Taking it Easy in Barrydale

So you are probably asking, where in the world is Barrydale?? We decided to take a little 4 day break in Barrydale which is about 250kms outside of Cape Town on the way to Oudtshoorn. Yes, basically in the middle of no-where! But that was the point! We needed to get away from the city, from TV, from shopping centres, from noise and general "busy-iness". So we found this little self-catering cottage with 2 beds, a small kitchen, a table and 2 chairs, a bathroom and a cute little stoep overlooking some vineyards and mountains and there we plonked ourselves for a few days to rest, eat and find out if we could pass time doing nothing!

Well it wasn't such a challenge I tell you with our days being filled with outings down to the local dorp, making food, eating food, reading baby books and newspapers, picnicing and having the bestest afternoon sleeps ever! Jaco did however bring his bike with him and got in some good 5 hour rides on some of the days which left me to me to amuse myself with doing lots of nothing! It was fabulous and I feel totally rested, relaxed and ready for my last 2 weeks at work before my maternity leave starts.


The primary reason of course for our Romantic Getaway was to ensure baba was given the ultimate chance to grow, develop and put on some weight before the next gynae visit. So it was Jaco's mission to feed me with as much protein as he could within this short space of time and ensure that my tummy was always full for baba to feed on! Let's hope she is having a whale of a time cos mommy is feeling a bit like a whale with suddenly having to eat so much!

We thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take a few pics of the preggi belly before its too late and the missy pops out by surprise. Despite her official due date being the 25th May, the weekend of the 14th/15th May seems to be coming up alot in dreams that my family and I have been having! Let's wait and see...

1 Month to Go Instructions: Rest and Eat!

It is with much excitement and anticipation that I write my blog. Yesterday it was one month until the predicted arrival of BC! Basically, she could come any day now. Wow, how scary is that!! To think of all the things I need or would like to do before then. I’ve had some sleepless nights about all the work I need to finish at the office before my maternity leave which starts on 17 May – 1 week before her due date. Thankfully, however, I have this week off to rest as much as possible – but you know how this Cronje family is? We just don’t know what resting means and we don’t know how to do nothing!

Please note this is before a spinning class at 7am, hence the tired look!

Frost & Sullivan agreed to me coming back to work in September on a half day basis! Amazing news as I was expecting them to turn down my request straight away as no-one else in the company works only half a day. But to my surprise they agreed and asked me to assist them with recruiting a full time junior assistant to help me! So this is one of the tasks I need to complete before maternity leave and I’m dreading going through the hundreds of CVs I’ve received so far!

After 7 weeks of not seeing the gynae, we finally went this morning. I was very keen on seeing her sooner than this but with her taking leave and Jaco’s work commitments in Seychelles and Nigeria, today was the first available appointment. I was excited to see how she had grown and whether she was lying in the right position for a natural birth. Well, we weren’t expecting to hear that she is relatively small for her ‘age’ at only 2kgs. So in 7 weeks, she’s only gained 800grams. My belly measures 32cms and by now at 36 weeks, should measure about 35cms. The gynae said there is nothing to worry about at the moment, but she’d rather have me go for a growth scan next week to see baba’s progress. I was given strict instructions to stop all my spinning classes and exercising and to concentrate on relaxing and eating lots of chocolate this week. Yes, she REALLY did say that, much to Jaco’s astonishment! Basically I just need to rest, put my feet up and start eating lots more protein and carbohydrates. This doesn’t sound too bad to me. In fact, our timing of going away to a cottage in Barrydale (250kms outside of Cape Town past Swellendam) for a couple of days, is perfect. So I’m going to relax, read and eat to my heart’s content! The extra weight I’ve gained since first falling pregnant is still only sitting at 8kgs, although my body fat has slightly increased over the past few weeks. I’m attributing small baba to a small father. Let’s hope we have more positive news next week after the Thursday growth scan!

Yum! Chocolate Brownie time with no guilty feelings...

With the cold Cape Town weather setting in, I’m struggling to find warm clothes that fit over my belly – gone are the days of lovely summer dresses. Also, my belly button has finally popped out and I’m lubing my tummy like mad to prevent stretch marks: permanent disfigurement! Popped-out belly buttons is the thing I’ve always disliked about pregnant women! I’m definitely not the one to show mine off with pride. Sleeping is becoming heavy work….. literally, as I turn from side to side like a big fat hippo with lots of grunting noises due to the weight I’m shifting around. Many people have commented on how tired I look which is due to restless nights and waking up every couple of hours or so from sore hips & pelvis! Its good training for the sleepless night we’re going to be having soon!

As we have so many family and friends outside of Cape Town and South Africa for that matter, we’ve decided to tweet about the birth of BC! So please start following JacoCron on Twitter as he’ll keep everyone up to date with all the highlights, lowlights, agonies and elations after I go into labour! I’ll get him to limit the graphics posted, don’t worry!


My lovely rocking feeding chair arrived last weekend!

The wall art is up but missing a few butterflies. My next job over the next couple of days.

Waiting for her Grand Entrance

So it really feels like the end is in sight. After 34 weeks, things are starting to get real for us. We finished our 8 week antenatal classes 2 weeks ago and already one of the couples in our class have had their baby (via a traumatic natural birth I might add where the baby stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated!). Also, a very good friend of mine, Faye Blakeney, had her baby boy last week, who arrived 1 week early. So we are waiting in line patiently for the big day to arrive with anticipation. With all these new arrivals, we’ve had renewed energy to see to it that all the last minute preparations get done. First step was to start thinking about packing the hospital bag. So I’ve got a suitcase out the garage and that’s as far as its gone! I’ll have to work on actually doing that in the next few weeks as Jaco is paranoid he’ll have to do it for me after a surprise admittal to the maternity ward. Second step was to finally convert the baby’s room from storage dumping / bicycle room/ home where tools live / second walk in cupboard, to a beautiful palace fit for a princess. So we got stuck in this last weekend after many discussions and heated debates about colours, furniture positionings and what to buy. That’s what I love about Jaco - he is always involved. Maybe in this case a little too involved, but it was great doing the room up together. We are just missing the wallart (www.wallartstickers.co.za), some cushions, linen for the cot and a feeding chair. Eventually, after so many weekends of driving here and there looking for things, comparing prices, getting items changed, we finally have pulled it all together. So if baby arrives, then she could quite comfortably move in without any problems.

I have to admit that I’ve had the easiest pregnancy so far and feeling really well at the moment. Sleeping has become a little uncomfortable as your pelvis and hip bones get really stiff and sore since you’re not able to sleep on your back (which is my favourite position!). So I feel like a big whale tossing and turning in bed in order to find a comfortable position. Poor Jaco is already threatening going to sleep in BC’s room because he says there’s not enough space in the bed for all 3 of us! Standing for long periods of time, causes back ache and exhaustion and how I miss being able to bend over and touch my toes easily. This poses serious logistical problems when it comes to shaving legs in the shower as you have to bring everything up to waist level in order to reach it well. Not the easiest job – perhaps I should just give up shaving! It’s nearly winter anyway! My heartburn comes and goes. I have a stash of Gaviscon with me wherever I go despite it tasting like swallowing creamy toothpaste, and so I'm still to really start using it. I prefer to just push through the pain and uncomfortableness. Hopefully this mentality will get me through a natural birth! I decided last weekend to do a final bicycle ride on the road with Jaco. It’s a bit dangerous now to be riding out on the road because I need to watch my heartrate (nothing higher than 155 beats p/minute) which means that I cannot keep up with anyone that I cycle with. Ultimately, I land up on my own taking it easy and enjoying the view. But there is always the risk of falling or being hit by a car. Also, I felt like a waddling duck trying to push the pedals round as my knees stuck out like one of those old men with a big beer boep! So I have sadly hung my bike back in the garage for a few months and spinning classes are now the order of the day. Jaco is trying to get as many hours out of the bike as possible and cycles before work often to make up for the times possibly in the near future when he’ll be out of action. He is also travelling with work a lot and will be in the Seychelles and Nigeria in the next couple of weeks. So he’s told me to ‘knyp’ and not let baby out before then!

We haven’t been to the gynae in ages and our next appointment is coming up soon so we’ll get to see if BC is growing normally and lying in the right position. We'll keep you updated!

Bonding with BC

The number of weeks now matches my age: 32. All is going very well and I’m loving all the somersaults and flick-flacks she is doing in my stomach – especially when she’s hungry or thinks its time for me to eat something again. Jaco says I’m teaching her bad habits already because through my eating something, she normally calms down and the kicking ends. He thinks she’s already mastered the skill of on-demand feeding from her mom. Mmmmm the manipulation has started already. Strangely enough, my tummy seems to be bulging bigger on the one side so I presume her bum or head is situated here – so I have more of a lob-sided tummy now! Last weekend, we travelled up to Knysna for Rob and Mary’s wedding and it was a real treat to be in such a beautiful place! We stayed in a wooden cabin high above the forest tree tops and had the most amazing view from up there. All our friends took their bicycles with them so they could ride in the mornings and enjoy the beautiful scenery, so I felt a little left out without mine. But I decided to relax, sleep in and help them empty out the fridge as though I had been cycling! The day of the wedding turned out to be a whopping 35 degrees! I had to make sure I wasn’t roasting BC alive with several dips in the pool to cool down. I have to admit that I was very reluctant to put on my wedding outfit as I would break into a sweat almost immediately. Jaco solved the problem by freezing bottles of water and using them as ice-packs for behind my neck throughout the wedding ceremony! I’m very impressed with how he is getting involved with the baby even before she has been born. Usually dads find it quite hard to ‘bond’ with the baby and get used to the idea (besides all the paying for baby stuff), but he has taken to the idea like a duck in water. Every morning and evening before getting up or going to sleep, he leans over and puts his head on my tummy and starts speaking Afrikaans to her. She recognises his voice and starts kicking the side of his cheek lying on my stomach. It’s so cute! I have to laugh when he starts singing to her and making up the words to the songs. We are definitely going to have to polish up on our nursery rhymes! I’m hoping BC’s palace will be advancing in progress this week, when Jaco fetches her cot and compactum which we ordered several weeks ago. We have also ordered some wallart stickers as we cannot paint her room due to us renting. We thought it would be a great idea to have some words custom made from wood which we’ll put on her walls, reminding us of all the positive things we should be speaking into her life. So we have a carpenter making up the words of love, grace, honesty, integrity, gift etc etc. My gran has also offered to make up some cushion covers from Biggie Best fabric which I’ve bought and these will decorate the spare bed in her room. So I feel like a real old decorator and cannot wait to see it all done and dusted. We recently heard an interesting theory (and which we’ve tested in practice): generally the way one gives birth mirrors that of how your mother gave birth to you or your siblings. My parents were down in Cape Town recently and it was great to chat to my mom and find out what happened to her during my birth. I was surprised to learn that both my brother and I were 3 weeks early to the day! This means we should be expecting BC at the beginning of May as opposed to the end of May! I’m a bit worried about that as my next babyshower in Cape Town is planned for around that time. So let’s see if the theory turns out to be true….anyone willing to bet on it?

This Little Girl has a Winning Dad!

30 weeks today and with only 2 months to go, time is flying! Now I understand when parents say how quickly their kids grow up – definitely a sign that I am aging when you start to identify with the strange things your folks used to say! But I must admit that I’m enjoying every moment of this pregnancy. I am feeling very well and still trying to fit my 1 road cycling and 2 spinning sessions in per week. Although my cycling pants are at their maximum stretch and my cycling tops have more than their fair share of filling, so I’m having to dig in the garage for some ‘fat’ cycling gear just to fit me! I got my first pregnant acknowledgement this week in spinning class. I was wondering how long it was going to take the instructor to say something, but after about 7 weeks of regularly attending his he probably realised that my tummy was only getting bigger and not smaller, and therefore couldn’t attribute it to down a beer belly! Strange how you don’t see any pregnant ladies at the gym, besides in the pool and then their bellies are mainly facing downwards to the floor! Well I’m flaunting my ever-growing belly around that place, with the tightest gym tops I can find ;-). I’m also happy to only have put on 5kgs in weight. Although the last 2 months are when the kilos really start to pile on, I’ve heard. So no more desserts for me until after she’s born (I remember saying this when I fell pregnant ha ha!).

We went for a gynae checkup this last week and got glowing reports of how healthy BC is. She weighs 1.2kgs currently and is facing head-down and ready for the oh-so natural birth that he mom is wishing to have. She is the most active little one ever, with kicking and punching happening at several intervals during the day which usually indicates that she’s hungry and mommy must hurry up and eat something! I love it – like mother like daughter!

Jaco and I recently flew up to JHB for our babyshower which my lovely friend, Angie, organised. We had a breakfast picnic in the park and invited all our friends, hubby’s, babies and all, to share the occasion with us. Ange spoilt us with a yummy cooked breakfast of scrambled egg, bacon, pork sausages and of course, all the healthy stuff like fruit salad, muffins, yoghurt and cake! We had such a lovely time catching up with everyone in such a chilled setting. It was great fun opening all our baby gifts and receiving advice from all the moms and dads who were eager to share their titbits of gold! Thanks to everyone for making the effort to be there!




So the big question on everyone’s lips, was how we were going to get all our gifts back down to Cape Town! Luckily our good friends Neil and Bron Timm stepped in with a big car and the Argus as an excuse to drive down to Cape Town – so we had our own private courier service! They arrived this last weekend, so there was much unpacking and nesting happening all over again. With the Argus drawing near, Jaco has been trying to fit in as much last minute training as possible (only HE can get fit in like 3 weeks!!). We were meant to race the mixed tandem category together but with me falling pregnant, he had to go on the hunt for a replacement tandem partner. Our cycling friend Sue stepped in, and they managed to fit in 2 rides together on the tandem before the big day. They had high hopes of finishing in the top 3 mixed tandems and were trying to find out who their competition was. So yesterday, I went down to the finish line to watch them come in. I must admit, however horrible it is to do a race ( I say “horrible” because I’m usually not fit enough or get dropped from the bunch all the time) I’d much rather be on my bike doing the race than watching from the sidelines. Suddenly the tandems started crossing the line but Jaco and Sue were no-where to be seen. My heart sank as I thought they must have had a puncture, but then in the distance I noticed Jaco’s pink Cancer Fighting Journey cycle top! They actually did end up winning the mixed tandem category and were 7th tandem overall. The tandems I had seen before them were the men’s tandem category. So an excellent result of 2hrs 52 and a podium position! I am so proud of my man! We are looking forward to attending the prize giving ceremony this morning in Camps Bay!

Cronjes are nesting

27 weeks today and counting down! The nesting bug has settled itself nicely into the Cronje household and seen us moving bedrooms so that BC can have the warmer, quieter spot in the flat, buying carpets for the lounge so she can play on something softer than wooden flooring, putting the dining room table into storage and replacing it with bar counter stools to make more space in the flat for prams, building of shelves to create more space and of course hunting for baby furniture to turn her room into a palace fit for a princess! So much to organise and so little time! It seems as if our lives have already been turned upside down! But it makes me even more excited to meet the little madame as she is kicking and moving around more than ever. Her favourite time of the day is when mommy is eating - I think she is going to be a hassle-free eater!


I’m noticing all sorts of changes with my body. It almost feels like I’m stretching out of my skin. Its very hard to touch my toes and even leaning over to reach the handlebars when I’m cycling is a little uncomfortable. My tummy is growing steadily but thankfully my belly button has yet to pop out of its hole which I’ve always disliked about pregnant women! Hopefully mine will stay neatly tucked inside and not make a guest appearance! And my organs are finding it a tight squeeze in there as she fills my belly and eating big meals these days just cannot happen due to the shrinking, or squashing should I say, of my stomach! I’m also having my first experience of heartburn which is not pleasant. Even though I’ve stocked up on Gaviscon, I just haven’t psyched myself up to take any yet – I hate taking any kind of medicine and usually just prefer to suffer through it all. This bodes well for when I go into labour….. Another symptom of pregnancy is my sore and stiff hips. I used to look forward to bedtime as I’m usually dead to the world at night, but with my hip bones opening up and moving around, I wake up feeling like I’ve just camped all weekend on a hard, rocky ground! And Jaco would only be able to get me to go camping if a papsak of wine had been included in the groceries so that I end up not caring where or how I sleep – but obviously that is not happening these days…

Take a look at this cool demonstration of just how us women seem to make space for babies in our bodies! Amazing stuff!

Chicago Exhibition

So we have started antenatal classes and have found them to be very informative and open with all sorts of questions being asked by both moms and dads. This has helped me to start visualising how the big day is going to take place when BC makes her entrance into this world. Most importantly, Jaco now knows what his responsibilities are – to massage me all over at any sign of pain and to encourage me when I want to give up besause its too sore. I’m really hoping to have a natural birth and to try and not have an epidural…..but that’s big mouth talking now and we’ll have to see how it goes at the time. I figured that if I can ride to JHB on a tandem with little training, then I can give birth to a baby without any painkillers. Same same, but different as they’d say in the East ;-)

Check out the cool 4d scan of BC’s face and her little hand waving hello.


I’m very excited for this weekend as my bestest friend, Angie and my mom are organising me a babyshower up in JHB. I’ll get to see all my friends one last time...hopefully only for about the next 6 months! Things just don’t seem to be slowing down for us as Jaco jets off to Nigeria this week for a work project before meeting me up in JHB for the weekend and then he’s off to the Seychelles again. Apparently he calls it work, I'm not allowed to go, mmmhhhh. I suppose someone’s gotta earn the bucks! I’m just trying to learn to slow down and take it easy……trying….

The Most Well Travelled Baby

So just over 2 months ago we were preparing to leave for our once-in-a-lifetime trip to the USA. But we just HAD to know what sex the baby was so that we could take advantage of the sales and shop till we dropped in the States. So the Friday before we left, we arrange a gynae appointment to check up on BC and see if it would open its legs for us. I think I learnt my first parenting lesson that day: when you’re expecting your baby to perform just as you’d hoped, it decides to do the total opposite! So the gynae pushed and prodded to see if BC would open its legs, which it stubbornly refused to do (will come in handy later on in life!) and in addition to that obstruction, the umbilical cord was between the legs! Sigh…..so we were having an ‘it’ still and had to be satisfied that we were going to be buying unisex type clothing for BC. (Skip to the last paragraph if you’ve heard about the details of our trip already ;-) )

Our babymoon holiday – the last holiday you have before your life as you know it ends for the next 20 years – was an amazing time of excitement, wonder, fun, family, adventure, inspiration and exploration! We started off in Disneyworld, Orlando (Florida) where we felt like kids all over again with fake snow in the streets, sparkling Christmas trees, amazing rollercoaster rides, and fairytale theme-parks. We experienced the coldest winter in the history of Florida with -2 degree mornings and icy winds. We literally had to wear everything in our suitcases and buy extra warm clothes to get us through the hour long queues we had to wait in. Unfortunately my handicap of being pregnant disqualified me from doing all the rollercoaster rides, so I had to sit on the sidelines and watch them having fun – I suppose that’s what moms do right?

Our next leg of the trip was what I was most looking forward to – a cruise on the largest ship in the world, Oasis of the Seas, round the Caribbean. The number of passengers onboard totalled 6,000, we sailed for 10 days and visited 4 islands: Labadee (Haiti), St Thomas (US Virgin Islands), St Maartens (British Virgin Islands) and Nassau (Bahamas). This was the time for me to excel in what I do best: eat, sleep, shop and eat some more. All you can eat restaurants, doughnut shops and pizzerias were open until 1am and everything was free! Included on the boat was a fully kitted out gym, a 680m running track around the circumference of the ship, an ice-rink, 2 climbing walls, a zipline across the boat, 2 surfing and bodyboarding pools and an old-fashioned carousel for the kids. It was fantastic! Jaco kept himself well busy while I unfortunately got sick again with flu and had to take my third course of antibiotics in as little as a month! But it was the perfect place to recover.



Our next adventure was Las Vegas baby where the sex, money and excess are sadly the order of the day. The high-rise hotels, flashing billboards and scantily dressed women are in your face 24 hours of the day if you can keep up. We busied ourselves shopping at the factory outlets stores of all the big brands, visiting all the themed hotels like Paris, New York, Venice, Treasure Island and attending 2 of the most spectacular shows (Love by Cirque du Soleil and the Blue Man Show). We were lucky enough to be whisked away by helicopter for a tour of the Grand Canyon which was spectacular!


Jaco and I then went solo after my parents flew home and sis & boyfriend flew to New York. We hired a 4x4 Hyundai Sante Fe and started our road trip along the Californian Coast. We drove from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and detoured through the snow-covered mountains where we stumbled upon a few ski-slopes where Jaco decided to try his hand at snowboarding for the day. In LA we visited Hollywood, Universal Studios and even got to be included in an American TV game-show audience where they gave away 3 cars to members of the audience. After 2 days of 9-laned highways and people getting arrested next door to us in our motel, we decided to head up Highway 1 along the Californian Coast to San Francisco. The road and scenery were beautiful and it reminded me a lot of driving along Chapman’s Peak. We passed through Malibu, Santa Barbara, Pismo Beach, Santa Cruz and the Silicon Valley before reaching magical San Francisco. We spent 3 days exploring the diverse and exciting city and did all the touristy things like a hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus tour, a boat cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz island, hiring bicycles and cycling through the massive parks and visiting the Napa Valley region just north of San Fran for a touch of wine-tasting (only Jaco of course!).




The dream had to end after 5 weeks and reality was calling us to return back home to the next exciting chapter of our lives – preparing for our little baby. We were looking forward to the 4D scan at the Fetal Assessment Centre at Kingsbury where we would find out BC’s sex and most importantly whether BC healthy and well! I’m proud and very happy to announce that BC is a healthy little MADAME. So all the cute girl’s clothes I bought in the States will come to good use! Miss BC currently weighs 610grams and is approximately 21cm from head to toe (the size of a seed loaf). She has very big lips (which must be from her mom), above average sized feet (from her mom) and legs with well-developed muscles (must be from her dad). She is moving around a lot and Jaco is able to feel her kicking and turning around in my uterus. He has also started speaking Afrikaans to my belly in the hope she’ll come out twee-talig!

Today we moved bedrooms. Jaco had to settle on not having the bike in the baby’s room, so therefore it ended up in OUR bedroom! We will be staying in Fairview for the rest of this year, and to make do with our space, we are shipping some items off to J’s parent’s farm. We are now in the market for a compactum and a travelling cot to complete BC’s room. Then some wall art and a floating shelf to brighten up her new life! The reality of having a baby is settling in…..