I HAVE MOVED

Just in case you are wondering where I am!?!?

I am over at my website and I occasionally blog there! I will try my hardest to get more posts happening this year, but the shop and Minty and Iggy keep me very busy!!

Thanks for following :)

www.littlepaperlane.com.au/blog/

We Had A Baby!!!

I am sitting here, with my laptop on my knee’s and our new little bundle of happy on my chest. She is having a sleep and seems to prefer me as a bed than her own bassinet…I really don’t mind though, cos well newborn cuddles are the best thing in the universe!

So basically I thought I would share with you her arrival…yep..its a birth story, so look away if u dont give a crap about babies, birth or Chinese water torture!

If u know a little about me, u may have read below about my problems with my pelvis. If u don’t, basically I have a wobbly pelvis that cause shit loads of pain and makes me not walk while I am pregnant. So because of the pain, early on in my pregnancy my doctors and I decided an induction was the best way to go and for me to try and get as close to 40 weeks as possible. Because of the recovery of my pelvis, it was actually better to try and birth naturally rather than c section as the recovery from both is apparently not fun. So from 37 weeks I was checked to see if I was ‘ready to go’ and the baby was still a little bit high and we decided the following week would be the way to go! So at 38 weeks I took my bag and husband and Iggy(our 4 year old) and set off to get ‘gelled up’. Basically they put some gel on your cervix to ‘soften them’ and get your body started. I had the first gel at 2:45pm on Wednesday and started to get small contractions, which were manageable with breathing. Then around 10pm they decided to give me some more gel, and this started some heavier contractions around 6-10 minutes apart. The whole time I was thinking that if this was as painful as a contraction got i reckon i would be sweet going it without an epidural…but I’ve done this before, and I knew the fun hadn’t even begun yet!

At 5:ooam I was pretty tired. I would almost fall asleep and then a contraction would happen and I would be up leaning over a chair trying to breath it out. Steve(husbo) was asleep and i didn’t want to wake him cos i knew after my waters were broken it would be a long day for him and I and I needed him to be fresh and rested. So i contracted as silently as i could, but they were getting a bit tiring, and i knew i needed sleep….so in came the drugs! Ahhh Heaven! I had a shot of morphine, and finally i slept! Well i slept deeply for 9 minutes, then woke to have a contraction then straight back to sleep. It was bliss and when the midwife came in at 7:30am to tell me they were moving me to the birthing suit, so we can get things started, I was sad. Only cos i was so cosy finally and finally getting mini sleep, and I knew i wouldn’t be sleeping for a long time that day!

So I had a shower and woke myself up. and off we went to the Birthing suit! Steve had gotten me a yummy muffin and I had a cup of Tea, so that after they broke my water i could sit and have some food and try and relax as much as possible.

Step 1….  9:15am…They broke my water, its gross, and all i wanted to do was have a shower, but no, u just have to lay there hanging out with your amniotic fluid…..My Midwife Ally, was so awesome and cleaned up as much as possible and helped me get comfortable…because of my pelvis problems its hard for me to move and being wrapped up with heart monitors and wires and fluid, it was not a very fun thing, but you get over it!

Step 2…Drip…9:20am They basically start your contractions with Oxytocin…wait, I think that’s what its called? anyway, its some drug that makes contractions start, and when you are induced its a lot more intense than naturally contracting and its not too fun. I was induced with Iggy as well so I was quite prepared for the intensity of the contractions and that they can start quite quickly!

So in the first 5 minutes i had a contraction which i was able to just breath through. One thing you need to do with any labor is mentally prepare yourself, and I had been practising my breathing and focusing on different things to try and help so the breathing technique helped! Ally asked me what I wanted in the way of pain relief and after 1 or 2 of these contractions i decided that I would maybe try and wait for an epidural. I knew I wanted an epidural, as the combination of my pelvis and induced contractions and how tired i was already and i hadnt even started labor really, i was being realistic. So after 10 minutes, i maybe had 2 more contractions that really started to push my pain threshhold….and i pride myself on how much pain i can indure, and this was seriously pushing the envelope! I asked Ally for morphine again cos i though that it could maybe take the edge of just enough that i could get through for a while, cos it helped so much earlier in the morning. The epidural was locked in, but wouldnt be available for another hour or so as the Dr was doing an emergency c section.

I should mention, that the entire time i had been pregnant i had pretty strong braxton hicks, which are basically practice contractions. I didnt get them too badly with Iggy but this time round they were a bit uncomfortable. And i always had the pain in my back. So through the night when the contractions were happening I had a lot of pain in my back and I was using a heat pack all night and while i was having these strong contractions my husband pushed the heat pack into my back and sort of massaged the heat in, and it did help, but holy crap that was some pain in my back! from 9:30am I was on my side so they could hear babies heart better, and I started to feel a bit of pressure ‘down low’ and I was probably on my side for 20 minutes, and had 4 contractions in this time and they sucked. Especially in my back! Ally turned off the Oxytocin machine at 10:00am cos she said my body was doing everything by itself and didn’t need any help. By this stage i had said i really needed that morphine, but the Dr needed to write it up or something and was taking his sweet ass time! Another midwife came in to double check everything and mentioned a treatment that is meant to help with the pain in my back. Its called Sterilized Water Injections. I was a little confused as to what it was at first as I have read up on pretty much all forms of pain relief. I have quite a bit of back pain each day in my life, from scoliosis so I am always researching pain relief, and this was something i hadnt heard about at all. The Midwife explained that it worked similar to acupuncture and they basically inject water where those dimples are on your lower back, and they make small little pockets of water under the skin and the pain is essentially blocked. And usually you dont feel the pain in your back after the next contraction.

Step 3….CHINESE WATER TORTURE…I couldnt sit on my side any more it was way too uncomfortable and I asked if I could sit up, and this was fine. so i sat at the edge of the bed, and they told me I would have the injections with my next contraction cos they didnt want to give me extra pain as the injections were apparently not too pleasant. Now I should mention that I am the type of person to not yell too loud when something hurts, and I had been pretty quiet when I was having my contractions apart from breathing noises and swearing, cos I like to swear A LOT, and it somehow made me feel better quietly swearing in between breaths. I checked with the midwife before that she didnt get easily offended by swearing cos I told her I may come up with new swear words through out the day. My Mum was with me last birth and didnt like the swearing too much and I so i used the word ‘shitness’ as this wasnt too bad!!

SO, the time came to inject the water….my husband has told me the only time i made any sort of fuss or noise the entire time was when they were doing the injections….HOLYCRAPBALLSOFBULLSHIT…..This was a pain that I cant even describe! I am not sure why it hurt me so much, it was like 1000 be stings, and I remember thinking that I dont know if the contraction or the injection was worse, or if it was just really crap cos I was having a contraction with it? All i know is, if u ever need to get information out of someone and u need some sort of torture to get them to ‘talk’ inject water under their skin lots of times!

At this stage it must have been 10:30ish and a contraction started again and I was pretty sure there was a head coming out, or at least almost ready to come out. I was standing next to the bed, and Ally had hit the emergency button and another midwife came running in, they asked me if I could get on the bed so they could see how far along I was, and I told them i was not moving, and I assured them the baby was coming right now! Steve was on the other side of the bed holding my shoulders and I was on my tippee toes as the pain was crap…..funnily though….no pain in the back…the chinese water torture works!!!!! but i had no time to relish in it. I had one contraction and they kept telling me to wait to push cos they were checking but I honestly could not help it, and then i had 1 contraction and decided I DID NOT WANT TO BE PREGNANT ANYMORE….so i pushed and seriously….Ally caught the baby…..It was like a bungee jumping trip. Usually when you birth a baby, u push the head out which sux but once thats out then you give a good push and the body comes out. My Child, was teflon coated clearly and came out in one go. I have never felt instant relief from anything in my life, and I have also never felt shock like this as well! Ally Told me to hold my baby and i grabbed her, which was so difficult as i had a drip and a bungee cord hanging out and sorry TMI a little bit of a slippery mess on the floor, but i managed to hold on to her and Ally half wrapped her, and the other midwife told Steve to grab his baby……he said “what baby” he seriously did not know that she had come out or what was going on and i said “this baby” and passed her to him.

Everything was so surreal, and even the two midwives were in a kind of shock but man they worked under fire, and apparently under me with such calm and professionalism, I just am so in awe at what they do every day. All 4 of us looked at each other for a second and kind of said wow, did that all that just happen that quickly?

So our little Miss came into the world in a huge hurry. Someone was looking down on me that morning cos i had a shitty long and painful pregnancy and its still going to be a while before i will be doing zumba in the lounge room, but clearly they thought i just needed a nice quick delivery.

Our little girl is called Minty Isabelle Margaret Leeder 7 pound 2 ounces(3.3kg), 47cm, on 19/04/12 in 1 hour and 15 minutes and a very happy little human. I am sure I will be flooding instagram and twitter with photo’s of her for a while and i apologise if babies are not your thing! I will try my hardest to put paper related things in as well 

This is whats going on

Please forgive my absence! I was enjoying blogging earlier in the year cos i have been on bedrest so lots of time to write about things, but sometimes pain just wipes your brain!
  I get lots of lovely emails and messages from everyone wondering whats going cos obviously i am not in the shop at all, and some people know most of whats happening but others only know little bits and pieces! So i thought i would explain whats happening!

 As most of you know I am at the end of my second pregnancy :) The Baby is doing really well and growing well and very very busy...much busier than Iggy(my first) which could be a sign of whats to come when she comes out(oh yeah she's a girl yippee), so really everything else doesn't matter too much cos she is so far..touch wood...healthy and growing, and i am sure very cute! But in my first pregnancy I experienced pain in my pelvis that didn't seem normal, and was not very fun! Most doctors just said "oh yeah that's pregnancy" others didn't even offer any suggestions, and i was in the dark a lot, and other pregnant woman and my mum and relatives who knew me well and knew of my physical problems(i have scoliosis, which causes me back pain every day) knew that my high pain thresh hold was being pushed and knew that what i was experiencing wasn't just 'normal pregnancy pain' I did research and found out it was something called SPD Symphysis Pubis dysfunction and lots of pregnant woman do get it to a certain degree and small percent get it quite severely! I would say that in my first pregnancy i was not quite at the severe pain, but it was certainly dancing on that line! My doctors agreed and induced me at 39 weeks, and after the birth agreed i could have been induced a little earlier as Iggy was 4.2 kg( 9 pound 6) Thanks doctors...but he was healthy and lovely and it was a bit of a recovery to get walking again with out pain, around 6 months, but all worth it of coarse!
   So this pregnancy i was VERY prepared for what was going to happen...well mentally at least! I was very sick in the beginning as i am someone that has that fun 24 hour sickness, but luckily it ended at 12 weeks 4 days :) and i have only really suffered food aversions and cant eat big meals...which my ass is happy about...i DO NOT NEED ANY EXTRA WEIGHT...i have enough to go around! So at about 9 weeks i was surprised to start feeling that familiar pressure in my pelvis. Basically what SPD is, is when a woman is pregnant her ligaments get a bit loose so that our Uterus can grow and makes room for baby, but with SPD it loosens your ligaments too much and your pelvis grinds rather than holding firmly together. I also have a twisted tilted pelvis from my scoliosis(crooked spine) and so the twisting of my pelvis combined with the SPD makes for a dance party in my crotch...and not the fun dance party you have making the baby...trust me ;) So from about 17 weeks i couldn't walk without support as the pain is very unpleasant and i have used crutches, and the occasional wheelchair if i have to do trade fairs or any outings where walking is involved!
  I have been so so lucky to have amazing doctors this time! I started with a private doctor as i though i may need it with the pelvis but as i am not on private cover it was going to be way too expensive to give birth with a private Dr and i decided to chat with the public hospital. A decision i am so glad we made cos i saw my private doctor one day at the hospital and he didn't even remember who i was, so i think its worked out well so far. I have had to have extra appointments at the hospital with the doctors, but because i go so frequently I am lucky enough to now see the same few doctors who all chat to each other and all come and say hello every single time i visit...normally you wouldn't expect this lovely treatment from a public hospital, but even doctors and midwives i don't see know who i am and stop me while i am hobbling down the hallways with my crutches to see if i am coping OK and offer advice! Its been such a good experience considering the horrible pain! Oh and its Hornsby Hospital if anyone needs to go to a good public hospital! it is a bit of a drive from Avalon, but honestly, i am so happy it doesn't bother me to travel! I have been in bed the last couple of weeks pretty full time as my couch can get a bit painful, but my lovely husband has me all set up in there with all my essentials next to my bed. I find it very hard to concentrate on emails and work, so i just do small amounts at a time. This blog post has taken all day, but i wanted you all to know whats going on as many of you have popped into the shop and passed on your best wishes and I would like to thank you so much! Its so lovely when Steve comes home and tells me about how you are doing :) I miss chatting with everyone and hopefully it wont be too long before i am back in the shop!

 Another little issue i had this pregnancy was Gestational Diabetes. I was a little thrown when i first got the news cos unlike my first pregnancy this pregnancy I was eating really well. But my views on how diabetes happens were quickly changed when i chatted to my endocrinologist and dietitian. Its a hereditary thing, and i was in a panic that i had somehow had way too much sugar and given myself diabetes, when in fact it wasn't the case. I have been lucky enough to maintain it with a good diet, which has been a little hard cos when you are pregnant sometimes u just really want a cheesecake haha, but because i have eaten well, i haven't put a lot of weight on and baby is not a GIANT at last scan. I have just eaten low GI foods and have stashed all my Easter eggs for the day after i give birth. It goes away pretty much straight away, so that's good. And hopefully there is no future problems from it, but my doctors are happy as i have looked after it well :)

 So i sit here from my bed with under a week to go! I am being induced, not because the baby has any problems, but because my pelvis is just unstable now! I wish she could cook to the end but i am hoping i can avoid a c section as my recovery is not going to be fun just with the SPD so a c section on top of that would just make it harder. Obviously we wont know until we get in there what happens and i am lucky this time as i have met a couple of people through Twitter who have experienced the same thing at this level and it has been really good being able to talk to them about it, as i was very in the dark last pregnancy with it! So all is OK, I am just in lots of pain and uncomfortable, but I am lucky enough that one day the pain will go away and i get a cute baby to cuddle! So its all worth it. My Husband, Mum, Iggy and my Dad and brother have been helping me a lot and i am so thankful to them cos without them especial my husband, i couldn't get my undies on in the morning haha! Hopefully next post will be about bubby arriving! So fingers crossed it goes OK and i will get lots of photo's up as soon as she is here :)

36 and half weeks pregnant

My little man gets the washing out of the washing machine to help out, such a good little helper

Bed side essentials

Home Hair cuts...Thanks husbo :)

Does everything to make me laugh...I'm so lucky

Life Instyle 2012

We set off yesterday to Life Instyle which is our favourite trade fair for products. It only happens twice a year, once in Sydney in February and again in August in Melbourne, so we get our butts to it every year cos its pretty much like Xmas shopping for the shop! This year was going to be a little bit trickier as I am now 30 weeks pregnant and my Pelvis has not had a good adventure so far...I have SPD which basically means my pelvis is WAY too loose and just grinds and parties and wiggles all day long which cause pain. SO, off we went with my new wheel chair and crutches. We found many new and lovely things which will be in store in the coming weeks and some companies have even sent confirmation emails today for products which is very organised which means new bits could get to the shop as quick as next week! We took a few little photo's of some of our new products on the way, but between trying to push wheelchairs and ordering and trying not to faint from pain we couldnt take as many as we wanted. But you'll still enjoy!! Concept Japan is new to Little Paper Lane. We are excited for the Piperoid paper robots to arrive! Iggy has already looked at them and told me i have to bring one home for him!

MIRIAM COX Paper cuts had such beautiful cards and her actual papercuts are amazing

PONY RIDER Had such a great stand and i really want to make the little Jars most importantly

TELEGRAM as per usual had lots of our favourite brands including brand new MT MASKING TAPE from Japan with so many new colours I actually had to have a cold drink from all the excitement

Very excited about the new Palomino Pencils. These pencils are made in Japan and are the best in the world....we tried them...they are amazing! And actually just look rad! Look out for the beautiful wooden box set of coloured pencils coming to the shop as well....although I may have to take a set home they are just divine!

YELLOW OWL WORKSHOP has always been a favourite and it was so exciting to see the new packaging and new stamps we will be getting soon!

TMOD yet again was probably one of the best stands with the most creative and fun displays and their new products are very spesh!! including new scratchie Invites how AWESOME!!!

And i think our favourite product on its way to the shop would have to be the Forever Flamingo's. I am quite in love with Flamingo's and these were such an exciting find! You get two in a box and I think everyone needs them! They are just way to rad

Steve and I had a little fun at TMOD

So we still have more Trade Fairs so go to over the weekend and we will be sure to try and take as many photo's as we can, but most importantly order as much new fun products as we can!!

Confetti everywhere

Is anyone else just a little bit obsessed with confetti? I cant seem to get it out of my head right now! I have always loved confetti, its so happy and is a symbol for fun times....who doesnt love fun times?!?! Our wedding invites(7 years ago) were packed with confetti and glitter and it still makes me smile knowing some of that glitter wont come out of peoples carpet haha. Confetti is memorable!

Ohh how much would u love to get this invite! You can have a look how to make these for yourself atOh Happy Day blog.

How adorable are these little confetti bags made by Tokketok

Another wonderful confetti creation by Tokketok

Even Martha Stewart loves some confetti.

You can even buy Rainbow Confetti garland on ETSY which i may have to do very soon!

Ahhhh Confetti Nails how fun!

Happy V Day

I hope today is a happy one for you! Today is not just for couples...remember this when u reach for that third mars bar....god i want a mars bar now(damn pregnancy cravings) it's for love! Of coarse every day is for love, but its nice we have a day to remind the ones we love..that we love them! here is some love...

Laughing couples in Bangalore

The boy and his dog

Just Married

Old Friends

Origami Heart Invitations

How happy would u seriously be to get this in the mail!!! I am so in love with unique invitations and what a perfect invite this is! The way cool Amy Moss from EatDrinkChic designed and made these amazing invites for her engagement back in 2010. I know I know 2010 was forever ago, but not every one of u might have seen these amazing invites and i thought with Valentines Day coming up it was fitting!

You can actually pop over to Amy's blog and not only drool over everything she blogs about and creates, but you can download these for yourself and make your own!! Check it out HERE for all the details!!

Block Printing

Do u remember in art class doing lino cutting? I loved it! Art class was always such a great class for me. Even though i am not particularly 'arty' although i still wish to this day i was able to just draw amazing pictures or paint something inspiring, i definitely have creative bones, just not in the i can draw a pretty picture kind of way! But i want to try new creative things this year and after having a little read through the very delicious blog Oh So Beautiful Paper i stumbled upon a tutorial about block printing! How Much fun does it look?!?!?!

You can see the full tutorial by Katherine Watson at Oh So Beautiful Paper

A little happy surprise

I was very excited to receive my very first Glossy Box today. I had never even heard of it until last month when the lovely Emma from Nest Designs posted a pick on her Instagram. Basically u just sign up with Glossy Box and for $14.95 a month they send you a box full of beauty products! Being a Make up artist I was VERY excited about this and signed up straight away! So today I received my happy little hit of beauty and was pretty happy!

So what i found inside ~Proactiv deep cleansing wash ~Eau Thermale Avene Skin recovery cream ~langlois Natural Olice lip balm ~Miranesse 3D forever lipgloss ~Star and Rose Floral Wonderland Emergency Nail Files ~$15 voucher to www.activeskin.com.au ~and some valentines lollies hehe So overall, even though its justa little surprise every month and a few products i dont love, for under $15 a month i will be keeping my happy little surprise! just the box alone is awesome! i can never have to many pretty gift boxes!