23 weeks pregnant and in serious discomfort!

My word, can it be that I'm already 23 weeks along?  It is wonderful to be able to report that so far my pregnancy has been uncomplicated.  I can only thank GOD, my Saviour, for being so gracious to me!

As for my level of discomfort - it has reached an all-time high!  Here are a few things I seem to find difficult doing:

• Bend over to tie my shoelaces
• Pull up my pants without grunting (I seriously sound like an old woman!)
• Turn over in bed (I blame my ever-stretching ligaments for that one)
• Sitting up in bed after lying down on my back
• Getting in and out of my parents' very low car...

But then there are also a few things I'm loving about this pregnancy:

• My BELLY!!!!
• Seeing Jellybaby move about - this afternoon we put my cellphone on my tummy and Jellybaby kicked it.  We (my husband and I) thought it to be very cute - and then my husband joked about cellphone radiation and I abruptly removed the cellphone from my tummy.
• FEELING my baby move around - it's been 6 1/2 weeks of feeling movement now, and I STILL can't get enough of it!  It is SO precious! (Thank You, LORD!)
• Seeing people's reactions to the news that I am pregnant (quite a few people in my parents' congregation did not know)
• My husband admiring my belly =D ... And my hubby rubbing my belly... And falling asleep next to my husband with his hand firmly on my belly... I love my husband!
• Sharing the prospect of a new baby with my Mom!  She's the absolute BEST!
• Seeing how my dad reacts to my pregnancy - he is suddenly very protective of my (it's never been otherwise, but never quite as overt as now).
• Making little odds and ends for when Jellybaby finally arrives - I will post my newest creation shortly, or at least as soon as it's done (still have to finish off the edges).
•  Dreaming about the day when we'll finally meet this sweet child.
• Jellybaby being VERY stubborn about sharing some kicks - when I check out my belly, sure enough, Jellybaby jumps around like a circus clown.  As SOON as I tell someone else to watch, or even hold their hand on my tummy, well, what would you know?  Jellybaby IMMEDIATELY stops with any shinnanigans.  And as soon as that person turns away / remove their hand, I get a tummy-show again.  It's hilarious!  How does this child in anycase know when it's MY hand touching my belly, or someone else's hand?
• Knowing that this child was specifically chosen for US by GOD - how awesome is that?!?!?!

A few fun facts about my pregnancy:;

• The first time I really could see my 'bump' was at about 15 weeks - and that was only because suddenly my pants, which was perfectly comfortable at week 14, was suddenly VERY tight!
• I felt Jellybaby move for the first time at 16 weeks 2 days.
• My tummy has grown SIGNIFICANTLY - I can no longer button-up my jeans (YAY for Yummy Mummy Tummy), so alternative methods have to be sufficient for now.  I have found that wearing skirts are extremely comfortably - yippee!!!!
• I have no stretch marks (I'm applying BioOil and Happy Event Cream once a day, and drinking loads of water when I remember).
• My memory is something of the past!  I cannot remember, and I go into very depressed states when I realise that I've lost something / misplaced something / forgotten something.
• My hands and feet are still the same size - yay for no selling (yet - hopefully NEVER)!
• The first time someone (my mom) could see and feel my baby move was at 20 weeks 5 days - how awesome is that?!?!?!?!

Okay, I better sign off now - I am beyond tired, and seriously need to make up some sleep!

May GOD bless you in this Easter-time, and may you realise, anew, that HE gave us HIS everything through Jesus Christ!  And through Jesus' blood, we can have Eternal Life - AMEN!

Keep well and be blessed!

Learning about the Fishbowl Project

Last week I spent my days in a lecture room with two AMAZING remedial therapists (previously educators) learning about Autism Spectrum Disorder.  WOW!  That's about the shortest summary I can give!  I went on the Fishbowl Project Training. Please do yourself a favour, and click on this link!  If you are a teacher / parent of a child with ANY special needs, not just on the Autism Spectrum, seriously, go and read what they have to say about this training.  I HIGHLY recommend it!

The one thing that keeps resounding in my head is: VISUAL OVER VERBAL!  Use visual cues, visual instructions, visual schedules - it all makes life SO much easier for children with autism.  But not only for these children, but also neuro-typical ('normal', as we know it) children.  I've had to rethink how I do therapy, and how I instruct children.  It makes sooooo much sense to use visual before verbal!  Verbal instructions are abstract and fleeting, visual instructions are concrete and makes a lasting impression.

A few cool ideas I got from the course last week:

• Have a picture of two feet / two shoes stuck on the floor in your therapy area.  This is to avoid having to repeat the instruction "take of your shoes" every time the dear child comes for therapy.  They'll see the sign, and KNOW what to do, without you having to TELL them each time.  BEAUTIFUL!
• Make sure that the activities which you do with younger children / children on the autism spectrum, has a visual way of telling the child when they are done with the activity.  This includes basic things like starting left, working towards the right, and when all the pieces have been moved from left to right, you're done. 
• Or having lots of big beads or cotton thread spools in two different colours in a round container (that is stuck to a 2L ice-cream container's lid on the left) and then two colours of shoelaces (on the right side of the lid, held in place by making a hole in the lid and then tying a knot at the end of the shoelace inside the lid) matching the two colours of beads / spools.  The child will instinctively know to thread what is on the left onto the matching shoelace. And he'll know that the activity is done once there's nothing left in the left side's container. Uhm...and now I don't have the visual to explain my verbal diarrhea to you - OOPS!  (Thank you, Reinette and Bernadette, for showing us these inexpensive but durable activities / games!)

I also learned about Makaton, which is a way of signing to support verbal communication, and I'm now seriously considering going for the training to do Makaton Signing for Baby to allow me easier communication with my child.  And it is accessible in South Africa, thus providing us with the opportunity to understand our non-verbal children better, and for them to express themselves, and their needs, more clearly!  Makaton has also been researched, with research published. I really think this is the way forward!

This past week has been SUCH a blessing in my career - I was forced to really rethink how I do things.  To be able to really get down to a child's level (my word, I was really reminded a LOT about creative ability and activity analysis) and present activities / tasks in such a way that they will be able to comprehend, as well as not become frustrated.  It took me back to my pre-grad days!

And, in the process of find all these amazing links for this post, I stumbled upon this amazing website.  This mommy is really making it easy for all the mommies out there to not only entertain their children, but simultaneously turning it into a learning opportunity!  Really awesome!

On a slightly more personal note - I am now 18 weeks 1 day along in my pregnancy, and about 2 weeks ago I started feeling my baby move!  Very exciting, and always unsuspected.  As I was sitting here, writing this post, Jellybaby has been seriously active.  I think one of the seams of my pants running across my tummy is REALLY irritating Jellybaby!  Can't wait until the movement becomes more pronounced :-) YEAH!

God Bless and hope that this information was helpful.

Being an OT in a social world

I've been thinking about writing this post since Sunday evening, after visiting with our friends at their house-warming. So, here goes.

 Basically, I really struggle to switch off my OT-brain and just be a normal citizen, interacting with others in a non-OT way.  Why?  Because one of an OT's main attributes is that of being super observant.  Nothing goes unnoticed.  I look at everyone's gait (their walking pattern / style), I check out their pencil grip (and proceed to comment on it), and I always wonder about visual perception (my life at a school kind of means that visual perception receives a LOT of my attention).  When there is someone in a wheelchair, I check out the specs.  I LOVE going to disabled sport meetings, because I get to see the newest technology in prosthetics and wheelchairs.  And when I look at kids?  Well, I check whether what they are doing is on par with what would be expected of them at their chronological age's developmental milestones.

Now, here's the question - will I look at my OWN kids that way?  I certainly do look at my brothers, sisters, PARENTS, husband (shame...he falls victim to this quite often) and nephews and nieces in this way.  Friends, friends' friends and their children are also not excluded.  So, will I monitor my own child that way?  Will I make sure he / she reaches their developmental milestones at exactly the right age?  Will I try to stimulate them to the point that they achieve all their milestones?  I don't know...but it might bug me for some time to come.

The reason for this random thought?  I met a little boy (2 1/2 years old) on Sunday who was born a whole 12 weeks early.  My first thoughts were immediately on how these children usually present - they have quite a great chance of having a hemorrhage due to fragile vasculature in their brains, which can lead to Cerebral Palsy.  They can be deaf, blind and developmentally delayed their whole life through.  And yet, this child was walking, talking, could see and hear.  I kept on telling his mother what a miracle child he is (as if she doesn't already know that), and the fact that he could do all these things was awesome.  But, of course I looked at him as a whole - I observed a lot, and yes, he still seems to have some delays if you compare him to other 2 1/2 years old.  Yet, I should be comparing him to himself - and that was pretty awesome!
Thus the question I'm throwing out there today is this: How does the type of work you do / your occupation, influence how you interact with people?

Anyways, that's my rambling for today - I'm now off to finish supper (Aubergine Masala and yellow rice!).  May you have a blessed week!

The size of a peach - 13 weeks 4 days

I am soooooo happy to announce that we FINALLY have a little one on the way!  After 18 months of trying - which means we were medically infertile.  It is beyond amazing to have seen this baby move around, wave and kick... WOW!  I am now 13 weeks 4 days along, with my expected due date being 6 August.


Spikkel at 11 weeks 4 days

  Here's an exciting thought, though - the baby is the size of a peach! About 3 inches from Crown to Rump.  So awesome!  We get to see the gynae again in 12 days' time, and we can't wait to see what our baby will look like by then.  And my husband is the best - he also becomes all emotional and overwhelmed by the thought that a part of him is growing inside of me.  He can barely wait until the baby's big enough and moving around for him to feel.  So precious!

I started feeling nauseous at 6 weeks (started with a metal-taste in my mouth), but I don't easily 'lose my food'.  That has only happened ONCE so far (apparently one should not eat eggs, mushrooms, cucumber and cheese as breakfast at 05h30 AM), and I hope to not repeat that episode.  Furthermore, I've been able to mostly control my weight gain, although I'm eating my husband into financial ruin!  Never knew I could be THIS hungry!  My clothes are now starting to sit tighter, and I am planning on making myself some maternity pants this weekend (yes, I know, then I should stop blogging now and actually just START already!).  My body has changed, but my husband has seen most of the changes, since I don't own such a thing as a full-length mirror, and most of the mornings I just check my face to make sure I've covered every square millimeter with sunblock (SPF 50+).  I was very tired initially, but now mostly go to bed early...only to be woken at 2 AM with the URGENT need to visit the loo (your kidneys, and thus bladder, work over-time!).  I've never been a fan of interrupted sleep - let's see whether this baby turns out to be a sleeper.

One of my friends gave birth to a beautiful girl this morning at 10h00 AM, and it was so special to receive multimedia text messages from her mom to keep me up to date with the process.  And suddenly I realised - that's ME in 6 months' time!  The big debate though, is whether or not to find out the gender of the baby.  My husband and I already made up our minds 2 years ago that we do not want to know the gender of our babies, because why spoil the surprise?  Some of my colleagues asked me this morning, while we were all busy gushing over the GORGEOUS new baby girl, if THIS does not make me want to find out our child's gender.  The answer?  NOPE, I LOOOOOVE SURPRISES!!!!

I am looking forward to that amazing surpirse at the end of this pregnancy, and how awesome to hear the doctor say "It's a boy / It's a girl"?!?!?  What could be more special than finding out the last part of the surprise when we also get to meet our baby for the first time? 

The other part of me also don't want my child to be stereotyped.  By this I mean the baby clothes and products one gets at one's baby shower.  As soon as there is a gender linked to the expected baby, people tend to fall into this loop of 'blue is for boys and pink is for girls'.  I prefer that if I do have a daughter she finds out a loooong time from now that such a colour as pink exists.  I think there are awesome colours out there, why limit my child to one?  Which means I'll be making (hahahahaha) baby and toddler clothes to ensure my girl / boy does not fall into the trap of pink=girl, blue=boy.  Oh, and on that - my boy should also preferably not know about the existence of pink until he's MUCH older!

Then what colour do you buy for a child clothes-wise when you don't know the gender?  All of my other favourite colours!  Avocado green, gray, beige, white, RED, orange, yellow, teal blue/green...  There is just so much more variety than blue, blue, blue, blue, pink, pink, pink, pink. And it also allowed us to be very creative whilst dreaming up our baby's nursery room.  Together with my husband, we've come up with an AWESOME colour scheme which will not only serve us well as a nursery, but also as a toddler's room and school-going child's room.

Just wanted to shout this out to the whole wide world - I AM PREGNANT!!!!!

Helping others by saying nothing

My father and mother still carries heavily on this burden called my brother's death.  But more and more I've seen my father really suffer from sadness, which really is normal and to be expected, and I feel that my hands are so chopped off.

I have this awful habit of telling people that I can't help them, or don't know what to do to make their situation better when I feel overwhelmed by their situation.  This is one of those situations.  And I had to catch myself before saying that to my dad, because how would that really make his day any better?

Sooooo, thinking this over, I realised that my best response to his sadness is not in my words (or lack thereof), but rather in my actions.  A hug, holding his hand, and if I feel the over-powering need to say something, to just say I'm sorry that he is sad.  Because the truth of the matter is, this is a loss a parent NEVER gets over - EVER. 

If I think how much I still grieve my lost baby, even though I never got to hold him/her, how much worse is my father's pain.  He who held this son, played with him, saw him grow up, become a man, get married, and accomplish so much in his short life time.  Surely, that pain is so much more intense, the memories ever-present.

Yes, I struggle with my brother's death, but at times life is normal, and I can get on with it.  But then again, I don't have to live in the house where my brother was born into, grew up in, never left, and was burried out of.  I don't have to constantly be reminded of him at every corner I turn, or every detail I see in the house.  This is what my father has to deal with, every day of his life.

It saddens me to see my dad like this, but really, I can only hug him.  That's all I have...and that's all I should give.

How do YOU help someone when they are in pain / emotional turmoil / overwhelmed?

May the grace of GOD surround you every day of your life!

Me =D