I never got to take special pregnancy photos when I was pregnant with baby girl.
It’s not that I wouldn’t have loved to. But it was a different time, place, and very different situation. Apart from our first baby arriving in the world, we were dealing with quite sad and traumatic events relating to Hubbie’s family.
A pregnancy photo shoot did not even cross our minds.
But today, one of my pregnancy dreams finally came true. 🙏
I got to have a photo shoot with a professional photographer in our happy place, our local beach, surrounded by the sun, sand and sea.
You probably want to know who took such stunning shots? Well it was none other than my sister. ❤
Photography is her calling, always has, always will be. I hope after today she’s realised that. 🙏
We are thrilled to bits with the hundreds of photos taken, and we haven’t even had a chance to preview them all.
But one thing I know, is as I said… this pregnancy dream of mine has been fulfilled.
So when I said a while back that shit’s getting real, well now shit is really getting REAL.
So, apart from our little ‘babymoon’ now over…
Apart from my half-packed hospital bag…
Apart from the one adjustment the baby room needs (happening Friday)…
Today, I finished work.
😲😲😲😲
Another big thing, DONE!
It just keeps going on. Tick, tick, tick. Things are happening, finishing, progressing, completing, and it’s all bringing me closer to meeting baby. 🥰🥰
I like to use the beach as celebration, and just as I took baby girl on her last day of school in December, so too did we go again this afternoon as my little celebration.
My fave thing to do at the moment? Because it’s a bay beach and there are plenty of shallow waters, I like to sit in the shallow water and just relax, with the belly I have, lounging around like a beached whale because that is most comfortable to me right now. 🤣
The countdown is most definitely on! If only I knew what number to start at… 😬🤔
Like every time we go away, we’ve made some more realisations post-holiday.
As much as it’s exciting and fun to go away, as you’re seeing new things and going to new places…
We are people of routine, Hubbie especially so.
He is SOOO happy to be back. Back to routine. Back to his food. Back to his bed. And as much as his homebody comments have annoyed me ever-so-slightly today, I also feel like, I don’t know… I kinda agree.
I also, like routine. I also, LOVE my bed. I also like eating well, and I love the set-up of our house, where baby girl sleeps, where we sleep…
I love our town. I love our beach. I love our main strip, in fact it quite frankly smashes other coastal town strips…
And that’s when I realised. We find it hard to enjoy being away fully, because where we live is SO DAMN GOOD.
We live in an area where people travel and holiday to, and we’ve become so used to it, we don’t realise how good it is until we leave!
Also, we are setting up our lifestyle, our house, to be an everyday holiday house. Sure, we still work, we still do the groceries, we still do chores, and all the other day-to-day monotony that drives us insane at times.
But we love our spot. We love where we live. 🥰🌅
We don’t really need a holiday from here. We just need to mix it up at times.
We get to see beautiful water views in the morning when we wake, and watch the sunset glowing over the water at night. I drive baby girl home from school the scenic way, past the water. We visit the beach on Wednesdays when she is at school (when the wind is absent!) after we’ve been to one of the many incredible cafes on our main strip.
We’re trying to live a holiday life already, and we are comfortable in our home doing it.
We WILL still go away. There’s no doubt about that. But the fact that we’re going to be a lot more home-bound in the period after baby arrives, it doesn’t upset me in the slightest.
Home is good. This town, is good. We like it a lot.
In fact, we love it. Which is why we moved here in the first place. 🙏💖
Bush food walk through Wild Food Farm Cafe (we saw kangaroos in their wild habitat today!) – The ‘Relax’ sign (again, because I got the whole thing this time!) – Red Rocks Beach – dinner at Pino’s Trattoria (amazing!)
There are many types of beach visits, and you learn all of them once you start to fully embrace and live the beach life.
There is the ‘bring everything including the kitchen sink’ beach visit, where you have the beach trolley, umbrellas, chairs, the tent, boogie boards, sand castle accessories, towels and food and drinks and basically, most of your house.
This is when you’re going to enjoy most of the day there, and go through at least 2 meal sessions. 🤣
Then there is the ‘in-between’ visit. You’ll probably be there a few hours, and you probably won’t bring the beach trolley, but you’ll still have some chairs, some beach toy accessories, and then of course snacks and water because you still need to be hydrated and all that jazz.
Then there is the quick, ‘dip in/dip out,’ or talk a walk along the beach visit.
These are timed, and involved the bare minimum to aid in the ease and simplicity of getting there and back.
We did this, the latter today.
Sure it was a hot day, but we were still getting over last night’s New Year’s Eve. Also, the thought of taking many things to the beach (even an ‘in-between’ visit) felt hard, especially when it was over 30.
So I struck a deal with a tired Hubbie.
(I gotta admit, the deal suited me too because this pregnancy is making me really S-L-O-W).
I said “let’s head down, everyone carries their own minimal stuff, go in, 30 minutes, go out.”
🤝
And so it was. Here’s how you do a simple, timed, quick and refreshing beach visit.
Bikinis on at home, dresses on top (for Hubbie shorts and singlet).
Sunscreen is applied at home too.
Everyone carries their own towel, hat, and sunnies. Water bottles remain in the car (sip before you leave!) And personal belongings, phones and keys, are in the tiniest little carry bag.
Drive to the beach. Drop stuff on the sand nearest water (belongings hidden in towel).
And go! 30 minutes begins!
30 minutes go by so quick though. Don’t be surprised if you want more. 🙏
Despite how busy today was at our local, we sat in the shallow waters and found so much peace in just watching the water wash over our legs, splashing against our bodies.
Go home, shower… and then order takeaway, because nobody got time for cooking when humidity is killing you in the house. 🤣
It wasn’t just great because of the beach itself… that is plenty of reason to be happy, all on its ownsome.
Timing and temperature played a big part.
We got there late morning, while it was still heating up… low 20s. But of course, being holiday time, there were plenty of people about.
We stayed several hours, way into the mid 20s (where it sometimes felt like high 20s), and then came home before 3pm.
It was the best. IDEAL. We had spent a good chunk of the day at the beach, but were home early enough to chill, do some stuff, play some Nintendo (🤭) and enjoy the rest of the day.
It just felt perfect.
You don’t get a lot of those perfectly timed days.
The in between? Why, the last day of grade 3 for baby girl! And what a terrific tradition we have gotten into these last couple of years, of heading to the beach on the last day of the school year. 💞
All we need now is for Melbourne weather to fall into the tradition of giving us summer weather… in summer. 🤣🌞😎🌅
Honestly I love this mid part of the week so much. It breaks the working week in two and makes getting to the weekend so much more bearable.
The fact that I have the day off with Hubbie is just gold. We drop off baby girl at school, and then do some things. He helps me with grocery shopping at the moment, lifting all the heavy bags, and then we go and do coffee and brunch.
This time of year, we always walk to the beach.
I took my sandals off to sink my feet into the sand, to ground me.
Then the rest of the day is usually spent doing our own thing… we meet again for lunch, maybe an odd job here and there, and then it’s school pick up.
I often wonder now, as is the case being pregnant, just how our Wednesdays will change, and will be come February next year. Everything will revolve around baby, and we probably will have very limited ‘us time,’ if any.
But still, I know I will count down to Wednesdays happily, knowing I have my partner in crime by my side. 🥰🥰
In the meantime, here are snaps from today. Both make me happy for various reasons. 😅☕🏖️💖
We brunched. We beach walked. Then this evening we headed out to a fave restaurant we haven’t been to for ages for dinner. It’s across from the beach, and quite frankly has a stunning view. 😍
I love birthdays. I love my birthday, my family’s birthdays, anyone I love, I love their birthday too.
You get to celebrate them, have fun, reflect on their amazing contribution to your life…
And to think, today was only the beginning. Further celebrations are a-coming!😁💖
carcrashgratitude 