NEW BLOG FOR 2012!!!

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Thomas and the Wiggles

After buying tickets in July, Thomas and i finally went to see the wiggles live yesterday. We went with Chris, Lauren Evelyn, Tamara, Blake and Ella. I thought it was great!!!!! Its not like i get to go to many concerts these days so i had a good old singalong! lol. I really thought Thomas would be jumping up and down like a crazy like he does to his wiggles dvds at home, but he didnt. He was scared to start with ( He isnt a fan of crowds or lots of noise), but a little smile crept across his face when Murray (his favourite) came out. And then the smile got bigger when he saw Wags the dog. He got up to dance for about 4 songs, ones that he knew and liked. Dr Knickerbocker was the big favourite along with Point your fingers and do the twist. Every time he turned around and saw the people behind us tho, he went all shy! Was lovely to spend some quality time alone with my baby boy :)

Filter by Gwenn Wright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found the first half a bit slow. Well written, and i was happy to keep reading, but nothing overly exciting happened. This could just be because i have a small baby and only got to read for 5 minutes here and there - maybe if id been able to just sit down for a few hours i would have gotten into it more. The last 30% of the book had me hooked tho. I stayed up til midnight to finish it (and that says something as sleep is very precious to me right now!). I had no idea the book would end up the way it did and the twist at the end has me dying to read the second book.
In particular, i love the characters in this book. They all seemed so "real" to me. Its also refreshing to read a romance where it isnt obvious who the lead character will end up with by the end of the book (a little frustrating too, but in a good way!)

View all my reviews

Felicity at almost 5 months. Thomas at 28 months.

Felicity

• Has rolled from her belly to her back about 5 times. And is very close to rolling back to belly. But mostly she is just happy chilling out on her back on the floor.
• Went through a phase of really hating the bath, but we have since worked out that she just doesnt like being completely submerged suddenly. If you put her feet in, then let her sit in a sitting position for a bit THEN lay her down she copes much better.
• still not a huge fan of the car.But nothing like the early days of constant screaming.
• She settles herself to sleep majority of the time, except for going to bed at night. Daddy normally cuddles her to sleep at that time
• Is sooooo incredibly smiley. She smiles at absolutely everything and i call her my smiley bug. Its harder to make her laugh tho.
• Wearing size 00
• At her 4 month check she weighed 6.2kg and was 60.5cms long. Pretty average on the growth charts.
• Her thighs are so incredibly rolly. so cute.
• Completely breastfed. We left her with a bottle (she'd had two previously when id had to go out) when we went to Amy and Neals wedding. We had to leave halfway thru because she refused to drink it.
• Shes incredibly laid back and just watches everything going on around her. People always comment that she never cries. And she doesnt much. She really only complains if shes tired or hungry.
• Thomas now calls her bubba or Fwicky (Flicky)
• Bit of a mummies girl. Shes starting to cry when i leave the room or if someone she doesnt know is holding her. Her whole face lights up when she sees me and everyone comments on how much she adores me. I really do feel such love pouring from her when she stares at me. And i love her happy, excited little, arms and legs waving dances she does at 2am when i come into her room to get her for a feed.

Thomas

• Has started toilet training. This is the second time weve tried. The first time he flat out refused to sit on the potty so we gave up quickly. This time he had two completely wet days before i bought a bigger potty and bribed him to sit on it. He got some in and i made such a big deal of it that he sat straight back down and did it again. He did it 7 times in a row! Since then weve been using lollies as incentive for him to go as hes still not overly keen on sitting on it. Its been just over a week of him wearing undies and id say hes probably about a 70/30 ratio - 70% of the time he gets it in.
• Has just moved up to the top mothers and babies class at swimming. Is getting alot better with the water, doesnt particularly like jumping on or going under but tolerates it and doesnt really cough or splutter anymore.
• loves disney movies - finding nemo, shrek, monsters inc, dinosaur and toy story are his favourites. Big fan of the wiggles. Were taking him to his first ever wiggles concert next month. cant wait.
• obsessed with mowing the lawn and wippersnipping.
• Talking up a storm! Love all his little mispronunciations. They make my day
• will start preschool at brightstars kinderrgarten one day a week in January. I just felt he'd benefit from a day with other kids and it will give me a little one on one time with Felicity
• Loves Blake. Hes his hero
• Has formed a new special bond with Jiras dad. Tex has been making a huge effort to see the kids and has been coming down for dinner on a sunday night every two or three weeks. Thomas adores him.He spends alot of time playing with him and often brings him little gifts.
• Has also formed quite a bond with Aunty Merindas current boyfriend Matt. Matt is wonderful with the kids. We hope theyre together a long time !
• Still loves music and dancing. Marry you and the lazy song by bruno mars are faves as well as thunderstruck by acdc.

My lil people

Felicity at 11-12 weeks

This little girl of mine. Oh how she has confused me, and really made me throw out everything i thought i knew about parenting.

For 6 weeks she was really quite exhausting. She fed every 2-3hours, even all through the night, sometimes even more often than that. And she was soooooooooooo hard to settle! It would take minimum 1.5 hours to get her back to sleep after each feed then we'd be lucky to get an hour or two sleep before she was awake again. She was colicy and refluxy and just wanted to be held all of the time. She was lovely and beautiful and gosh we were all so in love with her, but we were also tired and frustrated.

And then came the horror week. At about 6.5 weeks she went thru a growth spurt. And i litterally did nothing but feed her and pace halls with her. For about 4 days i got about an hours sleep per night. By the Saturday i was an exhausted, emotional mess, unable to cope by myself any longer. Jira was doing his best to help but he couldnt stay home from work forever. So on the saturday morning i rang mum in tears and begged for help. She came over and took the kids and tidied my house while i slept for a few hours.

But that day seemed to mark the end of one stage and the beginning of a new one. She pretty much stopped sleeping during the day, but started sleeping well at night, going 6-10 hours between her last night feed and first morning feed.

She started taking a dummy. That has probably been the best thing to happen for her, and for us. That dummy helps so much with her windy belly and soothes her more than i expected. We had tried giving it to her from birth but she had always refused it, so we were surprised when she all of a sudden decided she liked it. But it was a welcome surprise! And now wherever Felicity is, a dummy isnt too far away just incase of a colic attack!

At 12 weeks, after barely sleeping at all during the day unless we held her, she has started napping again! and even settling herself with her dummy! Its fantastic to be able to get a few things done and spend some time with Thomas while she naps.

Memories to Scrapbook

Lately, ive had so many little stories running thru my head - things i want to scrapbook but dont have the time. I want to start recording them here before i forget them.

So, in no particular order - Little memories i want to record in our scrapbooks...

• Thomas loves his stuffed blue puppy. Its his comfort toy. His toy that he takes to bed, reads stories to and drags around the house. Its so adorable. I love that he has a special toy to cherish.
• Thomas loves Trucks, excavators (dig digs!), cars, motorbikes, buses, trains...etc etc, you get the drift. Every wednesday morning he listens for the garbage truck (bin truck as he says) and runs to the door or window to watch. Some of the garbage truck drivers know him now and wave to him.
• Since Felicity was born, he is ALL about Daddy. Which is necessary because of the amount of time im having to spend with her. But i admit, im a little jealous of how close they've become. I miss my little boy. Jira goes back to work next week, so i know things will likely return to normal once that happens, so im glad they've had these past 4 weeks together to really strengthen their bond
• Thomas loves money. The little scammer cons almost everyone into handing over their loose change everytime they come over. How can u resist his sweet little face, innocently asking for "monies" for his "money...box!". Hes also realised that we use the cards in our wallets to get money. He loves to help press the buttons at atms or on eftpos machines at the shops. He takes the cards out of wallets and tries to swipe them down the sides of our laptops, then starts pressing buttons hoping some money will spit out! lol
• Thomas seems to have labeled Mel "pop mow mow" after obsessively watching Mel mow the lawn with his ride on mower. He says it so much that on Thomas' second birthday card, mum wrote "love Nanna and Pop (mow mow)" Lol!
• Felicity is just beyond lovely. I just cant get enough of her. At 3.5 weeks i just love her so much, and cant even remember what it was like before she was part of the family. She is the absolute definition of instant love.
• Thomas calls her bubba. He likes to point at my boobs and say "bubba milk". Last night we were reading old mcdonalds farm. When we got to the page about the cows, thomas looks at me, points at my boobs and says "bubba milk". Apparently he thinks of me as a cow now! lol.

The birth of our precious baby girl, Felicity Jane.

Our little girl is 10 days old today. So i want to write her birth story before i forget too many of the details.

I think its pretty safe to say, my labour probably actually began on Friday 17th June at 38 weeks. I woke up feeling fine, and as usual, drove Jira the half an hour one way trip to drop him at tafe. I started having period pain type cramps in the car and by the time we got there, was wondering if maybe today would be the day. Told Jira to keep his phone on him and that I'd call him if anything progressed.

Drove back and dropped Thomas off at Tamara's place because i had a midwife appointment at the hospital. I sat in the antenatal clinic's waiting room for around 45 minutes, feeling a little on the uncomfortable side because of the cramps. A midwife finally called me in, did all the normal blood pressure and heart rate checks and declared i was fine. I asked if the baby's head was engaged because i thought she felt low and with all the cramps, i was sure that was what was happening. She said that yep, baby's head was engaged, but of course that didnt mean labour was iminent. I told her about the cramps and that Thomas had been a 39 weeker and she said i probably wouldnt make my due date, and that she wouldnt be surprised if i had the baby in the next few days. Was very happy to hear this!

Went to pick Thomas up, and hung out with Tamara for a few hours while the kids played. The cramps had stopped at this point so after i took Thomas home, and he'd had his nap, I asked Michela to come for a walk with me to see if it got anything happening. We did a 2.7klm walk, that included a big hill and by the time we were nearly back i was having some pretty painful braxtonhicks contractions, but they stopped once i got home and rested.

By this time, it was time to pick up Jira from Tafe. Again, the car ride there and back set off the crampy feeling. We stopped at Aldi on the way home. I was walking around the shop, when all of a sudden the crampy feeling turned into contractions. These werent braxton hicks, they were real and they hurt! I kept walking around, feeling more and more panicy. As much as i'd thought i wanted to go into labour, my head really wasnt quite ready, and these contractions had taken me by surprise. They were quite close together and bad enough that i was leaning over the trolley for support and whispering to Jira that we needed to hurry the hell up and get out of there.

Back in the car, they dulled down to just painful cramps that couldnt really be timed and by the time we got home and i had a shower they'd stopped. I went to bed that night fully expecting to wake up at 3 am in full on labour.

But it didnt happen. The next morning, i did a bunch of housework and went for a big walk, fully expecting things to start up again. But they didnt. I barely even got braxton hicks contractions. And for the next week it was much the same. Nothing majorly exciting, just me doing a bunch of walking with very little result.

The next Friday (24th June) rolled around and i dropped Jira at tafe again, hoping the car ride would again start something going. It didnt. Thomas and i spent the morning at Lollipops playland with Lauren and Evelyn before spending a quiet afternoon at home. That night, at 7.40pm, i posted a message on facebook that read "come on kid, 39 weeks is long enough! Out now please!!". I went to bed around 11 with zero signs of labour.

At midnight i woke up all hot and sweaty (not unusual for me in pregnancy, even in winter) and realised that Jira wasnt in bed with me. I got up and walked to the loungeroom where he was asleep on the lounge. After waking him, and telling him to go to bed, i got back into bed myself. I'd only just laid down when i felt a big gush of water, that soaked my tracksuit pants. For a split second i thought id peed myself but quickly realised it was my waters breaking. It took me by surprise as the hospital had had to break my waters with Thomas, i truly wasnt expecting them to break naturally.

I sat up and another gush of water went all over our bed, soaking the sheets and ruining our electric blanket (glad it wasnt on, might have been zapped!). I said to Jira, "my waters just broke". He looked at me a little shocked but with a big smile and said "really? awesome!". I laughed cos i knew he was probably more excited by the fact that he was now officially on holidays! lol.

I got up and got changed, then rang the hospital for instructions. I wasnt sure whether i could stay home til contractions started or if i had to go right in. They wanted me in for observation, so we woke Michela (who is living with us at the moment) and told her to listen out for Thomas, remade our bed so she could sleep in there with him if he woke and went off on our way to hospital. On the way there, i rang mum and said i was having some very mild cramps and that she might want to meet us there.

My waters broke at 12.05am on Saturday June 25th. We got to the hospital at 1am. I was having mild period pain type cramps. Barely worth mentioning. They put me on the monitors and it wasnt long before i noticed the cramps were getting worse. And that the monitor was easily picking them up. I was getting very uncomfortable lying down, when a doctor came in to put in my canula and start me on the strep b antibiotics. By this stage is must have been around 1.40am and i was having to breathe thru the contractions. The doctor looked at me, then looked at the monitor and said "your having some pretty decent contractions there". At that point the midwife came in and the doctor repeated her previous statement. The midwife replied "yes, but she isnt feeling them yet (when she'd last checked me half an hour earlier i had only had the mild cramps). At the same time the doctor said "oh yes she is" i yelped "yes i can!".

i begged her to let me off the monitor so i could stand up. I despise labouring laying down! She wasnt too keen on letting me off, but after watching me through another contraction she agreed and said that we could move to a birthing room. I guess this was probably around 1.50am. I had planned on having a water birth, so they started the tub running while i jumped in the shower to help with the pain, which was getting extremely intense by this stage. I was hanging off Jira, moaning and carrying on, crying a little from the adrenaline. Everything was happening so fast and was so painful that i couldnt find a comfortable position or get my head in my "happy place". The midwife watched me again for a little bit and said, "i dont think you have time for the bath. We need to do an internal to see how far you are". So off i shuffled to the bed, and she pronounced me 7cm dialated. This must have been around 2.10-2.15am, because it was only a minute or two later that i started yelling that i needed to push. They said that waterbirth was definitely out as the bath was only a quarter full, and asked which position i wanted to deliver in. I said i didnt care as long as it wasnt on my back.

So i sat on a fit ball, leaning on the raised up bed for a little while i caught my breath, then mum on one side and Jira on the other dragged me up onto my feet, leaning over the bed so i could push. At first my brain was so rattled that i couldnt remember what i was supposed to be doing. The pain was just so intense that i just stood there screaming - and not my normal scream. A deep, from the gut, animal sort of scream. I remember thinking "geese, thats a funny noise!" lol. But the scream cleared my head and i suddenly thought, if i push, this will all be over quicker! I heard mum say in my ear stop screaming and put your energy into pushing.

So i did. Chin down on my chest and pushed hard. And with that one push i felt every cm as her head slid down and began crowning. And it felt good! I understand now why people say that the pushing is the best part of labour! I stopped and panted for what seemed like ages, waiting for another contraction. Tho im told it was only a few seconds. Another big push and her head was out. I heard the midwife say her head was out. Heard my mum repeat it to me. And thought "no shit sherlock!" lol. I seriously remember thinking that! (Tho i understand why they had repeated it a few times, because i hadnt known that Thomas' head was out)

The midwife, who was sitting on the floor waiting to catch the baby, apparently tugged on Jiras shorts and said, "look, her head and her hand are out". Yep, lucky me, she'd stuck her hand out at the same time! Paid for that later in stitches!

Next contraction and another push sent the shoulder and the rest of her body out. Boy was that a relief! i just stood there panting, and then heard the midwives saying "heres your baby" as they passed her up between my legs and laid her on the bed in front of me. Noone, including myself, trusted me to hold her cos my arms and legs were absolute jelly. So i just pulled her close to me, against my chest and cuddled her. They moved me onto the bed and someone helped me get her onto my chest where we just stared at her and had our skin to skin cuddles while they got the placenta out, Jira cut her cord and the doc came and stitched up my 2nd degree tear.

After a few minutes she started searching around for food so i helped her latch on. She was perfect! Big mouth, strong suck, she fed for at least an hour, before giving up and going to sleep.

Felicity Jane, born at 2.26am on Saturday June 25th, after a 1hr11 minute labour from first established contraction. 2 hours 20 minutes from waters breaking. Length 48cm, HC 33cm, Weight 3.4 kilos or 7pd 9oz.