A thought.
It is very inconvenient to have insomnia when you also have a little baby and a toddler.
Really, I should be going to bed pretty soon after the girls do, but it's not happening. They've been asleep for 3 hours already, and I'm wasting precious sleeping time! Now the more I think about it, the more awake I feel.
This itunes thing that I did.
RULES:
1. Put Your itunes, windows media plyer etc on Shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS
IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
"King of Fools" by Delirious?
(Man, I'm really mean!)
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
"Time Ta Jam" by DC Talk
(Oh yeah, I can bring it!)
WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
"Dream of You" by Citipointe Church
(As long as I have a dream about him, he's fully in)
HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
"Stealing Time" by Delirious?
(Hmmm, I don't know what to say about that. Oh well)
WHATS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
"The Time has Come" by Hillsong United
(Does that mean I'm fulfilling my life's purpose right now? Because yes, probably)
WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
"Introduction" by Westside Christian Centre
(Great motto)
WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
"Fire" by Youth Alive Qld
(I'm on fire, like passionate? That'd be good. Or maybe I'm HOT!)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
"I've Found Jesus" by Delirious
(They're Jesus-like? Awesome)
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
"Why Not" by Hilary Duff
(I'm very spontaneous, I guess)
WHAT IS 2+2?
"Goodbye, Goodnight" by Antiskeptic
(I'm not even answering that question! I'm just running away!)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
"Big" by Youth Alive Qld
(Personality-wise, my darling husband!)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
"To You I Sing" by Planetshakers
(Aww, how sweet)
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
"Come Fly With Me" by Michael Buble
(Just flying through life)
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
"I Will Join" from Today's Worship
(Join what? The army? A book club?)
WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
"Still in Love" by Brooke Fraser
(That's sweet. Five years together, and still going strong!)
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
"The Dance of the Cucumber" by VeggieTales
(Whoa, my parents must think I'm weird! Or vegetarian)
WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
"Doubt - Epilogue" by the HVY Band
(Wow, so not true! Anyway, we didn't even dance at our wedding. So there)
WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
"Echoes of Eden" by Steven Curtis Chapman
(Nice one)
WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
"Sovereign Hands" by Hillsong
(God is my interest? Absolutely!)
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
"He Lives" by Lakewood Church Choir
(That doesn't frighten me one bit!)
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
"Sway" by Michael Buble
(I have been known to sway a bit in my time, even {attempt to} dance a little! Now you know)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
"Theme from Mission Impossible" from Mission Impossible
(Ha, that's pretty funny! Kristy, if you're reading this, you're just impossible!)
Who was high?
Check this out:
The biblical Israelites may have been high on a hallucinogenic plant when Moses brought the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai, according to a new study by an Israeli psychology professor. Writing in the British journal Time and Mind, Benny Shanon of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said two plants in the Sinai desert contain the same psychoactive molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared.
The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of Exodus says emanated from Mount Sinai could just have been the imaginings of a people in an "altered state of awareness", Shanon hypothesised.
"In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation, the seeing of light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings," Shanon wrote.
"On such occasions, one often feels that in seeing the light, one is encountering the ground of all Being ... many identify this power as God."
Shanon wrote that he was very familiar with the affects of the ayahuasca plant, having "partaken of the ... brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts".
He said one of the psychoactive plants, harmal, found in the Sinai and elsewhere in the Middle East, has long been regarded by Jews in the region as having magical and curative powers.
Some biblical scholars were unimpressed. Orthodox rabbi Yuval Sherlow told Israel Radio: "The Bible is trying to convey a very profound event. We have to fear not for the fate of the biblical Moses, but for the fate of science."
Um, okay, sure. I especially like this part:
Shanon wrote that he was very familiar with the affects of the ayahuasca plant, having "partaken of the ... brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts".
Like when he was writing the study?
Another thing.
I don't think I mentioned this in Isabella's birth story. When the contractions were getting really painful, and it was about 20 hours after my waters had broken, I was crying. As you would! About an hour before, I was 5cm dilated. When the nurse noticed I was crying, she said that was a good sign that I was getting closer to full dilation! When she said that, I was terrified, thinking that I was actually going to give birth naturally. It is really scary, especially since I'd had a caesarean last time, so was in unfamiliar territory. Turns out I was still only 5cm dilated though, so it was probably more the being awake for two days straight and in huge amounts of pain that made me cry. :o)
I've started walking again (the exercise kind). I've walked to the local shops and back (about 35 mins), with the girls in the pram, every day this week. Except for yesterday, when I was moving a huge recliner from the garage into the living room, and pulled it onto my toe, and it bent my big toenail back, and it was bleeding, and I was in heaps of pain. It's fine now, though. No bruising or anything. No battle scars, which is a bit sad! All that pain, and nothing to show for it. But I did get the recliner into it's new position, which is good.
And yesterday I also changed around the 'nappy room', which will soon be Isabella's room when she moves from the cradle into her cot. I made it all pretty looking. Man, anyone would think I'm nesting! I didn't really nest when I was pregnant with Bella, so maybe I'm making up for it now.
Rockin rock pool.
I have this song in my head:
I see anemones!
What do you see?
Sea anemones! I see anemones.
Is an anemone cool in a rockin' rock pool?
Of course it's cool!
What did you say?
Of course it's cool!
What did you say?
Of course it's cool!
So shout it from the sea shore.
Anemones are cool in a rockin' rock pool.
Anemones are cool in a rockin' rock pool.It's really, really, really catchy. Trust me, if you heard it, you'd have the same problem.
A cool God story.
Last Thursday, I went to the shopping centre with my sister during the day. I bought a shirt for Grace, but as I was unpacking everything when I got home, I couldn't find it! I'd given it to her to hold when she was in her pram, so she must have dropped it somewhere at the shops. I was a bit upset, and considered going back to look for it, but the girls were asleep. When my husband came home, he went to bed too, so I lay down to try and get some sleep. I was so so SO tired, but couldn't sleep at all. Finally, I decided to do the weekly grocery shopping (at about 7pm), and look for the shirt while I was there.
I went to the customer service desk to ask if anyone had handed it in, and while I was waiting behind some other people, the lady spoke into the loudspeaker 'Tarryn ___, please come to the customer service desk outside Wallace Bishop'. I told her, 'That's my sister!' Apparently she'd left her wallet in the shopping centre and someone had handed it in. I called her, and asked her to come down and pick it up, which she did.
They would have put the wallet in lock-down if she hadn't picked it up by 7:30 that night. She could have been looking for it for AGES, at home, in her car, everywhere she'd been, before finally asking at the shopping centre. And who does that, 'I can't sleep, so I think I'll go grocery shopping!'? That was fully God.
I never did find Grace's shirt, by the way, but it's a small price to pay for saving my sister a whole lot of stress.
Isabella's birth story.
Quick update on my life: I was pregnant, and now I'm not. :o) Here's the story.For about a week before Isabella’s birth, I was in pre-labour, complete with regular labour pains that became closer together before randomly stopping after a few (or more) hours. I was sure I’d go into real labour at any minute. Sometimes I was even sure I was already in real labour. But after a week of wondering if it was the real thing, and messaging my husband every hour with updates (his idea), my waters broke! It was 10pm on the 12th of December, and I was sitting at the dining room table, playing a game on the computer. I felt something like a little pin-prick sensation, and then a huge gush of liquid. It was awesome and exciting, but also felt really, really gross. I called out to my husband, smiling and ‘eeeeewwww’ing at the same time. I called my mum first, and told her we’d be bringing Grace around soon. Then I called the hospital. They said that we could wait for a couple of hours if we wanted, but we decided to go in straight away.
On the way to Mum’s house, we stopped at the 24-hour grocery store, as you do, and my husband ran in to get some biscuits and drinks. I stayed in the car, of course, as amniotic fluid was still gushing out. I had two maternity pads on (which were soaked through very quickly), and the car seat was protected by two large towels. We dropped Grace off at Mum’s, she was still asleep when we left.
When we got to hospital, we signed in and were shown to an exam room. At this stage, my contractions were getting worse and closer together, but were still a bit irregular. The nurse talked to me about possibly testing my discharge to see whether it really was amniotic fluid. She asked if it was a slow leak or a big gush, and then asked if I’d soaked a pad. That was pretty funny, because I’d soaked through about 5 pads and a couple of towels! Apparently amniotic fluid keeps being produced as it’s coming out, which I didn’t really know. At the time, I was shocked at how much fluid was inside me! Anyway, the nurse followed me into the toilet to look at my most recently soaked pad, and she agreed that it was amniotic fluid.
By this time it was about 12am, and we were told that we could either go home and come back in the morning, or stay there in the exam room for the night. We chose to stay, because my contractions were getting worse (and it was a long way to travel just to have a few hours sleep {or lack of}). My husband was able to get about two hours sleep (on the floor!), but every time I almost drifted off, I’d have a strong contraction. They were really hurting, but the nurses didn’t think it was very bad, because I was still smiling. Yep, I was smiling, but only at them! I was really putting on a front, and grinning through the contractions when they were there. When it was just my husband and I, it was a different story!
I had a shower in the morning, and was shown to a delivery room because the contractions were getting really painful and close together. I was put on a CTG monitor straight away, to monitor Isabella’s heart rate and my contractions. After a little while, I decided to try having some gas, which took the edge off of my contractions. I tried lots of different things to ease the pain and progress my labour - walking around, bouncing on the labour ball, leaning on my husband, and lots and lots of gas. The pain soon became heaps worse, though, and I asked for some pethidine. It didn’t really do much apart from make me extremely, extremely sleepy! I could hardly keep my eyes open between contractions, and was completely out of it. When I was trying to talk intelligibly, it seemed like I was just slurring my words and not making any sense! I had to hold onto my husband the whole time, afraid that I would fall over.
The doctors checked my cervix at some point, and I was dilated 5cm. Two hours later, they checked it again. I was still 5cm. The labour wasn’t progressing as they’d hoped. Earlier, when I was in the exam room, the nurse had told us about some controversy surrounding the treatment of VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean) patients. Apparently, some doctors are fine with giving the patients syntocinon etc to progress labour, and some are against it. I think the syntocinon is linked with increased cases of the uterine scar rupturing. But she said that it just depends on what doctor is on duty as to whether they’ll let you continue with a VBAC by inducing labour, or if they’ll just go straight to another caesarean. I got one of the doctors who decided on another caesarean.
So I was taken into the operating theatre. This was the most painful part, because added to the disappointment at having laboured for a whole day just to have another caesarean (when I was really, really hoping for a natural birth this time), I had to be wheeled away from the gas! Oh my goodness. I didn’t realise how much the gas was helping with the pain until I couldn’t have it anymore. It was completely unbearable. On the operating table, all the usual stuff happened, except this time I was given a spinal anaesthetic instead of an epidural, because last time the epidural was for pain relief first, and this time the anaesthetic was solely for the operation.
Isabella was born at 7:58pm on the 13th December, exactly a week before her due date.
My experience in hospital this time was way better than after Grace’s birth. I felt fine most of the time (with the help of lots of pain relief!), and even the physiotherapist thought she’d come into the wrong room because I was moving around so well! And this time, I remembered to mention my allergy to Elastoplast, so I didn’t get a huge rash around my scar area!
It took me weeks to get over having another caesarean (and I still think about it sometimes), mainly because now I can never have the experience of a natural birth. And the doctors said that four caesareans is the limit to how many you can safely have, so I’m limited to four kids (without putting them at risk). But, as long as they’re happy and healthy, why should it matter what way they come out?
Strange people.
Why do some people assume I'm a horrible mother?
At my husband's work Christmas party, he and I were talking to the boss's wife. I was holding Grace, and hubby gave Grace a stick. After being totally disinterested for a while, she decided to put it in her mouth. I, of course, didn't let her. The boss's wife then began to talk about how people protect their kids too much, and they need some dirt in their systems so they get immune to germs, etc. Yes, I agree, but it's a STICK, lady! I'm not letting my daughter chew on a stick! I won't disinfect the entire house, I'll let her outside to play on the grass, but that's just going too far.
Then Grace was playing with my plastic drinking cup, and she threw it away. I got it back for her, she threw it away again and started to whinge when I gave it back to her. Fine, no cup for you. Boss's wife said to Grace "Is mummy taking the cup away from you?" then, to me, "Bully!" and punched me lightly in the arm. I assume this was a joke, but it did hurt, and she took the cup from me and gave it back to Grace. Surprise surprise, Grace threw it. I said "See, that's what she was doing", and when boss's wife finally decided to leave Grace alone, I took off.
When Grace was about six months, we were at church. She saw my water bottle, and started crying for her bottle. A lady (who is otherwise one of the nicest people ever) said to Grace "What's wrong? Is mummy pinching you?" I have absolutely no idea where that comment came from. It really seems as though people assume that I'm doing the wrong thing by Grace, even when what I'm doing is completely logical and not at all bad.
On a positive note, we had our church Christmas Carols on Sunday night. It went really well. That is all, I need some sleep.
