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Eloise's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 12/2/99 -------------------- 11/28/99 11/24/99 11/20/99 11/17/99 11/10/99 11/3/99 10/26/99 10/20/99 10/13/99 10/6/99 10/4/99 9/28/99 9/15/99 9/9/99 9/2/99 8/26/99 8/19/99 8/5/99 7/30/99 7/16/99 7/6/99 5/14/99 5/14/99 5/7/99 4/27/99 4/15/99 4/8/99 3/25/99 3/20/99 3/19/99 3/18/99 3/12/99 3/9/99 3/4/99 -------------------- Eloise's Introduction

October 26, 1999

Almost 36 weeks – Whoa!!

Golly, time’s moving on. Thirty-six weeks – it sounds so advanced, so far down the track, so close to the end!

Last week at my hospital appointment, my midwife asked me if I’d packed my hospital bag yet. Crikey, I thought, is it really that time already? Of course it’s almost a week later and I still haven’t done it. It seems too soon. Am I kidding myself or what?

In this past week the baby has definitely grown stronger. Its movements have changed, they are much stronger, much more obvious. I guess it’s getting cramped in the belly about now. JK and I spend time in bed every night watching the belly move and jiggle and in the past week we’re convinced we can distinguish little feet and hands, elbows and knees. It’s quite amazing. One night I felt a big kick in my side and as I moved my hand down to rub the area I felt this lump protruding through my skin. It was totally weird and totally impressive. I am convinced it was a foot. Since then JK has felt what he was sure was a little fist stretching through my skin. So now we’re obsessed with this belly-watching, belly-feeling game and I think we both feel like it’s bringing us much closer to the baby, and the baby seems much more real now. It’s pretty damn cool.

In a flurry of excitement we picked up our chosen pram this last weekend (we ordered it about a month ago) only to get it home and realise we’re definitely not a navy-blue-and-white-polka-dot type of family. I don’t know what we were thinking when we chose it! So, it’s going back to be exchanged for much the same model (the Rolls Royce of strollers and small and well-designed enough to fit in our small hatch boot), but in green and blue tartan with lots of bright green plastic and chunky all-terrain wheels – much more our style!

So at this point we think we’ve pretty much bought everything we need – pram, car seat, bedding, sling, teddy bear, nappies, clothes, etc. etc. etc. It seems like so much stuff for one small baby! I never thought I’d say this but I think I’m sick and tired of shopping, and by crikey, so is our battered credit card. Still it was good fun to get the stuff home and watch hubby parade around the house with the teddy bear in the baby sling, strapped to his chest. He can’t wait to carry the baby around in the sling – he’s a very physical, very gentle and affectionate man and I think he’s hanging out to feel physically close to this baby. It makes me extraordinarily happy to think I’ll be able to watch him doting and fussing over the baby. I have absolutely no doubt he’s going to fall head over heels in love and it’ll be absolutely beautiful to watch. Yum. Yum.

So on that dreamy note I’ll sign off.

Thanks for all the messages I’ve received. It’s really, really nice to know people are following our story and looking forward to hearing about our birth and baby.

All the best to everyone reading,

Eloise