Welcome George

George Lewis Nisbet born in the water at 852am 21.08.08 3.2kg.

Not yet

For those of you wondering, there's no sign of bubba #2 arriving in the next few days. I've booked in for some acupuncture on Thursday morning, to move things along, although even then I'll only be 4 days over my due date. Zoe was two weeks late, and a couple of sessions of acupuncture seemed to really help.

Today is really the first day I've had just to chill out at home, alone, since finishing work last week. I kept Zoe home for a couple of days for some bonding time, but it turned out that she had gastro and couldn't go to day care anyway.

waiting for our baby

Nine days until my EDD, and no sign of an early arrival from our new baby. Zoe asked me to put the cot up last week, which we did, along with a clean out of her room, on one of the couple of days she was at home sick with a runny nose and sore throat (complete with husky voice). The cot has gone up in her room, alongside her bed, which I moved. I don't like my chances of getting either kid to sleep in there, given that Zoe is still with us and my plan is for bubba #2 to sleep in a bassinet in our room for the first little while. Daddy is eyeing off a new mattress for the single bed in Zoe's room, so I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up in there.

Anyhow, the day after putting up the cot (and doing a bit of nesting-cleaning-baby clothes washing) Zoe raced in to her room to see if the baby had arrived. It was very cute, but I do wonder if she thinks this is all a bizarre hoax, given that this baby has been coming for such a long time.

I still haven't decided if Zoe will come to the hospital with us. I would love for her to be there, but am not sure that she won't get upset, or that I will cope with her constant demand for cuddles while in labour. The sensible option, I am sure, is to leave her here with Uncle Wonder (plan a), or even with my Dad, if he is around (plan b) or to ask Aunty Litsa or Colette to come to the hospital to collect her (plan c) before active labour starts. We shall see.

I finished work today, offically anyway, but still have a couple of things to complete - from home in my own time, before I can feel really free of it and focus on what is clearly more important.

Watch this space for more baby news.

Darwin holiday

Our family holiday with cousins Ella and Myia to visit Great Aunty Crena in Darwin for her 70th birthday party did not go to plan, as Crena was unfortunately sick and in hospital when we arrived. Thankfully, she had recovered and we were able to visit her at home before we left.

The girls loved our apartment at Fannie Bay with it's spa pool and kid friendly yard; the Mums and Dads loved the short walk to the Sailing and Yacht clubs - with their playgrounds - for sunset drinks and dinner. After four days in town, a highlight of which was a day trip on a bbq houseboat on Mary River Billabong with our cousins from Darwin and Mummulgum, and lots of crocodiles and bird life, we picked up our camper vans, split up the youngest two girls (!) and headed off to the surrounding National Parks. First stop were the waterholes of Litchfield National Park, which the girls loved, followed by a night at Douglas Daly hot springs (8 kms of corrugated road - grr - but more swimming and paddling - see first picture of Zoe) and two nights in commercial caravan parks in Kakadu. We chose this option as we only had 2WD campers, and they had child friendly pools for relaxing in in the afternoons. The campers were good because they gave the girls a sense of continuity which they would not have got from staying in different accommodation each night. While Zoe slept a lot while we were driving, which was great, to make up for the busy time we'd had in Darwin, Ella and Myia were often awake but, by all accounts, well behaved.

Highlights for Zoe were, I think, the helicopter ride that she watched Ewan, Sally and I take out of Jabiru up over the Arnhem land escarpment, and the trips there and back on the plane. We've been role playing 'airplanes' for days now, and she loves it when we pretend to get drinks from the air hostesses. She also enjoyed our visits to the rock art sites Nourlangie Rock and Ubirr, where she could run along the paths, climb the steps and play in the dirt. She thinks the paintings of one of the spirits is 'spiderman'.