From Ray's Godmother

Much coveted Beci Orpin dream catcher from Ray's Aunt

 Toys! I always had heaps of toys when I was little, and it looks like Ray will be the same.

Tiny Dugong sneak peek!

Ray's due date is next Sunday, and I am really hoping he will be home before then. We are so ready!! I really thought he'd be home by now, so it's really hard still having to say goodbye to him and leave him in the hospital every day. He had been going so well, just growing and chubbing up nicely. Then a few weeks ago he caught a bug which had him moved all the way back to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. It was so unexpected. He'd just made it to the end of the Special Care Nursery, which is the area with the babies that are almost ready to go home - last stop! So it was a huge jump backwards and a massive scare. Thankfully he is all recovered now, and he's back in the Special Care Nursery again.

He's still taking his sweet time with getting strong enough to come home though. Maybe I should show him these pictures, "Look at your nice room Ray, all ready for you!"

Anzac Day

My grandad, and baby Ray's namesake, Ray Adair

Last year on Anzac Day I stayed home and baked Anzac biscuits. This year I'll be doing the same thing as every other day since February 21st - heading in to the hospital to see baby Ray. We're nearing the end of the hospital road now FINALLY, and hoping to bring him home next week. I'm so looking forward to a cosy Winter spending lots of time at home having bebeh cuddles!

Ray Readying

My Easter plan is to get the house ready for when Ray comes home. There's such a lot to do! When I was in hospital one of my roommates mentioned how it would be hard being on bed rest when the 'nesting' phase of pregnancy kicked in, only I think I am permanently in nesting phase - I've been so excited thinking about how we are going to rearrange things at home, I was planning things in my head the whole pregnancy.

Last weekend we had a garage sale to get rid of stuff to make room for all the baby things we'll be getting, and we've had countless brainstorming sessions trying to map out how we'll be able to squish our lounge, computer desk, and dining table all into one room, without it actually looking like it's squishy! Here's a whole bunch of inspiring small interiors that I've been getting hints from.

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Tiny Dugong has arrived!

He came early after all! On February 21st, at just 29 weeks plus 4 days gestation, Ray Ngaei McKinlay decided it was time to make his entrance. It's been a crazy emotional rollercoaster over the past month, but wee Ray has been a total trooper going from strength to strength. He's still in the hospital as he is too teeny and precious for us to bring home just yet. He started off in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with oxygen tubes and monitors and wires everywhere. Thankfully he's been breathing on his own from day one, but needed to have the oxygen tubes there just in case. These have now been removed, and he has been progressing down the hospital ward, and is now in the Special Care Nursery, where he'll stay for another 3 or 4 weeks until we can bring him home. We have been extremely lucky that he hasn't had any serious setbacks. Being at the hospital every day and seeing all the other families and tiny babies makes us realise how lucky we are. Although - I cannot wait to not be at the hospital all the time!

It's surprising how busy things have been, and Ray isn't even home yet. All Ray's grandparents have come over from New Zealand to see him which has been so lovely, and we have been scrambling to get things set up at home. Soooooo behind on all of this and our house is a shambles! And then we need to spend as much time as we can at the hospital. Some days I arrive and sit with Ray and wonder what I'll do with myself there all day. But the days always go by in a blur; there's nappy changes, and 'kangaroo care' which is when we can get Ray up for a few hours to sit and hold him, and my milk expressing schedule - which is so weird! Did you know that your breast milk will contain the perfect combination of nutrients for the time your baby is born? Premature babies need more proteins and things to help them grow and develop, and your breast milk changes as they do, so that it has everything they need for each stage  - so weird and amazing! He's still too little to be able to swallow, suck and breathe, so actual breast feeding will start in a week or two once he gets the hang of all that. For now he has his 'feeding tube' which goes in his nose to his tummy. I can't wait for the day that is removed, as it is the last tube he has on his wee face, which can't be very nice for him.

Okay, enough breastmilk talk, I better get going to see our Tiny Dugong! It's such a relief to finally check back in with an update. I love blogging so much, so I need to make the effort to keep up with things around here. I don't think things will change too much, I'm not going to turn into a mummy-blogger, but there will likely be more Ray related posts than usual for a while!

Karen Walker Autumn/Winter

Karen Walker showed her 'New Rose' Autumn/Winter 2013 collection last week in New York. Here are some of my favourite looks.

It's been so hot and sunny this year in Melbourne. I'm ready for a cool change to be able to wear some cosy knits like this hat and scarf combo.

Love all these long wool socks too.

And this green jumper - so much cosiness!

I probably wouldn't wear this pinafore myself, but it is definitely adorable!

Tweedy cosiness.

pics via karenwalker

Also adorable are these backstage photos.

photos by Sonny Vandervelde via katherine is awesome

The new karen walker eyewear campaign has been around for a while, but I still totally love it.

I'm not so into the actual sunglass styles this year, but this advanced age stunner totally pulls them off!

Preggo eats

I was going to include this picture of a cheese plate I had last year at The Yarra Valley Dairy in my Spring Eats roundup, but then I thought it would just look too weird to everyone because who has a cheese plate with just one type of cheese on it? Well, you do when you're knocked up because you can't eat any 'soft cheeses', or any other delicious mouldy type cheeses. When we ordered this we had to explain that I was pregnant and could have hard cheeses only. I loooooove cheese, so this felt pretty odd. And I wasn't 'showing' at all at this stage, so I felt like people would think I was making a fuss, which was silly of me because most people are really understanding once you explain that you can't eat specific things because you're pregnant. I have had one older lady tell me that she drank and smoked through all her pregnancies and her kids all turned out fine! Things are mighty different these days.

Here are some other things that are off the menu if you find yourself knocked up. There's actually a lot more than just this, it's quite the minefield. And I thought it was just alcohol!

• poached eggs, or any eggs that are runny or not completely cooked. This has been the toughest one for me because I love my poached eggs! Homemade aioli and hollandaise are also out. I usually make tiramisu for Christmas, but not this year as it has raw egg whites in it. Had trifle instead, yum.
• any cold meat, including paté, and smoked salmon - meat has to be cooked and hot! We had beautiful seared tuna at a restaurant a while ago which had to be sent back. I was too embarrassed to ask for it to be well cooked so Mr Meet-Cute had to do it for me. I'm such a wuss!
• sushi. I really had to rethink my lunch options after learning I had to steer clear of sushi.

I guess I think about food and my stomach A LOT so this took a bit of adjusting. It's only for nine months though, and then I shall eat all the poached eggs and hollandaise I can get my hands on!