Amaiterai's first month (and a bit!)

Blogging and babies don't mix!
Yesterday Amaiterai was 5 weeks old, he's thriving and has already gained 6 cm in length and over 1.6kg in weight. The month since he arrived has gone by in an eventful blur of sleep-deprivation!





We said goodbye to April a few days after the birth, having learned a thing or two about sourdough and lilikois (passion fruit). Inspired by April, I've gone off on a fermented food frenzy, making sourdough burger buns, sourdough rice crackers and sourdough potato pancakes to name a few, I've also had a go at my first batch of kim chee and a very passable ginger beer! Probiotics are us!

Naturally we celebrated St.David's day (March 1st for all you non-welshies) as well as Wales' victory in the six nations rugby, with a blistering win over England in Cardiff.

We've had a film crew visit us to film our extremely talented trilingual girls, for an educational programme about multilingualism, to be broadcast here in Tahiti.

 

 The grandparents spent the best part of Amaiterai's first month with us, babysitting their hearts out, before a return to chilly Wales a week ago, they left in the snow and two months later returned to snow!

We're enjoying hot and sunny weather, though there is a little coolness to the mornings, heralding the arrival of our autumn! In the meantime there's work to be done in the garden - Amaiterai is not the only thing growing round here, look at these fabulous irises that have just started flowering here in th garden.

The jasmine, ylang-ylang and honeysuckle are also putting on a impressive olfactory experience at the moment. The most exciting new acquisition is cacao, Viriamu's friend in Tahiti he sent him some pods, so now I have Roald Dahlish dreams of creating my own chocolate delights! Talking of chocolate we're running up to the easter hols and our first busy period at the guesthouse with our new recruit! Hold on for a bumpy ride....

Introducing Amaiterai - a Rurutu homebirth baby!

 Yes, he made us wait, but on tuesday 19th february around 7h30 our son, Amaiterai Rhys Teuruarii was born here at our home in Rurutu. The first baby to be born in Avera, Rurutu for over 20 years! The birth went without a hitch, thanks to my wonderful midwife and all the family's support. We went for a water birth in an inflatable paddling pool in our living room, an experience that none of us will quickly forget!

Three days on we're getting ready to say goodbye to April, a sad day, but she leaves behind her a happy and thriving family! Thank you! 

Fit to burst!

So here's a turn up for the books - I'm as pregnant as I've ever been. On wednesday I turned 38 weeks, which is a first for me - having had both the girls at 37 weeks and a few days, and there's still no sign of him!

 It just goes to show, you never can tell. It serves me right for being so sure he was on his way a week or so ago. Viriamu has been and gone to Tahiti, setting off to the big smoke for another salon, while I stayed home with the girls, parents and April. The girls morphed into quite a handful without papa's watchful gaze. But he's back now, after getting stranded on Rimatara for an evening when the plane had 'technical' problems, see flat tyre!

Fortunately for us, the salon went well, thanks to my stunt-double living in Tahiti, tattie Tracey, who was able to save our bacon and do the salon for me! She looked suitably fabulous in her local getup, and set off a whole lot of gossip by being there in my place, Viriamu's new vahine popaa, (he should be so lucky)! She even took a whole load of fabulous pics of her and her kids at the salon.........

Pregnant lady lethargy!

Mum and Dad arrived with us safe and sound almost two weeks ago now, we braved cyclone Garry that fortunately came to nothing (yes it's cyclone season again!), but has given us a week of wet and windy weather! I'm as big as big can be, I'm over 36 weeks now and baby is getting to be quite heavy and fidgety. The exciting part is that we're trying for a Rurutu homebirth third time around - I'm lucky to have found an awesome mid-wife willing to birth here, she's from the Big Island, Hawaii (sadly no independent midwives are willing to accompany homebirths here in FP). Anyway, April has years of experience and is extremely competent, I'm feeling ather spoilt, having had a great backrub yesterday, we've been going on walks and swims and generally bonding over cooking and life. April is a friend of Dana mermaid, we had a bonfire on the beach a couple of nights back, April and the girls are also making a mermaid mask out of beach treasure, so Dana is here in our thoughts if not in person!