I have to admit that given I’m having a second boy and that I can’t really warrant a redecoration of the nursery I haven’t been very motivated to do the necessary clean out and organsing of the nursery and baby things. As it stands I have the nursery looking pretty much as it was when we moved Oliver into a different room (at which point we tried to make the nursery look “un-usable” so he wouldn’t want to go back to his cot!) except now I also have a bunch of returned baby items which were lent out to people sitting in there too along with things I have since been given. All in all, it’s a bit of a mess…

And then there is the clothes which I did un-box a few weeks ago to start sorting through. I didn’t get very far here though either:

So, with less than 6 weeks to go I suppose I had better get washing, cleaning and organised!

We headed up to Noosa on Saturday late morning and arrived in time to have a bite to eat and a short stroll before checking into an old favourite, the Sebel on Hastings Street. It was such a beautiful day, we couldn’t have asked for better weather! We then had a massage and I had to have a Royal Copenhagen ice cream cone by the beach too! We even had the luxury of having an afternoon nap and a lazy afternoon before heading out for dinner at Seasons on the beach.

This morning we had possibly our longest sleep-in in nearly 2 years, we slept till 8:15am! Better yet it was super dark in our room so we didn’t even wake up early like we do at home (in our super light bedroom!) After a scrumptious breakfast at our favourite Bistro C we had a quick stroll by the shops and then decided we’d better head home to our responsibilities!

What a great weekend. I’m just kicking myself we didn’t make more of an effort to get away before now. It’s amazing how great it can feel just to have this much freedom together and to do the “normal” things that we once took for granted! Of course we missed our little boy lots and he is such a delight, but it was nice to have a quick visit back to our “old” life too!

Thanks to the wonderful grandparents who chipped in to look after Oliver (and the dogs!) while we were gone. How do you feel about looking after a toddler AND a baby next time? ;)

I’m feeling pretty good about where things are at so far. I still have some big things left on the list but at least I’m crossing some off too - yay! Hopefully in the next 4 weeks I can get most of the rest done too. Watch this space!

Work

• Organize next 5 events for remainder of 2010 (sponsors, venues, speakers, attendees) Only 4 events to go, 3 left to organise.
• Finish tutoring for professional association
• Work trip to Sydney for conference (combined family holiday)
• Find, sign up & implement at least 5 new partners (3 partners signed up so far!)
• Get website development finished
• End of financial year financials for 2 companies
• Drive business (marketing, partner promotions, PR) (ongoing but some good progress!)
• Come up with a plan for some type of leave for when the baby is born

Home:

• Garage sale
• Family holidays (Sydney & farm stay)
• Couples night away (will it happen?)
• Misc house maintenance
• Get Bella de-sexed
• Toilet train Oliver
• Day trip to Tangalooma island
• Finish the album/scrapbook of Oliver’s 1st year (have done month 1 so far!)
• Train my ratbag dogs
• Visit public Trustee to get a will sorted

Baby:

• Finish growing the baby :)
• Sort out baby clothes
• Clean up/prepare nursery
• Get all baby things back from borrowers
  
• Buy car seat & pram
• Update pregnancy journal

Taronga Zoo 2010 from Louisa on Vimeo.

The trip was prompted by a conference I wanted to go to - Online Retailer. So we went down and stayed in Darling Harbour and added a few extra days so Steve could do some work meetings too and so we could fit in a family outing. Unfortunately the weather was pretty wet for most of the time we were there and any sunshine was misleadingly temporary. Still on our “family day” we managed to catch a ferry to Taronga Zoo and see a few animals in between the rain. After the popularity of our “farm” video, the “zoo” video won’t be far away!

It is good to be home though as it was a little challenging having Oliver sleep in our room for 4 nights, a first and last time we do that I think! Here’s hoping that he can go back to sleeping well in his own room at home! I must say he was a little gem on the plane though, on both trips he slept on my (rather cramped) lap from take off till landing.

A big thanks to Mirja (her and Sean also came to Sydney for similar reasons) and Mirja looked after Ollie for an hour after Steve and I accidentally booked important meetings at the same time! Lifesaver!

I think that will be the last of our time away before the baby is born. A little daunting to think that on our next plane trip there will be 4 of us…

This week I’m sad to say that I think I have turned a corner in the pregnancy and kind of feel like I’m in the next stage (almost the 3rd trimester I suppose). All of a sudden I’ve changed from being really comfortable and barely affected by being pregnant to feeling big and uncomfortable. It’s like I now have this basketball attached to the front of me and it’s getting in my way! So I’ve had a bit of back and hip pain this week and feel about 35 weeks pregnant in size!

Unfortunately I’m also finding it harder to hold Oliver for very long. I carried him for about 5 mins when we were out yesterday and pretty much hit my limit :( I suppose he is about 11kgs and now pretty much has to sit on top of the baby when I carry him, but I was hoping to get away with it for a big longer!

Anyway, winge winge…I still don’t really have much to complain about, I’m just hoping that I have lots more weeks until I start feeling tired. I’m also totally hoping that my feet don’t do that swelling thing that they did last time!

I figured that someone has to win and being somewhat of an entrepreneur and a mum, I thought that I qualified. I have submitted my entry for my latest business Skimp and entered into the “Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year” category.

So, wish me luck! I should know in a few weeks if I make it as a finalist.

So on Saturday we headed up to Maleny where we had booked in for a night at Solothurn Resort. It turned out to be a great night away. We had a good walk around the property visiting all the animals and Oliver loved seeing them and the next day, feeding some of them too.

Despite our original plan to have dinner at a restaurant in Maleny, we instead opted for a “home made” meal in our cabin and stayed toasty warm with our great fireplace. Here are a few photos from our weekend:

Or, if you’re super keen you can watch the video I put together. It’s just something rough I filmed on my iPhone but Oliver loves watching it and I’m already appreciating being able to help him remember all we saw and did.

No Bella - don’t drag the laundry through the house
No Bella - don’t lick Oliver’s face
No Bella - don’t bark
No Bella - don’t mess inside
No Bella - leave Jazzie alone
No Bella - don’t rip up tissues

You get the drift. I feel pretty bad about this because after all, her behavior is really a reflection of me not having more time to spend with her and train her. But at the same time I’m glad I’ve realised how much she gets in trouble and over the last few days I’ve been making a big effort to find reasons to throw in a few “good girl” comments too. I’ve also realised how much Oliver and Bella love playing together. It’s nice that they have formed such a good bond in a reasonably short time.

Oliver and Bella - June 10 from Louisa on Vimeo.

So now I just have to figure out how to make time to add some training for Bella into my days. I’ve always been pretty proud with how well behaved Jazzie is and I want that same level of trust and confidence in Bella - especially before the baby comes…

So, I’m committed to finding some time over the next week to get started. Perhaps it would be a good start if I can squeeze in just 5 mins a day before breakfast. By writing it here, it’s at least a commitment to try!

In general I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by what I need to achieve in that time frame - mainly on the work front. I’ve been working like crazy lately but I don’t seem to be making much headway. So, being a list person, I thought I might feel better if I create a high level list of what I need to achieve in the next 14 weeks which hopefully will help me to stay focused. I’ve broken my tasks up into a few main categories…

Work

• Organize next 5 events for remainder of 2010 (sponsors, venues, speakers, attendees)
• Finish tutoring for professional association (this week)
• Work trip to sydney for conference (combined family holiday)
• Find, sign up & implement at least 5 new partners
• Get website development finished
• End of financial year financials for 2 companies
• Drive business (marketing, partner promotions, PR)
• Come up with a plan for some type of leave for when the baby is born

Home:

• Garage sale (this Saturday!)
• Family holidays (Sydney & farm stay)
• Couples night away
• Misc house maintenance
• Get Bella de-sexed
• Toilet train Oliver
• Day trip to Tangalooma island
• Finish the album/scrapbook of Oliver’s 1st year (have done month 1 so far!)
• Train my ragbag dogs

Baby:

• Finish growing the baby :)
• Sort out baby clothes
• Clean up/prepare nursery
• Get all baby things back from borrowers
• Buy car seat & pram
• Update pregnancy journal

There, that doesn’t look so bad. A lot better than my daily lists at least! So I have 98 days to make these things happen. Realistic? That includes 28 daycare days - “work days” where I have between about 9am-4pm to work while Oliver is at day care. Hopefully I’ll get a few extra days/hours from family babysitters too. Oh but I only get that much time if I work right up until the day before birth!

This is one of those times where it would be kinda nice to have a “normal” job, with maternity leave and maternity pay and a stop work plan. I have to keep reminding myself of why I do this. I often say to Steve that this is probably one of the busiest times in our life and one day we’ll wish we had all this happening again. Maybe!

So given the list above seems rather less daunting than my normal lists, I think I’ll pick a few things each week to work on and see how that goes. This week I’m focusing on organising the garage sale for Saturday and completing the tutoring work that I’m doing. I might also try and book in a few things like the dog getting sprayed and my day at Tangalooma. I look forward to crossing things off my list very soon!