Hello Wet June

May was a very busy month, including on this blog! Lovely to see posts from Richi-o, though I sill have so many blogs I want to write, especially about my dad and his birthday celebration towards the beginning of the month, and lots of funny things and memories about him. Everyday we all seem to miss him much, much more. That's the awful thing about losing someone; you can't quite comprehend the loss at first because you simply can't know the accumulated moments when you find yourself wishing that someone was still around to share that one moment. I shared a lot of moments, even just by phone, with Raf's papa, and it leaves an ever gaping hole as life just goes on. 

On an almost daily basis I say to Rich, 'oh, dad would get such a kick out of' (insert observation.. but usually I'm referring to something that Raf is doing/saying). And it's true. My dad really enjoyed Raf in a way that is not replicable, it seems. He took such delight in him, often referring to him as a 'lovely little chap', and when I spoke to him when he was out of the hospital following his bout of pneumonia, mum had shown him some photos of Raf running through the woods, and dad commented that he 'keeps getting better and better' and that they had better get over to visit to see him/us.

I miss having a person in Raf's life who was so enchanted by him. I know that I am probably annoying to listen to when I gush over the little boy, but my dad did, too, and I miss being able to share that in the way that I did.

Anyway, this blog was meant to be more of a catch-up because time is ticking, we haven't done a thing to get ready for this new little boy. We're no nearer a name, and all the names we like are a bit problematic for different reasons.

So what have we been doing? On Friday I took my lovely fast bike out for the first ride of the season! I doubt there will be too many more as my center of gravity shifts and I get too big for the drop bars on my TT. It was a slow ride on my fast bike, which was a bit depressing but also fine as I'm carrying a passenger. Here's the passenger!

The weekend, though, turned into a wet right-off. Yesterday we had torrential rain and after gym class (which took several years off my life as Raf was not into listening AT ALL), we couldn't get him to nap and it was a bit of a horror-show the rest of the evening. Raf is definitely transitioning out of his nap. God help us.

Another wet day today. Raf is actually a bit sick with a cold and so sleep has been difficult but today was a treat as our dear friend Fia was in town and so we collected her from Portland, grabbed some things for lunch, and headed back to ours for something to eat and a very, very wet walk in the rain. We had a lovely time, and Raf really loved her!

Baby boy 2 seems to be doing well. Raf kisses 'him' (well, my stomach) a lot, and can get quite frantic with the hugging and kissing.. we need to work on being more gentle. It is very sweet, though, and in the morning Raf says 'hi, baby', 'kiss the baby?' and then at night he says 'goodnight, baby', and more - many more - kisses.

This Friday I begin my monthly scan to check on growth, etc. I have a lupus diagnosis and so it's just protocol. And a certain point they become weekly scans, which is a pain but, again, it's protocol, which we're fine with. It's hard to believe that we're more than half way to meeting this munchkin. Already I'm looking forward to not being violently ill on most days of the week..!

Sadly I am really sick still, as I was with Raf. I had a couple of weeks of feeling really great (though still on my anti-nausea meds) but that honeymoon ended and I'm back to vomiting at least daily, and sometimes, like today, several times. Food aversions are back in full force and I have to admit that it is a bit of a nightmare sometimes. I'm also very, very, very fatigued and I'm wondering when my second trimester energy will kick in... given I'm closer to being in the third trimester than the first, then I am guessing it may not kick in at all!