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the night before a baby is born

July 10, 2012 By corrie 81 Comments

If someone could bottle up and sell the excitement and anticipation just before you have a baby – well it would sell like hotcakes. I can’t describe my feelings. I’m so overcome with emotions and have been getting teary a few times today as I think about tomorrow and what it means. In some ways I’m a little sad because something I’ve loved doing with all my heart is coming to an end. This is my last baby and I don’t want it to be.

I’ve been so blessed so far but my heart will always want more. But I go into hospital tomorrow so grateful, so blessed, so full of love and joy and so lucky to be bringing another life into our family. I never could have imagined I’d be raising a family of 7 and I’ll remind myself of that every single day.

Thank you for all of your sweet wishes, thoughts and prayers. There is no greater gift than a new baby and keep an eye out late tomorrow afternoon when I share our news with you……….

corrie

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p.s I know some of you have trouble commenting so I’ll be opening up comments tomorrow for everyone:)

p.p.s I’m so excited to share the name with you all too! I don’t know how I’ve kept it under wraps for this long

p.p.s this is me tonight at 39 weeks + 2 days in front of the largest mirror in the house! Excuse the daggy bathroom.

Filed Under: babies, hospital, newborn, pregnancy

3 sleeps

July 8, 2012 By corrie 27 Comments

Phew, it’s been a busy few days here and keira was still throwing up at midnight last night………….juuuuuuust as I thought we were getting over our illnesses! The washer and dryer have been running overtime and I won’t miss laundry when I’m in hospital. Amongst other things like tantrums, dishes and picking up toys.

On Friday it looked like we would never get through our list of jobs before baby arrives………….but Sunday afternoon is here and we have done good. The changetable is fully stocked and ready for a baby, oh how tiny are newborn Huggies! And the basinette is up – thankfully I found the mattress which I had temporarily lost during the week.

wardrobes are organised and I still need to give retro daddy ‘the talk’ about outfits while I’m in hopsital. I don’t know how it goes at your house but everytime I’m in hospital retro daddy takes it upon himself to become extreme fashion stylist. We’re talking skirts over jeans, 3 pony tails and summer dresses with woollen tights. Or last week he dressed Tillie for swimming in her very best french dress and white tights!?!?!?!

The reality that little elodie won’t be the baby here anymore has hit and she still screams when I leave a room or the house so we’re hoping for the best and out of sight is out of mind next week. I’m going to miss her so much and smother her in kisses and cuddles at any opportunity.

but she is walking all over the house so I am loving that!

and just to keep me on my toes I realised I only had one blue basinette blanket and decided to start a quick and chunky small blanket for our new little bubba. I’m using luxury 10 ply in ghost and rustic 12 ply in graphite and it’s working up quickly and evenly. This is one night’s work and I’m on a roll. And what a departure from my normal colour palette! I’m loving the greys!

so with just 3 sleeps to go I better get back to my jobs!

Filed Under: babies, crochet, newborn, pregnancy

tell me your story

July 6, 2012 By corrie 14 Comments

Ok so next Wednesday I’m going to be a little bit out of action. In preparation for those early days/weeks when I need blog posts and don’t have any cute baby photos to bombard you with, I thought it would be nice to have some blog posts up my sleeve. And since I love hearing about your family on your facebook comments and emails to me I thought you could write to tell me about your family.

A picture or two and a little bit about you and your family. Maybe you have a big family, maybe there is someone special in your family, maybe you’ve struggled to have your family, maybe you live somewhere special or maybe you’re just special full stop! Try to keep it under 500 words and be sure to include a photo too. Just email me before next Tuesday at retromummy@hotmail.com. I’ll be picking at least 12 to share on my blog and I can’t wait to read and share them……………….

Filed Under: everything else

my first cable

July 5, 2012 By corrie 21 Comments

I can’t believe how long I’ve been knitting and how long I’ve been saying I must try cables. Everyone has told me they are not that hard but I’ve always put them in the too hard basket. But when tiKKi very kindly sent me her super popular Milo pattern to make for our next addition – well I had to cast it on and try a cable for the first time.

and here is my progress. I’m pretty happy with this for a first and also a little embarrassed it’s taken me this long to get cabling! I picked up some cable needles from Suzy Hausfrau and love that they are wooden as the wool doesn’t seem to slip on them. Milo is such a cute all in one vest and I’m loving it. Of course I’m using Bendigo wool for it. This is from the stash and is Rustic 8 ply but I see the colour is no longer available but is called Pacifica and perfect for a little boy.

I see a whole new world of patterns opening up to me now that I’ve conquered my fear of the cable!

Filed Under: bendigo woollen mills, craft, knitting, ravelry, tiKKi

addicted to facecloths

July 4, 2012 By corrie 12 Comments

If you’ve been on facebook then you’ll know we are a house full of sick little people. Fevers, runny noses, coughs and now elodie has an ear infection which caused a convulsion and meant I was watching over her like a hawk yesterday. Needless to say there has been a lot of sitting on the couch with them and late nights to keep them up to date with medicine. Perfect opportunity to make some more facecloths. I’ve been using debbie bliss cotton dk which is lovely and thick and works up beautifully.

but the trouble is now I can’t stop. This easy pattern is just a breeze. You just need to know how to chain, single and double crochet and teach yourself the reverse single crochet and you’re done. I’m on my 5th facecloth and the sensible part of my brain says try a new pattern. But I can’t. I’m addicted to this one.

These are on my ravelry page here.

Filed Under: crochet, debbie bliss, ravelry

preparing for my 4th c/section

July 2, 2012 By corrie 40 Comments

I will never forget when I was pregnant with keira and we were attending our antenatal classes at the hospital. They showed a video on a c/section and I was just sitting there thinking why would anyone want this, oh this is terrible, not me, so glad I won’t be having one. But anyone who has had a baby will tell you that delivery can end up very differently to how you planned or expected. And here I am just a week out from my 4th c/section. And each of the c/sections I’ve had have been a very different experience.

finn arrives in the world

With my first we decided on a c/section upon the dr’s advice. Keira was a week overdue and her head kept hitting my pelvis and moving up again. She was shaping up to be a big baby and ended up coming out at 3.9kgs, 54cms long and a 37cm head. We breed ’em big here (and I know some of you make them bigger!). My OB was happy to induce me and let me try labour but it was unlikely baby was going to come out herself. I was quite calm on the day of the c/section but as soon as I was in the little waiting bay outside the OR I was having a total panic. I could hear all the instruments being lined up and clanking together, there seemed to be so many people in there (my OB, his assistant, anaesthetist and an assistant and 2 midwifes) and I was starting to get scared of the big needle for the spinal block. And the bright lights, it was all so bright and out of my comfort zone. My first operation.

Something else I was totally unprepared for was the pulling and tugging as they tried to get keira out. I thought a c/section and spinal block meant you felt nothing but I was letting out a few groans and as they finally got keira out I let out the biggest groan ever because she must have been tucked up under my ribs. Ouch. Of course all is forgotten when you see your baby but it was a total shock. The next hardest part was being wheeled to recovery while my beautiful baby was in the nursery with her daddy, This is probably the hardest part of a c/section for me but time flies and I generally doze off. I lost a lot of blood with keira so they monitored me while I slept and before I knew it I was back up in my room with retro daddy and our new baby.

tillie

Fast forward 2 years and 2 months and I was back in the same OR but with twins. I was 36 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Another c/section since I had a history of a c/section and was delivering twins. This time there were more people in the room mainly because I was having 2 babies. The delivery was very smooth. I was worried the babies might need special care but they were great. I recovered well and it was so much easier 2nd time around

tillie arrives

Fast forward another 2 years and 2 months (I swear these dates aren’t planned just worked out that way), and I was in there with Elodie. Slightly different feelings since I was having some pretty painful (ok, really painful) contractions as they were trying to do an epidural. It took 5 or 6 goes for the epidural to go in and I had a sore back and was a bit over it. I was also in shock that I’d gone into labour so I wasn’t as relaxed as I had been before but it was soon over. Unfortunately little elodie had an erratic heartrate as we didn’t realise she had a little heart condition so after a quick cuddle they needed to take her to the nursery to monitor her. I then spent the next hour in recovery terrified there was something really wrong with her. She was fine. My uterus which had housed 4 babies by this stage was causing the nurses in recovery a little bit of worry as it wasn’t shrinking as fast as they would have liked but my Dr wasn’t too worried and everything was fine. I recovered well but thought that was my last c/section.

labour with elodie! I always get my hair done before each baby btw.

Fast forward 21 months (I know, we broke the 2 year 2 month rule) and I’m getting ready for my 4th. I don’t have nerves about the operation or recovery. Just the usual worry that baby arrives safely and everything goes smoothly. People are often surprised that I’m allowed to have a 4th c/section and my dr has always checked my scar tissue and everything ‘down there’ after each c/section. There is a part of me that wishes I’d been able to deliver my babies the good old fashioned way but then I’d probably be hassling retro daddy to have baby 6 (or more). But seriously, it’s not how I expected I’d have my family but they are here, this is how things turned out and I’m so lucky to have a large and growing family.

elodie

So my top tips if you’re having a c/section – just try to relax. Tell the anaesthetist and your OB of any fears, squeeze your partner’s hand really really tight when they do the needle in your back and trust me it doesn’t hurt too much (I’m a huge sook when it comes to needles), make sure your partner has the camera charged and ready for the moment baby appears, wear your support stockings after the operation like the nurses tell you to, don’t overdo it after your operation, don’t bring too many nighties to the hospital because you’ll be wearing your support stockings and it’s not a good look, if you can watch a c/section before the day it might make it a bit easier and remind your partner to take lots of pics in the nursery when you’re not there.

8 sleeps and counting……………………and I still don’t have the basinette up!

Filed Under: baby, birth, newborn, pregnancy

Beyond Snapshots – a giveaway

July 1, 2012 By corrie 187 Comments

One of the things on my to do list before having this baby was buying the book Beyond Snapshots and learning how to get off auto on my lovely camera. I’ve been wanting to do it since before I had Elodie. I love my camera (an Olympus E-620), I love using it but seriously how long am I going to stay on auto function. So yesterday at blogopolis copies of Beyond Snapshots were for sale and I grabbed one for myself and one for my lovely readers. And I had it signed by the lovely Rachel Devine who co-wrote the book with Peta Mazey.

It’s a gorgeous big book full of information and gorgeous photos and is a must if you love photography and just want to get better. Or just want to start. No jumping through hoops for this giveaway, just leave a comment and tell me why you want to enter and that’s it. I’ll pick a random entry next Sunday. You can enter wherever you live in the world for this one (the book is in english btw)

Filed Under: giveaway

Nuffnang Blogopolis 2012

June 30, 2012 By corrie 20 Comments

I love a good blog conference and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – they are for everyone. Newbies, experienced bloggers, craft bloggers (yes, you craft bloggers) and people thinking about starting a blog. Nuffnang Blogopolis 2012 was bigger and better than last year and I loved it!

Dave Krupp aka Kruppy giving the opening address

Retro daddy was a little surprised that I wanted to go to a conference at 38 weeks pregnant but can I just say that sitting in a room with a delicious high tea served in the morning, hot lunch, some great speakers and lots of friendly faces – well it was a whole lot easier than a day at home with my 4 little ones

morning tea anyone? Thanks Twinings

This year at Blogopolis there were breakout sessions which was great as often there is something you’ve heard before or doesn’t really interest you and it’s nice to have a bit of choice. Lucky for me the sessions I wanted were all on the same side of the room where I initially parked myself in the morning. So I didn’t have to move. Gotta love that.

First session up for the day was how to source ideas for your blog posts. I must admit I always have something to talk about and do a few of these but here is what was suggested…….look to questions from your readers, comments on your blog, FAQ, keywords, magazine headlines and the media (not something I do but relevant for other bloggers), the calender and special events, social media and polls.

After a delicious morning tea (and one of many bathroom breaks for me) it was time for Jeff Tan (@Jeff_digital) to talk SEO. Did you know that google has 90% market share when it comes to search engines in Australia. And did you know that when you search for something on google there is a 66 character limit for the title and 155 for the description? So if you want people to find you on the net then keep that in mind. Now Jeff is a fountain of knowledge and he had a lot to share with us.

A few key tips if you’re interested in learning a bit more about SEO are: own your own domain and host your own blog (something I’ll be doing later this year); create clear compelling headlines for your blog post titles; put keywords in your blog title and opening paragraph; use categories and tags but don’t go overboard with lots and lots of categories; link to other blogs as google sees these links as a note of trust; use social media; link within blog posts; highlight your best content not necessarily your latest blog post (oops) and understand where your traffic comes from (this is something I have no idea about)

Like I said, Jeff was a fountain of knowledge and big companies pay him to help them with their own SEO stuff so it’s great to learn from him! And don’t just think that doesn’t mean anything to you. I bet you’ve spent a long time on a project or a tutorial and wondered why you didn’t get lots of comments or maybe you want more people to find your blog. Knowing a bit about SEO can help anyone with a blog.

After all of that it was time for the lovely Nicole aka Planning Queen to tell us a little bit about branding your blog. Something that sounds funny to most of us bloggers and a little bit commercial but it doesn’t have to be. This was such a timely session as I’ve just found a lovely blog designer to totally makeover my blog later this year and this gave me some food for thought about making sure that my new blog design (which I am super duper excited about) will reflect what I want retro mummy to be all about. And here is something new I learnt – google alerts. Set up an alert (www.google.com/alerts) with your blog name and monitor. Go and have a look now, you might be surprised to see what comes up for your blog name.

Next up someone I was very excited to hear from was the lovely Rachel Devine. Rachel took those lovely pics of the twins earlier this year (here) and is one of my favourite photographers. So lovely in real life and talented. And I loved her book so much I bought one and got it signed to giveaway tomorrow to one of my lucky readers on the blog. A few things I learnt from Rachel’s session are to use the best light of the day outside which is the last hour of sunshine or take your photos near a window, don’t be afraid to use your flash and did you know you can pop a tissue over the flash of your camera to diffuse the light. I didn’t know that.

I learnt to look at a few new apps for my iphone like vsco.cam, camtastic and instagram (yes, really I’m not on instagram. I need to solve that). Great photo editing tools for you and me are picmonkey (I’ve been loving it since picnik left flickr) and snapseed. And now here is something a little controversial for bloggers is remove your watermarks from your photos as it detracts from your photos. Rachel had a lovely little glossy booklet made up for us and you can find more about Rachel at her blog http://www.rachedevine.com/.

Phew after all of that listening and information taken in it was lunch time. A delicious hot lunch with a creme brulee for dessert – only my favourite dessert in the whole world. Afternoon sessions involved a few panels and it’s always great to hear other people’s opinions. I had to leave after the first panel as I was getting a little uncomfortable in the seat but yay for twitter I could follow the conference hashtag the whole way home. If you want to catch up on what happened (and have a spare few hours) just check out #nnb2012.

Best bit of the day was of course getting to say hi to all the gorgeous bloggers in the room. This was my 4th blog conference and each conference you know more people and get to meet lovely new bloggers. And talk blog! I was so nervous at my first ever blog conference last year but now I love how many familiar faces there are to chat too and lots of new ones – nothing like putting a face to a blog or twitter name! And my tip is having a conference buddy – today mine was the gorgeous Jennie of Posie Patchwork – as it’s great to have someone to keep you company. A huge thank you to Nuffnang for having me along, I know you all worked so hard – the goody bag was lovely (and we didn’t realise there was a double pass to Brave in it until I saw it on twitter). And a big thank you to Twinings (@twiningsau) who were a sponsor – the high tea was amazing and so was the tea bar and I have a lovely selection of tea bags to work my way through. Very impressive.

Filed Under: blogging, mummy blogger

first facecloth done!

June 29, 2012 By corrie 11 Comments

Just one night of crochet and ta da I have a facecloth to show for it. I used a super easy pattern from ravelry called Oh So Soft Baby Washcloths (find it here) and also learnt a new stitch – the reverse single crochet – to finish the edging. I used about 1/2 a ball of cotton and the little ones were fascinated with it this morning. Only thing is that keira wants me to make another 7 or so for her.

I think having a good stash of them would be perfect. This morning having a good stash of little tissue holders came in very handy when I realised we didn’t have a gift for her student teacher who has been with keira’s class all term. You have to love making things and not needing to run to the shops to buy a present!!! A little bit of ric rac to tie it all together with a note tag made from cardstock and we were done!

Hopefully I’m also teaching keira a little lesson in giving handmade too!

Filed Under: crochet, ravelry

crochet time

June 28, 2012 By corrie 12 Comments

Like any good crafter I have a couple of projects on the go at the moment (baby leggings and a Milo) but wanted to have a little something to take to the hospital with me. Five days in hospital when you’re an experienced mum seems to go on forever. And as I was bathing the little ones this week I realised I only have 2 handmade facecloths in the house and need more.

Now there are loads and loads of patterns on ravelry you just need to search facecloth or dishcloth (but dishcloth just doesn’t sound appealing to me and I have a running joke with my nana that I’m going to make her some as a present as she can’t stand the idea!). Now they are super easy to make, great for a beginner because you won’t get bored and they are a great way to also try out new stitches or just learn to knit or crochet. A couple of people asked on facebook what I use. Now in the past I’ve used Lily Sugar n Cream which is an american cotton (worsted weight/10 ply) and it works up nice and thick but washes and wears beautifully soft. Here is one I made earlier – you’ll find my pattern here.

The Australian stockist for sugar n cream is yarn over and the little assortment of yarn above (which cost me about $25 including postage) was shipped the next day which I love. I’m trying the creme de la creme for the first time because it’s just $2.99 a ball and I thought it would be fun to try. If you like to use bendigo then their cotton is used for plenty of facecloths/dishcloths on ravelry but I find I need to use a 3.75mm needle and hook so it will make a finer cloth.

And if you have a favourite pattern you’d love to share let me know! I’m ready to get crocheting………I’ve also saved a few patterns I want to try in my favourites on ravelry so have a look here.

Filed Under: crochet, ravelry

bring back the free knitting booklets

June 27, 2012 By corrie 10 Comments

I have quite the little collection of lovely vintage knitting booklets that came with magazines like New Idea, Woman’s Weekly and so on in the 70’s. These days you rarely see a knitting booklet come with your magazine but I say bring them back! This month the Australian Women’s Weekly (one of my favourite magazines that I’ve been reading since my early 20’s when I wasn’t in their demographic) has a gorgeous free knitting book and it makes me wish I could collect more of them.

My favourite patterns would have to be the MillaMia ladies cardigan which is gorgeous. But like I’ll get the chance to knit it this winter with a new baby in my arms. I’ll be putting that on next winter’s knitting list and it’s very Country Road inspired and I love that. Plus I’m sure it will look much nicer with my ‘skinny jeans’ than maternity jeans that I’m busting out of at the moment.

I also love this little jumper and love the stone with the lilac combo and am trying to work out which little girl I’ll make it for.

Anyway don’t miss out, the booklet comes with the July issue of AWW and the lovely Suzy Hausfrau has informed that if you’re a magazine subscriber you need to ring AWW and get yourself a copy. Suzy has also dropped the price of her MillaMia yarn at the moment here so it’s a great time to buy some and get knitting! And let’s all go and write to the magazine and tell them how much we love the booklet and want to see more of them. The End.

Filed Under: knitting, millamia, suzy hausfrau

roasted sweet potato soup

June 26, 2012 By corrie 9 Comments

or I’m going to call this ‘soup your little ones will have for dinner’. Because my little ones are not really soup people but this one is a winner. My only bit of advice is go easy on the maple syrup. Roasting the sweet potatoes makes them sweet enough and you don’t want it too sweet.

oh look, she’s doing that mustard and orange retro combo again!

1-2 sweet potatoes (about 800g)
1 brown onion
2 cloves garlic
good splosh of olive/vegetable oil
1Tbsp maple syrup
salt and pepper
1L vegetable stock
2/3 cup light cream (optional)

Peel and chop your sweet potato into large cubes. Slice onion into wedges and peel the garlic cloves and trim ends off. Place your vegetables in a roasting dish, coat well in oil and maple syrup, season with salt and pepper and bake in a 180 degrees oven for about 30 minutes until soft and starting to look golden.

Now my oven is oh so slow so I needed more than 30 minutes but you want to make sure each piece is soft as you won’t be cooking it for long on the stove. Transfer the vegetables to a saucepan. Add the stock and bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Puree your soup (of course I did this in my Thermomix in 2 batches, remember to go slowly up to speed 8). Now here is the optional bit. You can leave the cream out to be super healthy or add in the cream. It’s up to you. We liked the cream but it also tasted really great without it. Serve with some crusty bread and enjoy.

I’m definitely making this again because it was easy, inexpensive and best of all everyone ate it!

Filed Under: cooking, recipe, thermomix

some of my favourite baby knits

June 25, 2012 By corrie 16 Comments

With just over 2 weeks to go I’m finding all these gorgeous baby knits that of course I want to make. In fact knitting for a baby is all I can think of. Maybe because it involves sitting on the couch and not doing much more. But who am I kidding………………….time is not on my side. I really want to make baby a new blanket………..I’m loving this one from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts (a fabulous book for the knitter!).

Then on ravelry I recently found this seriously cute chevron blanket here and it reminded me of the ripple blanket I made a few years ago. It hangs over little Elodie’s cot and is just so beautiful. It took a couple of months to make but was such a perfect project and it’s great if you’re looking for something once you’ve mastered the granny square. This was the biggest blanket I’d ever made. For a boy this would look just gorgeous in pale blue, grey, white and taupe….I won’t rule it out.

Now one thing I do have to make are a few little hats for baby number 5. I have an all time favourite pattern by Debbie Bliss which is on ravelry here. Super quick and easy with a little bit on the top but if you want even faster then you can’t beat the umbilical cord hat. Ravelry details here and here is one I made for Finn. The chunkier the yarn the faster the knit and there is no need to always stick to baby wool when it comes to knitting for babies these days.

and if you want an easy baby cardigan then this is top of my list…….the easy baby cardigan from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts. On ravelry here. I’ve made it 3 times and will keep making it as it’s so quick, easy and perfect.

And everyone knows I’m the Baby kina addict. You can never knit this too many times……you’ll find it on ravelry here

Lastly, I don’t really do baby booties but I love baby socks. My favourite pattern is a very simple Debbie Bliss one knit on 2 needles which is on ravelry here.

If you have a favourite baby knit I’ve missed then let me know!!!

Filed Under: babies, knitting, ravelry

all cooked out

June 24, 2012 By corrie 9 Comments

Full of inspiration after this post I decided that today was the time to start filling up the freezer. First up chicken cacciatore times two. Next up one kilo of mince turned into bolagnese. This is where I learnt the hard way that you can’t just double the bolagnese recipe in the thermomix – well you can but when it’s time to add tomatoes it won’t all fit. So take it from me – follow the recipe and measurements!

After a little break in the sunshine with some lemonade it was back into the kitchen to make a lemon sponge cake. A longer break, some really bad tv while cuddled up to Elodie and then back into the kitchen to make 2 vegie lasagnes. So the freezer in the garage is looking a little more stocked up, I washed a lot of dishes but go to bed feeling very satisfied after a day of cooking. And how great does the mustard countertop look with the orange tupperware………………….mmmmmmm so retro!

Filed Under: cooking, pregnancy

going rate for a tooth these days?

June 21, 2012 By corrie 67 Comments

So yesterday was a big milestone in this house as Keira lost her very 1st tooth! She was one of the last in her class to lose one so there was a lot of anticipation. So after weeks of wobbling and pushing it with her tongue, she came home yesterday and by then could do ‘360’s’ with it. So I offered to ‘help’. She giggled and I said I wouldn’t hurt so over she came to me (still giggling like crazy) and one little push and it was out!

Now we weren’t sure what the tooth fairy left these days. Growing up I got 20c a tooth! Retro daddy got more (must be a Melbourne thing?) so I suggested she left $5 these days. Retro daddy (ever the accountant) thought no more than a couple of dollars. She ended up leaving $5 to one very happy 6 year old. But I’d love to hear what she leaves at your house as she obviously gets around!

Filed Under: everything else