ANNOUNCEMENT: Milea Dara Cronje enters our world!

Jaco and I would love to announce the arrival of our most precious and beautiful baby girl, Milea Dara Cronje.

She was born at Kingsbury Hospital, Claremont on 25 May 2011 at 18:45 and is healthy and strong!



We loved the second name of Dara who was a biblical descendant of Judah, known for his wisdom (1 Chronicles 2 v6) carrying a connotation of 'wisdom and compassion'. Since we are firmly rooted in Africa, our little girl also carries the name Dara, which means 'caress' and 'the beautiful one' in Swahili.

Playing the Waiting Game

I have been on 5 days of maternity leave already and I don’t know where the time has gone! I swear that sitting at home ‘doing nothing’ is busier than anything I’d do in a full day of work. Let’s just say that I’ve hardly had anytime to sit and do nothing – the days just seem to fill themselves with stuff to do! I’m starting to worry about how quickly my 4 months of maternity leave are going to just fly by! Jaco has ensured that I don’t get bored by giving me a to-do-list as long as my arm which included the following:
- make dinner every night
- buy food to stock up the cupboards so no shopping needed in the next 4 months
- vacuum the car so Milea can have a clean, comfortable ride home from the hospital
- pack the hospital bags AGAIN and double check I have everything (3 jam-packed bags so far…and possibly need for a 4th one)
- see friends one last time before life of a non-mother ends

So as you can see I’ve been pretty busy!

This week was crunch time in terms of whether I had enough amniotic fluid in order to go to full term of 40 weeks. The gynae visit yesterday confirmed that my amniotic levels have increased and baby is now around 3kgs. So all is good in Camp Cronje! In general, she is very happy to let me go to full term and no induction is necessary at this stage. The waiting game begins. Jaco and I are not very good at playing this game so we’ve decided to help Milea along into this world by practicing some tried and tested methods of inducing labour or some might say, plain old wive’s tales:
- Jaco made me eat a whole pineapple for breakfast. Pineapple is said to have an enzyme called Bromelain which is the key ingredient to forcing labour. My mouth is now rather raw!
- I walked the Sea Point Promenade ‘stukkend’ yesterday with the hope of bouncing her head on my cervix so it would open up. I did have lots of Braxton Hicks contractions thereafter so it must have done something
- Stimulating a whole lot of other areas of the body which we won’t go into!!
- The only thing left to do is eat a hot curry so Tandoori night, here we come!

Essentially, it is down to her own timing and we should really be enjoying the last few days of just the 2 of us. But naturally I have this urge to be in control and know when things are going to happen so I can plan my life a little. Waiting for the inevitable is so hard to do and not being in control is even harder. I think she is trying to teach us a well-deserved lesson of patience……

T minus 10 days

So back to the gynae this week to hear that Milea is now 2.8kgs. Gynae is still worried that she has fallen below her growth path and thus still not growing sufficiently. My amniotic fluid (pockets of water she's floating in) was measured at 7.5. Anything below 5 is a concern so I was advised to drink LOTS of water which may prevent the fluid from decreasing further. Gynae highly recommended that my working days should be over and my maternity leave should commence immediately. So Friday 13th May couldn't have been a better time to complete my last day at work. (not that I'm superstitious or anything!)

Now I can stay in bed for as long as I want, loaf in front of the TV, stay in my PJs all day and take advantage of afternoon naps with my electric blanket on. I'm not sure when I'm going to have time to cook all these dinners that Jaco is expecting when he gets home from work.......mmm, I might have to do a bit of expectation management here!

I wouldn't say that I'm going to be a paranoid mother but I thought it a good idea to get some basic knowledge about what to do if baby stops breathing or chokes on a piece of biltong. Jaco and I attended a baby CPR and first aid course on the weekend (http://www.supernannies.co.za/) which was super informative and gave us the confidence we need to deal with this sort of situation.

So to refresh your memories:

H = Hazards (make sure the room / surroundings of the victim is safe before you start administering help)

H = Hello (try and get a response from the victim. Put your ear to their mouths and look at their chest while listening for breathing for 10 seconds). If not then CPR is required

H = Help (Call for help & get someone to call the Western Cape Emergency number 021 480 7700 or 170 from a landline)

C = Compression (Take off clothes and find the nipples. For a child, take 2 fingers and start pressing midway between nipples 30 times. For a child older than 1 years, use the palm of your hand, for an adult use 2 hands)

A = Airway (lift the child's head by pushing the chin slightly backwards to open up the airway)

B = Breathe (Cover the nose and mouth with your mouth and blow twice making sure the chest rises)

Repeat.

We also received a lovely surprise when we received a message from one of Jaco's colleagues, Mark and Caryn, who were also pregnant, but 1 week behind me. She went into labour on Saturday night and delivered a 2.1kg baby girl naturally (yes NO drugs!!) early on Sunday morning. So it really is min dae now and we wait in anticipation. We keep telling Milea that she has lots of friends in the world now, so its her turn.

Remember to follow all the action on twitter: @Jacocron

Babyshower Boom!

Great news from the growth assessment scan we had last week - baba has grown! Atta girl!
She is now 2.6kgs which is the 20th percentile for 38 weeks. It was a long time ago since I did stats, but it basically means that if I had 100 children (!!!), the 100th child would be the biggest with the 1st child being the smallest. BC would thus be on the small end of average. She is definitely not my child then! Also, the placenta is healthy and there is enough amniotic fluid for her to stay in my lovely warm tummy until full term of 40 weeks. Yah - we were so pleased with the news! Jaco was very proud of himself for feeding us up and I was told that early bed rest was not necessary. Because her head is so far down in my cervix, they had to do an internal scan to check her head circumference. Despite your feelings regarding internals, all concerns disappeared when we could suddenly see her face on the screen, with these pair of beautiful big lips opening and closing as she was swallowing the amniotic fluid! Just amazing! Oh, we cannot wait to meet her!

So I'm sure you've all picked up that we've decided to officially name BC as MC - Milea Cronje (pronounced ma' lea for those having difficulty). The Wikipedia explanation of Milea: A generous and compassionate person. In Hawaii, Milea means angel child variant of Mary, quiet and peaceful. I'm not making this up - go look for yourselves! And there are no famous people with Milea as their first name so she has a chance...! I went to YWAM with an American girl called Malia and have always loved the name. We wanted something different and unique which was my compromise in the English / Afrikaan name debate. Plus, did you notice how it rhymes with Cronje! I just love it!

I could not have been more spoilt recently when in the space of 2 days I was given 2 babyshowers! The first one just happened to fall on Mother's Day last Sunday which I thought was quite apt since I am 'technically' considered a mother. I also managed to convince Jaco that I qualify for a Mother's Day gift which was a desperately needed pair of slippers which were promptly packed into the hospital bag so I'll only get to wear them when I really AM a mom!

We invited about 30 of our Cape Town friends and family for a lovely picnic in the park where we served a brekkie of cupcakes, muffins, hot cross buns, fruit salad, yoghurt, croissants and lots of yummy things. Best of all, Milea was so pleased with all the cute additions to her wardrobe and baby products, which she cannot wait to start using.

I loved the game which my sister came up with. Everyone was given a piece of paper with parts of the body or attributes of personality that they had to decide whether Milea was going to inherit from her mom or dad. It was quite funny to hear who thought she should get her 'intelligence' from or her 'legs' from etc. Thankfully she seemed to get an equal mix from mom and dad!

We were also so glad to have the weather play along as we enjoyed a beautiful morning in the sunshine. Big kisses and hugs go to my special hubby and sister for organising everything!


Then the following day at work, the office surprised me with a party in the boardroom with lots of pressies and games including guessing how big my bump is. Some of the guys cut their string to fit around both my belly and theirs! I definitely shouldn't be asking them the touchy question of whether I look fat??!!? They were so generous considering I've only be there about 6 months. Milea was very excited to receive a moses basket which will be her second bed when we are out in the evenings or travelling. Talking of which, we booked a trip up to JHB to visit my parents on the 19th June. She would be less than a month old! EEEEK! Very brave move I think but I've heard its the best time to travel, the younger they are. So the moses basket will be her temporary home for a week and a half. It was quite funny having to choose a birth date for her when booking the ticket - since we haven't quite got there yet.....

So Jaco is in Nigeria again this week and I was told to 'knyp' until he gets back! Well it seems that Milea is very comfortable with this idea since I've not had a peep from her and daddy gets back today! I survived the 3 nights alone with most people worrying about me. Hopefully no more work trips until the end of June otherwise I'll have to put my foot down and institute a travel ban!

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!