Monday, June 6, 2011

The great (proposed) baby tour

How many friends and family members of yours have had babies in the past two years or so?
For some - for example you, Pop, if you're still reading - it may not be a whole lot.
But for those of you close to my age, I suspect the number will be quite high. Scarily high if you haven't gone down that path yet, and are starting to wonder if there's something wrong with you for delaying while all around you people are procreating madly.
Because let me tell you, there has been a massive boom in my world. Just this week I received the news a uni friend of mine is expecting her second baby (congratulations Rachel and Jason!).
This comes only days after one of Paul's brothers and his partner welcomed another daughter to their family. Congrats to you guys too! And mere weeks after another member of the Mayall clan, as well as two former workmates of mine, gave birth. Congratulations all round, basically.
Expand the timeframe to the past two years and the stork has been flapping about all over the place.
And the tragedy in all this, as far as I'm concerned? I've met only a handful of these little miracles. I live too far away from most of them. But that's what I get for moving firstly to one end of the country (Cairns) and then the other (Kalgoorlie) rather than staying put.
So I've had a genius idea: I should go on a baby tour! Traverse the country and meet all these new little citizens.
Forget the parents - its the offspring I want to see (joking!). I'd love to catch up with anyone I haven't seen since before they became a mother. And not just because I have a multitude of questions for them. Though that is part of it, given the time we decided we'd start trying for parenthood is drawing close ('EEEK!' doesn't begin to cover it).
Questions like:
  • How long did it take you to get pregnant? Especially if you were, like me, on the wrong side of 30 as far as fertility is concerned. This is the one uppermost in my mind, it being the first step and all.
  • How was the birth? Did you want to die, or do your insides only go a little bit cold and watery when you think back to those hours/days?
  • Did you suffer any complications or (please god, no) a miscarriage or stillbirth? If so, how was/is this managed/being managed medically and emotionally? 
  • How did breastfeeding work out for you?
  • How did your boss and workplace respond to the news and, if you took maternity leave, what was your experience when it came to organising it? The same question applies to arranging post-leave work hours. 
  • Did someone in your family nab your favourite name before you could? Or did you proudly inform a friend of your baby's name and they responded with 'Oh I had a cat called that once. Was a horrible creature'?
  • Did you join a mothers group?
  • Did you find out the sex of the baby during pregnancy?
  • Don't you wish you had twins? Or sextuplets? Oh, you don't. 
  • Do you get sick of being asked about pregnancy and children?

Several mums have already shared their knowledge on some of these topics with me, but you can never have too much information, I say.
So, Qantas or Jetstar, or Countrylink even, fancy sponsoring me on a nation-wide baby tour?

Would any of you like to join me on this (at this stage purely hypothetical) mission? And if you have any answers to the above questions I'd love to hear them.

5 comments:

  1. Sound's like an awesome idea!

    It's funny how through life we have runs on 21st, 30th's, weddings, then the onslaught of babies. It will be great for hand me downs for you!

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  2. I never get sick of cuddling babies, especially when they are other peoples and not mine!
    Next time you are up this way we will sip coffee and discuss the answers to some of those questions

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  3. Coffee and discussion sounds like a great idea!
    And yes, it is great for hand-me-downs - we already have half a room full of gear.

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  4. Hello Emma, I remember having a conversation with you about starting a family not to long ago. So exciting that you are soon approaching your time to be a mum!

    I still have 8mths to go, as we want to wait until after our wedding, it's not really that far away tho I've become noticeable clucky of late, so I'm really looking forward to it!

    I have also wondered about how long it takes to concieve? I know some that have monitored there cycle..

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  5. Hi Sharleen. It is exciting, isn't it? We're still a little way off too - aiming to start trying some time next year.
    As for how long it takes, everyone is different. I can't be sure of the numbers but I think I read somewhere the average time is about 10 months or something, and doctors suggest you try for 18 months before seeking assistance - like I said, I can't remember exactly, so those numbers might be wrong.
    I've been a bit clucky too (obviously!) which is a weird feeling because I've never felt that way in my life.
    Hope the wedding plans are going well!

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