OMG I sprung a leak...

Funniest thing happened to me this morning...I woke up about 4.20am to discover that I had sprung a lesk during the night. My top and bra were completly soaked with breast milk! So much so that I had been lying on my side and I had even leaked into the bedsheets! Holly went to bed early last night and was still asleep when I woke up. Breasts were full up to overflow, hence the leaking. So after a quick wardrobe change and new breast pads I wandered out to the lounge to express some milk. Sorry am not a believer in waking a sleeping baby, so expressing wad the best option for me at that time of the morning. Then it was back to sleep for awhile before Farmer Brown was up for milking. Holly finally woke up about 5am, which was a massive sleep for her. So we are now enjoying some mother and daughter time until Farmer Brown comes back from milking.

Its The Small Things...

You know every day I am amazed at our little girl. Even though she is now 10 weeks old, I really can't imagine my life without her. Every day she gives me yet more reasons to love her more and more!

She has started "talking" to us now. She is really funny as she works out all the different noises that she can make. These of course are not limited to gurggles and gag gags. She has also discovered that she can increase the pitch of her cry now. So now if she feels that I am not paying her enough attention or if she is have a "fake" cry and she feels then need to really make me run into the room, she amps up the pitch of her cry! She is such a tart, but so funny to listen to as she makes all these discoverys.

She is smiling at us heaps now, which is a real treat. It is nice to know that she has more reasons to smile at us other than needed to burp, fart or poo! There is nothing better than when you have had a crap day and you pick up your little one and she cracks the biggest smile in the world! It really makes you put things in perspective and most certainly improves your day leaps and bounds!

I went to visit a girl friend today, who has a 18 month old. She has started talking. Man she was so funny, to hear her trying to work out how to form the words to get across what she is trying to tell us! Funny how everything with fur and four legs is called "Meow meow!" She is also into everything in their house. Her mum is not precious enough to have removed everything from grasping distance. I like this idea, I feel that they need to learn to live in our environment too, but within reason I would remove things that she could break or could swallow. Anyway, Christie was telling me how Ruby knows where the photo draw is and how she loves helping herself to loose photos as well as albums. She also enjoys pulling out the soft drawers in her room and emptying out the contents on the floor. These of course remain on the floor until the end of the day when it is time for bed! We had a great visit with them and I enjoyed learning of all the things that I have yet to look forward to with our little one!

I guess you never get this time again so I should make the most of it. I am lucky that I work here on the farm and do my volunteer ambulance work and that I don't have to go back to work and put her in day care, as I would miss out on so much and that would really be stink. It must be really hard for those that aren't as lucky as we are.

Each day is special with her, especially when we hear of such horrible events like the shooting in the USA over the weekend. Make the most of every moment that we have with our little ones.

Bloody Baby Eczema!

So one thing I have learnt as a new parent is that your babies body has a mind of its own and we don't really know how to interpret what it is doing!

So to start with Holly got this red spots all over her face. Took her to the doctor and they told me she had baby acne. Ok so now the spots have a name, what do I do. Well for starters don't believe what products promise. For example, most of us in NZ were brought up with Johnson & Johnson products, especially No More Tears, which I remember as a kid. Anyway we had been using a baby bath lotion for when we bath Holly. The doctor tells me that it is a really strong product, even though it is recommended for babies!

As a result we have been using a cream for Hollys acne and don't add anything to the bath water or for washing her hair.

So her spots have cleared up and she looks a beautiful as ever.

However...now her skin is really flakey and dry. Waited until we saw the plunket nurse at our appointment, to see what she had to say. She suggested going to see the doctor just to have it checked. So off we went later in the day.

So now she has baby eczema! So now we have another cream to put on her skin! Well at least the eczema doesn't seem to bother her. She isn't scratching at it or upset and grumpy at all. The cream has made a huge difference as once again her skin is back to its beautiful self!

I guess thats the life of being a baby. They are so lovely and fresh into the world after being on the inside for 9 months. It must be a real shock to their system to burst out into this world. There is so many things they need to get use to very quickly after birth. I am told that all of the sensitivity can last until they are appoximately 6 months old, as I guess by then they are old hats at being exposed to the outside world!

I have come to realise that each day is a learning day when it comes to bringing up a little one! Each of those days are precious and should never be taken for granted!

We love our little one more and more as each day goes by. I must also say that those days goes by so fast. All the more reason to make the most of them!

I survived the night...

Well Holly spent her first night in her own room, in her own cot! She is a big girl now and is too big for the bassinett so she has upgraded to her cot.

Man she looks really funny in it as she is so small! Funny really considering she looks so big in the bassinett! She was really good. To be honest I think I was more concerned about her being in there than she was. I mean afterall she is happy anywhere as long as she gets a feed when she needs one!

I tried out the GoGo Bag for the first time, but I think I will go back to the swaddling her. The GoGo Bag is fine but as she is used to being swaddle up with her arms tucked in, I found that she woke more times during the night than she has been over the last week and a half. I was up to her crying at 1am, 3am and 4am! After the 4am feed I took her out of the bag and swaddled her again. Funny as she slept right through until 7am. So tonight we will go back to swaddling her. I think the combination of being in a bigger area to sleep in and the fact that her arms were out, were the main reasons for her waking. I have to keep reminding myself that she is on 8 weeks afterall not 21! Holly has the tendancy to smack herself in the face when she has her arms out, hence the reason why she kept waking last night. I noticed she had a scratch on her face, which backs up what I had thought. Swaddling will help with this no doubt. Plenty of time for her to go back into her GoGo Bag.

We had our visit with Brenda the Plunket Nurse today. Holly was great as usual. We looked at her head circumference, body length, weight and her eyes, ears, arms and legs. They were a little concerned that she hasn't put on enough weight according to the "charts". They were happy with her appearance and how settled and content she is, so that ruled out that she wasn't getting enough food. They like babies to put on at least 100gms per week. Since birth she should have put on approximately 800gms and she has only put on 500gms. We decided that we would give her a top up of formula in the evenings. She is sleeping for 6 hours at night without waking but there is no need to wake her up to feed her. I was thinking: "No way in hell am I waking her up during the night to feed her, especially when I am having such a great sleep!" Hence the decision to top her up in the evening.

Personally I don't have any problems with the use of formula. I know that some get quite hung up on this subject, but for us we decided ages ago that if that was what was going to be best for our wee girl then thats what we will do. She will still be getting almost all of her feeds from breast milk so one feed a day of formula is cool with me. This also means that when I go back into the cowshed and back on Ambulance duty in the New Year I can get her Nanny to give her a bottle of formula and it won't make a difference to her feeding patterns. I know that breast is best but I also think that not starving my child is also important, so will do what ever if needed to keep her in good health.

Tommorrow Holly and I are picking up Nanny and hitting the shops in town. We thought that we should go during the week and sooner rather than later, as the shops are only going to get worse the closer we get to Christmas! Nanny hasn't been out with us before so I am sure that she is looking forward to pushing Holly around in the pram. She is such a proud Nanny!

We are looking forward to our shopping trip tomorrow :)

Where is the time going?

Well our little Holly is now 8 weeks old! How did that happen? She has changed so much and yet she is still our little girl! It seems like she has been part of our family forever. She is such a great baby and a really breeze to look after and love.

So we are now under the care of Plunket. We have our second appointment with them tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing how much she has grown and what she now weighs. Our plunket nurse Brenda is really lovely. She seems to really enjoy her work, which is just fabulous for us! Brenda came to visit us at the farm the first time, however this time we are going to see her. It is a great reason for me to get out of the house or off compound, as we sometimes refer to the farm as!

Holly has had her first lot of immunisation jabs. She had these at 6 weeks and was very brave. She only squaked a bit but was soon satisfied with a feed. The nurses loved her coming to visit and look forward to seeing her at 13 weeks when she has the next lot of jabs. Holly also got the all clear with the GP, who we saw first. No clicky hips, great heart and lung sounds, all the important things, ticking all the right boxes! What a little star she is!

We have also had a photo shoot with a local photographer. This was done way back when she was 2 weeks old. The photos were just amazing and it was so hard to choose which ones we wanted from the selection available to us. We went with a 5 photo package with digital files included. She is just so photogenic, there were so many great shots of her. Anyway we finally managed to get it down to the 5 we liked and man do they look great now that they are printed out. Her Grandad said the other day, that they won't have to worry about doing the wallpaper in the rest of our house as we will be able to plaster the walls with all the photos that we have taken of her!

Holly is getting into routine now which is just great for the amount of sleep that I am getting! We normally go to bed between 930-1030pm and she now sleeps through until about 4am! Then we are up and about for the day about 6-630am. This is so much better than the two hour feeding pattern that we started out with!

Today is another big day for Holly as she is graduating from her bassinett to her cot in her own room! I don't know if I am ready for this step just yet, but she is just getting too big for the bassinett now. As I swaddle her at night, she is almost as long as the bassinett. When I put her in the cot she looks really tiny and way too small to be in there! I think I will start her out in her Merino Go Go Bag tonight too. This means that I don't have to use blankets on her. I think my main concern is that I won't hear her when she wakes, but I know for sure that her lungs work fine and she is able to cry out when she is ready for her feed in the morning. I have got used to hearing her breathing beside my side of the bed, and to not be able to hear that will be strange. I guess on the positive side of things I may get more sleep as babies are noisey littel critters and I hear her every move, burp, fart and wiggle in the bassinett. Not having her in the same room will be strange, but I am sure that it only bothers me and not her!

We have had a couple of episodes that can only be described as "explosive poos"! OMG who would have thought that something so little could create such a huge mess! I would also like to mention at this time that Farmer Brown is yet to change a poo nappy! I guess I am just too easy on him or maybe its just that she seems to decide to do this event when he is out working his bum off! Maybe they are ganging up on me! The first two time she did this she ended up having a bath as that was the easiest way to deal with the clean up! The second time she did it she happened to be having a nap with Farmer Brown in bed, lying ontop of his chest. He woke and brought her out to me saying "clean up in isle 4, clean up in isle 4". Man it had gone everywhere, including all over the sheets in our bed, so guess who had to clean that up too! Last night she decided that in the middle of the family bbq dinner that we were at was the prime time to unload again. It went all through her clothes, and thank goodness I had a change of clothes with me in the nappy bag. However giving her a bath wasn't really an option so half a packet of whipes later, I had her all clean up and sparkling just like new! What a legend my daughter is!

 

She is right now "calling" out to me, or practicing using her lungs as full volume would be another way to describe it! So I must be off, as it would appear that a mothers job is never done!

And Now We Are Three...

So we can now introduce you all to our baby girl Holly. She joined our little family on 9th October at 4.37am, weighing 10 pound 2 oz.

She is such an amazing little being and we love having her in our little family. It is hard to believe that she is 2 weeks old today! Seems like we have had her for ages and other times it feels all brand new all over again!

She has had so many visitors from all over the place. Even in hospital she had a fan club. It is no wonder as she is pretty cute, but then again I am her mother so I might just be a little bias.

Each day we learn more and more about each other. Both of us have been getting plenty of sleep, which is great. I have certainly learnt the benefit of power naps. It is also really tempting to do jobs that need to be done when she is asleep, but I have also learnt that this is prime time for me to have a rest too. We really like to crash out on the couch and have a snooze. Quality time for sure.

Farmer Brown is doing really well in the father department too. It has been a bit of a shock to his system, but like us, he is learning too. Funny how fast we adapt to new situations and circumstances!

I can hear the little one stiring again, so this will be all for now. We look forward to sharing all our new adventures with you.

From the family of three!

A challenging last couple of days...

So to put it mildly, I am looking forward to going to hospital tomorrow, not only to have Mini Marshall but to finally get away from our visitors! Sounds bad, but that's just the way it is.

I guess when you are 39 weeks pregnant pretty much everything annoys you, but in this case I think that I am justified.

One thing I find very frustrating at the best of times is indecision. The Grandparents made plans in the morning to not be here most of the day so that Farmer Brown and I could have "alone" time over the weekend before we become parents. So when we saw them come back at lunch time, we thought, oh maybe they have just come back to get changed before they head out again. Ah NO! Grannie decided that she was really tired and didn't want to go anywhere so she was going to have a sleep, but it's okay, just carry on like we are not here. Sure - how the hell do you do that when there are things that you wanted to do around the house that create noise, and she wants to have a bloody sleep!

She got up at about 4pm and came out to annoy me in the lounge, where I had been having a nice little nap in the sunshine. She said to me, "do you mind us being here tomorrow evening since it is your last night at home". Sure it doesn't bother me, and it really doesn't, however the last lot of plans I heard was that you were going to be out all Sunday as well as Saturday, so that we could have sometime to ourselves again. But you make plans and then change them, so just do what you want as I don't really see the point in asking me because things are bound to change every 5 mins!

That set her back on her feet at bit, but to be honest, at this point I don't really care. Then Grandad appears from the bedroom to announce that he has a headache is going back to bed. See ya, and make sure the door don't hit you on the arse on the way out - oh I am so naughty!

I didn't realise they were coming to stay with us for respite care. I thought they were coming up to stay because we are having a baby! Stupid me. They have done nothing to help around the house. I am still cooking all the meals, theirs included. Doing their washing and cleaning up after them. They have both said to me "what can we do to help" well have a look around and you work it out. Grandad said he was going to mow the lawsn, but after 4 days we gave up and poor Farmer Brown raced around with the mower between working his but off on the farm and milkings. The responce to that was "oh Grandad was going to do them on the weekend", don't quite know how that was going to happen between sleeping 9 hours a day, having 6 headaches, going visiting and not being here so that we could be on our own for the las time!

Anyway moving on ...today they have gone and they will be back later this afternoon, probably just in time for me to cook them dinner tonight. Farmer Brown and I are going to his parents place after dinner to say our goodbyes, as we probably won't have time to call in to see them in the morning on our way off to hospital.

Hopefully we will both get a good nights rest, but probably not! I am getting so excited and I don't normally sleep particularly well at night anyway.

Seems so funny to think that we are heading off to Hamilton tomorrow and when we come back to the farm we will be parents! Seems like such a long time (all year in fact) that we have been pregnant and to finally be at the end stage is unreal!

We are prepared as much as we can be prepared. Considering you pretty much wing it after baby is born, I think we will be sweet! We have lots of adventures and exciting times ahead of us. We are both looking forward to being parents and having the continuing love and support of our family and close friends.

See you on the other side....

Induction Date...

Well we have a date to be induced now...Monday 8th of October, being admitted to hospital at 10am. Of course we don't really know when Mini will make his/her actual appearance and all going well he/she won't come early!

We are really happy to be induced next week as that means that we have been able to keep Mini on the inside until 39 weeks, which is of course better for bubs. This date depended on what happened at the scan and Obs team appointments that we had on Tuesday. The scan showed that Minis weight had increased by 2 pounds in 2 weeks. This in turn could mean that due to the fat distribution in a baby of a diabetic mother, the shoulders could get stuck. Worse case scenario for this is that, if it looks like baby will get stuck during labor, then we will have to have a cesarean. This is fine with us, as we will still be able to got with a natural birth to start with and hopefully to finish with too. I know that the health of our baby is most important so if the worse case does happened or baby is showing signs of distress, then that is sweet with both of us for the hospital team to do what they need to do. After all they are the professionals!

Funny feeling having a date to go to hospital. Still seems like such a long way away, but its only 5 days! We know that the induction process can take 24/48 hours before any action starts and we get moved to the delivery suite, but it is still really exciting. It has been fun trying to decide what to take to hospital with us. Do I take my hair straighteners or not! I mean after all people will be taking photos of me oh and the baby of course and would only be fair and proper that I look my normal amazing self!

I guess the most important thing to take when we go to hospital would be ME! And on the return trip the most important thing to bring home and not forget, would be the BABY! That's the basics covered so I think we are sorted!

The Grandparents have gone in to Hamilton today to do whatever it is that they do together. We have enjoyed having our house back to ourselves, even if it was only for a few hours. I must admit I have spent most of the day walking around in my undies and not wearing a bra, just because I could! Haha, its that small things that make you smile and happy!

Hope to post again before we pop, but if not we will see you when we are a family of three!

The Grandparents have arrived

Well the pending Grandparents arrived on Wednesday night from the South Island. They are staying with us until after the birth of Mini M.

We have our induction date now, which is: Monday 8th October!

We are both getting really excited and can't wait for our little one to arrive. Seems funny to have a date set for Mini's arrival, but as we know, even if you are being induced it can still take a couple of days, so the is excitment building.

Am finding that I am getting more and more uncomfortable as we reach the end of the pregnancy. There is not much room in the for the little one to move around now, but Mini is making sure that I know that he/she is in there!

We have our last growth scan on Tuesday, so as usual it will be great to "see" Mini again.

My Mum and I are going shopping for Mini this coming week, which will be lots of fun. I get to choose and she gets to pay - that system seems fine to me!

So it is going to be a week of "lasts" for us this coming week as we count down to the big day! Am going to make the most of spending this last week with Farmer Brown. We both know that our life is going to change so much once the little one arrives, however we don't really have any idea of how much it is going to change until Mini gets here!

In the mean time, will try and keep the posts going through the week, if I have time. Then we will post again after the little one pops out into this big wide world.

Take care out there...

The Countdown Begins...

So my little brother tells me this morning via email that I have been neglecting my page! So here I am. Let it not be said that I don't listen when people tell me to do something! haha!

So the countdown is on...the pending Grandparents (my mum and step father) arrive here from the South Island on Wednesday evening.

We have another day of appointments in the city tomorrow. We are on weekly visits now until the birth of our little one. Things have been moving along really well and it looks like Mini M may be able to stay on the inside until 39 weeks! It is going to be a week by week decision that the Doctors at the Hospital will determine. We have a scan tomorrow which is to check the growth of Mini M since last week. Mini's growth had dipped slightly which isn't a problem in itself, but something that needs to be kept an eye on, hence the weekly scans.

This past weekend was the last weekend we will have off on our own. The next time Farmer Brown has time off will be when we have baby! We managed to do somethings that we both enjoy. Was also great to take the opportunity to have some close family over for lunch at the farm on Sunday.

Can't believe that we are getting so close to the birth now. You know it seems to have been so long ago that I found out I was pregnant and now it is all racing up upon us at breakneck speed! We are hoping that we will be given a date for being induced tomorrow at our appointments at the Hospital. Fingers crossed!

Mini M doesn't have as much room to move on the inside now but still manages to find my bladder in the middle of the night. The movements are now more like squirming around. It is really funny to watch my tummy move about like there is an alien on the inside. Guess there is to a point huh! I talk to my tummy all the time, mostly laughing at it and telling Mini that it had better behave when it makes its grand entrance into this world!

We have so much to look forward to in the coming weeks. Might not get here every day or week but I will promise not to be so long between posts next time!

We Survived Ante-Natal Classes!

So we made it through the weekend of classes. The best part was, Farmer Brown didn't fall asleep once! He even said that he really enjoyed the classes and now better understands what is happening to me and to our pending little family!

There were six couples in our group, three from town and three from farms. Great group of people of varying backgrounds, ages and ethnicities. Four couples are having girls and myself and another couple are waiting until the birth to find out the sex of our babies.

I found it to be really informative. As a person who really enjoys learning and taking in knowledge, it satisfied me more than I expected. I said to Farmer Brown when we got home that as I have all this new knowledge fresh in my head right now, I want the baby to come now! Haha not really though, as it needs to cook a bit longer yet.

We learnt some cool tricks on how to do things with stuff we already have instead of having to buy expensive and unnecessary gadgets!

Was great to have a better understanding of pain medications and how they effect both me and the baby. Understanding all the different types of proceedures for giving birth, ie induction, forceps, ventouse etc.

We had a few good laughs with the practical things that we did. You could definately see that we are all keen new parents to be.

A big thank you to our educator, who made the weekend both enjoyable and non threatening. Pretty bloody good for a free ante-natal class if you ask me!

Next weekend some of my friends are having a Baby Shower for me. Can't wait to catch up with some that I haven't seen since I became pregnant!

Looking forward to another great weekend with great people!

Third Trimester Here We Come!

Well I can't believe that we have come this far. It seems like just the other day that I was sitting on side of the bed staring in disbelief that I was pregnant!

I feel amazing, which is more than I can say for the early part of my pregnancy. Thank goodness the morning sickness has gone but I do believe that it can come back in the last few weeks of term. Anyway I am glad not to be seeing too much of the inside of the loo!

Baby is so active, both day and night. Sometimes I wonder what the little thing is doing in there. Seems to me that I may be going to give birth to a bird, as it seems like it is trying to fly in there.

Tomorrow I have my monthly scan. I look forward to this each month as it means that I get to "see" Mini M. It is amazing to see how much baby has grown from month to month. I can definately tell from the outside that we are ever expanding thats for sure! I have my last monthly appointment with the Midwife on Wednesday, as we go to fortnightly appointments for a few times then down to weekly just before we give birth.

I have had my husband taking tummy photos of me so that I can share them with my family who are spread far and wide over the world. Thank goodness for the internet, as at least this way they too can join in the experience of my pregnancy!

Sleeping at night is becoming a premium. Unfortunately the little one seems to believe that if I am asleeep then it should be awake. And so the kicking begins! Turning over in bed seems to be more like a three point turn now. Then there is the nightly visit to the loo at about 2am that I look forward to - NOT!

Am not really complaining as I really am excited about being pregnant and growing this little human inside my tummy. It is a big responsibility but one that I am keen to take on.  My husband and I are scared, terrified, excited and happy all at the same time.

Well I look forward to "seeing" the little one tomorrow. Will keep you posted on our progress!

Off to Day Care...

Well it was an exciting day in the household of one of best friends. Her six month son was off to his first day at day care.

Off he went with his backpack packed with goodies and clean clothes for the day ahead. Pity that it was raining but I am sure that this would not dampen his spirits for the days adventure!

Mum was brave and no tears were shed by either her or her son. In fact Mum had a great day visiting the hairdressers, as she is back to work herself in a weeks time. She had a fabulous lunch with a couple of amazing people (myself included haha), then home for chores to be done before remembering to pick up the little one at the end of the day!

All reports were that the little one had a great day. Started off a bit teary but ended up on a high and I think is prepared to go back tomorrow!

We have named this week Sarah's week, as she is due back to work on the coming Monday. We have plans for most days this week. They include: lunch, movies, DVD day, shopping and more lunch dates! Got to make the most of it before the end of the week!

Well I am proud of both her and her beautiful son. No one looks forward to going back to work after giving birth over six months ago. I think she is very brave and strong. Don't know how I would feel if I had to go back to work after our little one is born.

Enjoy your week little one and look forward to making new friends at day care.

Melbourne in B&W