Once home things seemed to move very slowly. The pains were worse around dinner time and through the night, I also had to be cautious about where I sat and how, as sometimes that would trigger pains too. I was exhausted and I was scared, but things were defiantly easing – I just needed to rest! Mum made her way over on the Monday, helping with the cleaning and washing as she had been doing for the past several weeks – only difference was this time she had offered to take Charlie home with her for a few nights. Now, when she first suggested this, I thought, Dave won’t go for it – but he surprised me and suggested that we could all benefit from a break. We agreed Charlie was to behave and not run Nannie and Papa regard, but Nannie was adamite that he would be fine and both his aunties and cousins couldn’t wait for him to arrive!
Charlie was more than happy to ‘go home with Nannie,’ and waved happily from the backseat as they drove out the driveway. I took advantage of having the house to myself and headed back to bed! Dave was home late from work that night but he was happy to eat what had become my ‘usual’ of bacon, eggs, avocado, tomatoes and mushrooms for dinner. The house was quiet and as it was hot, we would usually close all the doors to the rooms we weren’t using to encourage the air-conditioning down the hallway, but I was hesitant to close Charlie’s bedroom door. I wasn’t sure why really, but I knew there were still on occasion, nights when I was hesitant to close the nursery door so I let it go and left the door open until Charlie’s return on the Wednesday.
In the mean time I kept busy by finally getting stuck into the design and painting of the Christmas train that was set to be our added addition to our Christmas lights display this year. I became very invested and decided to hand draw a Santa, reindeer and Koala into the windows of the train – the problem being, I was my own worst critic! I wasn’t a painter or drawer for that matter and I made many mistakes, but I persisted, adding final coats of red, green and white paint – again and again. All up there were four carriages, following the train itself, a Santa sack, set of presents, Christmas tree and 12 candy striped wheels. This thing would want to outlast all our children, with the possibility of a revamp for the grandchildren! For the moment though I was happy painting away, set up in front of the air-conditioning – while continually criticising my work and perfecting again and again.
Tuesday saw me catch up with Robyn at the hospital. I was still in pain and moving very slowly so I happy to be getting checked over again and to finalise some of the finer details. Things were starting to feel very real and we both agreed that this bub could possibly be here before we knew it. Robyn joked, gesturing towards my belly, ‘you behave kid! You stay in there!’ It wasn’t long before things became emotional, Robyn stating ‘if you go early, I’m going to come visit you, there are a lot of us invested in the safe arrival of this baby,’ she said. She confided that it had been discussed that upon arrival management had given the go ahead for the addition of a selection of midwives to be present at the delivery – someone we knew, a comfort, someone to hold my hand and answer any questions I had. Granted this was the job of any midwife, however it had been organised as an additional support for both Dave and I, in a hope to defuse any possible triggers. The theatre room itself wasn’t a trigger for me, but Dave had mentioned several times that he was concerned to be re-entering the same platform. Unfortunately for us, it was our only option for delivery given both our history and time frame being under two years since delivering Louis – it was what it was.
Alas once Robyn was happy with everything and we had discussed a few inconsistencies to look out for coming up to the 36-week mark, she hugged me goodbye, unsure of what the New Year would bring. We held it together, I however headed straight to the cemetery to sit in my thoughts with Louis as I burst into tears. The fact that Christmas landed right on that 36-week mark scared the absolute crap out of me and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it! I sat in my tears under the shade of the rotunda, clutching my belly – I had to let it all out – I was terrified!
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Charlie returned home late Wednesday afternoon, Nannie and Papa in toe as he pushed his way through the front door. He was full of stories, telling me about ‘Arlo’s shoes,’ and the Christmas bracelet that Jaycee had made for him. Nannie was on a mission, changing bed sheets and filling her basket with towels, sheets and blankets to take home from the nursery. Papa too keeping busy, heading out to the shed before returning with the blower to clean up the leaves – Charlie his little helper, following him around with his toy blower, yelling, ‘Papa, I got my blower,’ ‘I help Papa.’
It was reassuring to know the visit was a success, but it was nice to have him home.
Thursday and Friday saw Charlie see out his final days of kinder for 2025 – a day we had struggled to foresee at the beginning of the year. We were honestly so thankful and so proud of him and the little human he had thrived to become. He marched in, carrying his basket containing a bundle of positive crochet animals to hand out to the educators. He took pride in picking each animal out as he made his way around to all the educators, stating which animal he had chosen for them. Again, we were just so proud to see how far he had come in what seemed to have been a short nine months.
Thankfully, I hunted around and had asked a friend to accompany me to into Shepparton to finalise a few lingering Christmas presents that I had yet to organise. We were in and out within two hours and we both felt the weight had lifted from our shoulders – this being pregnant at Christmas time was really becoming a hassle! But luckily, our burst of motivation continued into the weekend and we just kept ticking things off our never-ending list of lingering jobs.
Saturday, we cut our way through our Christmas train and finalised placement out the front – Charlie beaming as each carriage was hung into place. To my eyes, it wasn’t perfect and I felt the same way it did when someone complemented my nails when I had painted them myself, I would state, ‘just don’t look too close!’ But it did the job and I knew I had given it my all and Charlie loved it – that was all that mattered.
Dave started work on the pool, adding water to settle the bottom out and put together the arch we had bought for our oasis down the back. The area had been a bit neglected lately and the lights we had originally hung had been destroyed, the tyres and doors that had been placed before we did the brickwork still positioned down there too. It needed to be cleaned up for the maternity shoot we had booked for Monday. We had decided to go with Holly again and hopefully get some beautiful sunset photos, including the dogs and if they behaved, the sheep too.
Colin was set to head to his new home on Sunday, after a work colleague showed interest in him. Her partner living in the Yarra Valley with several flocks of sheep to make his way through – it would be bitter-sweet and we would miss him, but he was never meant to stay as long as he had and he deserved to retire in style. Moving Colin on also meant we could keep all our girls together, his daughters and Flossy included. We discussed when the timing felt right, we would invest in a purebred Persian ram lamb to bottle feed and tame before taking over our flock. We hoped by doing this, it would make things easier than all the chasing and re-fencing we had done with Colin, it would also help with herding a few of our less friendly ewes.
'Our Little Louis' 