Christmas is coming!

We leave for England on the 23rd Dec and won't be back 'til the very end of Jan.

Yesterday we gave the pickle her electric car and her swing as we are not going to be here for Christmas. We figured she might as well get some use out of it. She loved the car and can hold the pedal down to make it go. Not long and she will be able to drive herself to playgroup! It does, however, play an annoying tinny tune when you press the horn. Might have to look into disconnecting that one!

As for the swing, she would happily sit in it for hours, even with no-one pushing her! This morning she really didn't want to get out so I left her there while I washed up the breakfast things, going out periodically to give her a push! Big smiles and a 'weeeeeeeeeeee' (I could see her through the window, she wasn't abandoned!)

She is very much a chatterbox lately, she just gabbles on making no sense whatsoever but it is very cute. Every day she comes up with a new word though. Latest would be 'ni night', while trying to make the weeble lie down in its bed, pretty funny because as you may or may not know weebles don't lie down!

I have spent 10 minutes trying to remember my password for this blog! Something tells me that yet again I have left it too long! Much has happened in the interim!

Pickle turned one and had a rubber duckie themed party, It was a lot of work and bit stressful but fun to organise! The venue was at a beachside park, the food was purely yellow and there was even duck wraps which some thought was a little sick, I just thought it was funny! The cake was the hardest to do, the icing was melting during photos and looked a little drippy! But hey, this is Australia, what can you expect!?

Tom is nearing the end of his four months with us, it has been fun! We didn't get to go to very many places but we had some good times and Tom took plenty of photos!

We saw glow worms at a place called natural bridge (what an imaginative name for a place) I have always wanted to see glowworms and they were pretty! Strange bluey green pricks of light like looking up at a starry sky!

Paul has finished his uni course and is now applying for the police force. In the meanwhile stair-building work has picked up so the pressure is off concerning the money side of things.

I have sisters to look after 2 days a week, 9 weeks old and 2 years. Very cute and well behaved kids! Good job really because it would be a bit stressful if they weren't with the three of them!

I have just spent a weekend looking after a friends baby, only 1 week younger than Amélie. The first day we had great fun but the second was a bit more whingy. I am worried she will never want to visit again due to fear of being left here!

Hopefully I will be more consistent about updating the blog but I am sure I have said that before so no promises!

9 months old and growing fast!

Pick was 9 months old on ANZAC day. We ate ANZAC biscuits, that was the extent of our observation of the day. I didn't realize til the next day that she was 9 months old - so no 9 month old piccies unfortunately!

My lil bro is coming to visit very soon. He's got a 'professional' camera, so P and I are excited to scrub up and have a nice family shot done.

Pickle is cruising the furniture, becoming very vocal and growing out of her clothes! She shouts NU (sounds a bit like no) and DAD, I don't think she knows what she's saying but it feels good to pretend she does. Although on 2nd thoughts I really don't want her first word to be no!

She eats loads of different stuff now, although boobs are still the main course, at the moment avo and kiwi are her favourite.

She had her first real 'sickness' this month, temp of 39.3. All OK now though, phew!

In other news (I do have other news you know) P has decided to try out for the police force. Uni starts in July for a couple of months and then he will apply. We're excited about the new direction!

Had another lady apply for family day care, with an 11 month old. She is interested but has no job as yet. One day it will all get going I'm sure!

Our computer was offline for a while (again!) who knew that you had to have virus protection AND spy ware protection? not me, that's for sure!

Pickle will be 9 months very soon, doesn't time fly? Racing to grab the DVD's from the TV unit is a new favourite game of ours! She usually wins.

Pulling up to stand on anything that stands still longer than 5 seconds is also the flavour of the day. So Mummy washing up is a good one. Can't get the rubber gloves off fast enough as she's pulling down my trousers.

Family Day Care is up and running, or will be as soon as I get customers. I think the pickle scared off the little boy who came to visit by using him to stand up on and then pulling his hair. Asserting herself early that one!

The 'sleep plan' mentioned in earlier post never came to fruition (as in it didn't work) ah well I just keep telling myself she loves me so much, she has to see me through the day AND the night.

She was slightly confused earlier when I went to get her from her nap, I had just had a shower and had my hair pulled back, she stared at me strangely. I usually get a big smile when I go in to get her. Then she caught sight of the back of my head, and there came the smile - she was missing my hair - ah there it is, gave ponytail a good yank just to make sure and tried to stuff it into her mouth. Try to picture my one inch ponytail, it's not going very far!

Miss pickle is still blowing rasberries at every opportunity, it's cute but less so when she has a mouthful of food! Lets just hope she grows out of it, P still does it and he's 32!

We had a swimming lesson, the princess now goes under the water (when dipped by the teacher) and 'jumps' off the side of the pool with her eyes closed! I tried to maximise the rasberry blowing by getting her to blow bubbles under water but she hasn't quite got the idea yet, although she watched me do it very closely.

I'm not going to mention sleeping because it's the same old same old, except to say we have a new plan and if it works I will be one happy Mummy.

We still have 3 and a half teeth, she fell off P and hit her face on the wood floor and her 4th tooth seems to have shrunk? I don't think she chipped it, but if she did I know who was looking after her when it happened!
(What can I really say at least he wasn't sleeping as she rolled off the bed!)

We found a lovely new playgroup, and I made a new friend, but I managed to wash her phone number, whoops! Hope she comes again next week?

P's Mum was here for the month of Feb. It was very useful, being able to go have a shower without waiting for nap-time! Thank's Grandma!

It made me realise how much I miss my Mum though, boo. I hope we manage to get back to the UK sometime in the new year.

Visited with a friend today and her Mum was there. We like to compare babies as they are only a week apart in age. It's all in fun, but the race is on to see who is first to learn to clap their hands!

Watch this space!

Pickle says mumumumumum when she is sad, dadadadadad when she is happy. bubububub and blubblubblub.

where have i been!?!

I'm just really bad at remembering to write! But I will try harder!

Today I did day one of a first-aid course, and boy it was boring! I will be starting family-day care (childminding) as soon as all the bits in the house and yard are finished. I would prefer not to work but that's not just me hey?! And at least this way I get to stay with Miss pickle and not miss one minute!
So Daddy was going to look after The pickle all by himself today and I even wrote him out a timetable so he would know what to do. But my friend ended up doing the morning and Paul took over at lunch-time. Next week he will have to do it all by himself though!
We got this dragging kind of crawling going on, and it's all very exciting, have to get some stairgates on pretty soon, and lower the cot base before we have another accident... that would be falling out of the big bed because Mummy fell back to sleep and baby didn't ! Big bump and I felt so sick! I couldn't even eat my brekkie!
Three teeth too! First one came at 6 months, 2nd at 7 months 3rd popped out this week and looks like a 4th and 5th in the next few days! Poor cherub is suffering a bit with it, snotty nose and the sneezes, but she's generally such a happy little soul!
Sleep not much better, usually a good night (2 wakes) alternated with a bad night (4-5 wakes)
So getting some repreive but not enough to make me a fully functioning human being! I try to look at it as a privelige (sp? it's late!) but sometimes thats hard at 2 in the morning, but still... I am honoured to be her Mother.

So here's to the new years (who am I kidding?) resolution to write on my blog! cheers!

16 weeks ago I was in hospital...waiting!

It's been a good few weeks since I wrote anything, but what can I say!? The baby keeps me busy! We also got a virus through facebook and the laptop was at the doctors for a while.

Amélie is going to be 16 weeks tomorrow (14th Nov) and it feels like it has gone so fast, like everybody said it would. In another way though it feels like she has been here forever.

I am still in awe of the fact that I have complete and utter responsibility for another human being!

We read books together everyday, she really enjoys it and even has favourites, she looks at the pictures and laughs and sometimes even joins in!

She's not rolling over yet, she also doesn't like to be on her belly so I don't do 'tummy-time' like I should.

Her sleep is still all over the place, somedays it's good, others not so good. Mostly I walk around like a zombie. Some days I know not even to get in the car as it would be dangerous!

We go to a 'new mothers' group but that will be finishing in a couple of weeks so I am trying to get a regular mothers group up together also a 'pram push' group of mummies who want to walk. There is a pram push already but it costs $5! For what I want to know! How can walking cost money?!?

Christmas is coming, pretty unbelievable that it will be our second in Australia! Hopefully bubby will be into the presents (or at least the paper!) We got her a peek-a-blocks toy and some Mem Fox books already. I tested out a talking Elmo at the shop and she loved it (he blows kisses) but we really can't justify all that money!

Hopefully it won't be as long when I get a chance to write again!

baby dramas

Well at 12 weeks (and 5 days) I thought we had the waking up down to 3 times a night, with one block of 5 hours at the beginning of the night, which was actually fine by me, but last night she went down at 8 and woke up 5 TIMES (at 11, then 1ish, 1ish, 3ish and 5ish.) She went back down at 8 but was disturbed by P slamming the front door on his way out to work.

It's easier and quicker to feed her (20min) than try and rock or pat her back to sleep in the middle of the night (about an hour or more!) although I always try to get her back to sleep first. It works 50% of the time.

She has just gone back to sleep now (11.20) and although i've been up since 5 I don't think i could sleep now. So it was a toss up between a shower or internet, internet won!

She is a very happy contented baby most of the time, she's pretty portable and loves being out. She doesn't like being strapped in the car but does fall asleep there after a little while. She finds it hard to sleep in new places, I think she is just a bit too nosey and doesn't want to miss anything!

She likes the bath, although she is touching both ends of the baby bath now. I don't like to waste water in the big bath, especially now we have water restrictions again, but looks like I will have no choice soon!

She makes big smiles all the time now, I got her a swing for her 12 week birthday she was full of smiles as soon as I put her in it, I hadn't even put the batteries in yet! It plays squeaky music and rocks by itself, perfect for 10 minutes to eat my dinner! although there is no substitute for real cuddles of course!

She did fall asleep in it the other day though, when I popped her in to go to the loo, I came back she was sound! I left her there and she slept for 2 hours! - what a bad Mummy! don't tell my CHN!

People keep commenting on her lack of hair - HOW RUDE! She actually has quite a bit, it's just really fair. But apparently is's just tooo funny to resist making a comparison between her and her daddy?

Well i'm off for a shower, just don't wake the baby!

Beachy!

Here's P on the beach last summer, doing his monkey impression.

Change in blog!

My old blog site was a bit rubbish, it wouldn't let me write new posts half the time, so when I did get 'round to writing I was unable to publish.
So I moved the main posts over to here and hopefully this will prove to be a more reliable website! We shall see!

I put Twilight on hold at the library, I was 26th in line, if all the people before me had kept it for the 2 weeks I would have been reading it this time next year! So I was surprised to get the call that the book was in, but when I collected it, I noticed it was a brand new book, so I guess they bought it just for me!
I read when the bubby is feeding, but she is getting a bit quick lately, so it's just 10 minute bursts! I was scared to start reading it. There was such a lot of people saying how good it was and I thought I might be disappointed. I'm not much of a Harry Potter fan and everyone had said how good that was too.
Not that I'm comparing it to Harry Potter, just that peoples opinions aren't always right if you know what I mean? So far I am quite enjoying it, although it's hard to concentrate in my sleep deprived state, it appears to be easy to follow, here's hoping it doesn't get complicated...

We went to the beach yesterday (sat in the shade of course) and hubby went in the water for the first time this season. I wanted to put bubby's feet in the water but the suncream says 12 months up and I didn't dare budge from the shade with her. She would probably have cried at the cold water anyway and I don't want her first experience of the ocean to be a bad one!

Driving test

I was scared of driving. Not just ordinary nerves but real fear. I had a greater need though; I couldn't face being stuck at home with my baby 24/7. And that took over the driving fear and I finally got the courage to start lessons up again.
The first instructor I tried was not nice, swore a lot but didn't talk to me apart from that.
I found someone I liked but stalled again over the Christmas period and had to pluck up courage to start AGAIN a few months back. And finally on 9th July 2008......At 11.40am my driving instructor, Alan, arrived to take me to the test centre for a 1.10 pm test. He was 20 minutes early but guess what? I was ready! I had spent the whole morning doing my best at relaxing breathing and positive visualising. (Who said birth classes were a waste of time!)
Even though we were early we still didn't have time to go round all the places that the test 'might' be so Alan just took a guess. I don't think I took any of it in though, too busy being scared. Not that it mattered, cus I didn't go that way anyway!
Baby spent the whole hour lesson kicking up a storm, she hates the pressure of the seatbelt anyway but with all the adrenaline too she really was manic! Arrived at the test centre DYING for the bathroom!I was the examiners birthday, I told him I would have bought cake, anything if he would go easy on me! but he went easy on me anyway! I really think (and Alan did too) that he made allowances for the giant baby bump! He wasn't bothered about manouvers (3 point turn etc) cus he could see I wasn't too comfortable turning round. He spent most of the time asking about the baby and telling me 'you'll be ok' and 'you're doing fine'
At one point I even said 'I'm really not doing very well' and he disagreed.

31 years old and 7 and a half months pregnant. Been in more bumps and scrapes than I can think of plus counselling for a serious accident. Been through 5 driving instructors in the UK and 3 in Australia. Been told I'm unteachable.
But guess what...I passed!

Heres hoping the birth goes just as smoothly!

Birth - Thursday 24th July 2008

4 weeks and 5 days until due date
I woke at about 6.15am to a warm gush of waters, shocked, I stood up to another flood. I knew straight away what it was.
Panicked and disorientated I headed for the door to phone Paul, I stopped short though as I remembered that the floors from the hallway to the kitchen had been sanded but Paul had yet to finish the painting. I couldn't get to either phone without crossing the floor and my waters were still leaking fairly heavily. I didn't want to stain the floor for evermore! I frantically looked around for something to soak it up while I made the dash for the phone. I had just decided on a pillow when I heard Paul, just about to leave for work. I shouted out to him that my waters had broken but I don't think he believed me, he said something like 'are you sure?' before coming in and seeing for his self that I was not mistaken!
All this time I was thinking 'this isn't right, it's too early' and was quite frightened. I had no contractions at all. I got Paul to bring me the phone and I called the maternity unit at John Flynn hospital. They told me to wait and see what happened and to call back in an hour by which time my obstetrician, Dr Dutt would be 'walking around' I guess that meant 'at work'!
During the hour I led in bed panicking I tried to relax and slow my breathing and eventually I got Paul to bring me all the books on birth that I had, where I looked up as much information about early membrane rupture as I could! This settled me a little bit. I could still feel the odd movement of baby too, which was reassuring.
When the hour was up I had still had no contractions whatsoever (looking back I think I had a couple of very mild ones but didn't know what they felt like) and phoned the hospital to tell them. The midwife told me to come in and get checked over, but not to rush, just head in when I could.So, I had a shower, messed about for a bit (Paul couldn't find his shoes!) And went for the 2 minute drive to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital at around 8am All the labour rooms were full when we got there so we were in a side room while they waited for one to become free. I was told that Dr Dutt was on his way. Baby was checked and her heartbeat was good and strong. The midwife told me to rest.Had a few pains and got excited, but they were irregular and then stopped altogether. Had a canula put in for the anti biotics.
Paul asked if he thought I would be able to go home but the midwife was pretty sure that the doctor would want me to stay. So it was a matter of waiting for the Dr to come see me and find out what to do next, and waiting, and waiting! We were finally moved to a birthing suite (hooray the one with the big bath!)At the change of shift the new midwife decided I should be walking around trying to bring the contractions on, so she showed me where the stairs were and I spent the next couple of hours going up and down, up and down! I decided at one point that 'up' worked and 'down' didn't so walked to the 6th floor and took the lift down to the basement a couple of times.
Paul left at some point in my 'walking' to go get my overnight bag and pack a few of bubby's things.On one of my long ascents I heard a voice calling my name, My obstetrician Dr Dutt had arrived at last and my midwife couldn't find me! This was about 5 o clock. He looked at me and said, do you want this baby tonight or tomorrow? I thought for a minute and answered, I'd rather have it tomorrow naturally than tonight... he agreed with me that I could wait, but if labour didn't start naturally by the morning then I would need to be 'augmented' it wasn't induction as m waters had already broken.
So we were back to the waiting game. Another midwife change then, At about 8ish we were asked if we would move to a different birthing suite as there was a lady waiting who was ready to pop. We agreed as there really wasn't anything happening with me. No big or regular contractions and still leaking fluid so having to go to the bathroom every few hours but I managed too sleep a few hours that night and hooray!
The same midwife as the night before was back in the morning, her name was Katherine. She organised the Syntocinon (a synthetic form of the hormone oxytocin) drip ready for me and we waited a little bit for the go ahead from the doctor.At about 10am she started me on a low dose and gradually built it up over time, so as to reduce the likelihood of me screaming for pain relief! I started off on the bed with all the monitors on, but Kath said I could get up and move around whenever I wanted. I rode them out for quite a while. At 12 midday I had an internal I was 2-3cm dilated. I was offered gas but wasn't in so much pain that I thought I couldn't handle it and was worried that it might got a lot worse, so I held out. Kath thought I had a high pain threshold – whoopee for me!I sat up on the edge of the bed for a little bit, Paul sat facing me on a stool and I would lean onto him when the contractions kicked in. Unfortunately every time I did lean forward the babies heartbeat would slow, not sure if this was just a break between the monitor and baby Kath asked me to do one without leaning forward – that was too hard! Paul warmed up the wheat pack for me and putting that on my belly helped a lot. Gave Kath the excuse to pump up the drip another notch though. It was really getting pretty unbearable now and had a few tears.Got in the shower at about this point with one warm water stream pointing at my back and a hand held shower on my belly. (stuff the water restrictions ey?!) Trying really hard to focus on letting the contractions 'go' and do their job instead of gritting my teeth and holding on to them. I vocalised the pain 'owwww'. Paul sat opposite me and held the shower during contractions. This was working pretty well for me and I was still able to talk in between! Changed the hard little stool in the shower for the ball and that helped too.
After a while I thought I could get out of the shower and try something different but as I was drying off a contraction hit and I realised how much the water was helping so I got back in.3.00pm The midwife's shift was over and I got a different midwife, also called Kathryn. She told me that I would have to get out of the shower so she could do an internal. I was NOT happy about that. The internal was more painful than anything up to this point. I was 9cm – I WAS happy about that! From 2 – 9cm in 3 hours was pretty good. She let me get in the bath, that felt so nice, even better than the shower. I leaned forward onto the side of the bath and Paul poured water on my back. I think now is when I really started to vocalise as the contractions felt a lot worse though and I felt faint and scared. Kathryn gave me some oxygen. She forgot to turn it on first of all, I wondered why it was so hard to suck! She kept using the waterproof heart monitor for the baby and it was reassuring to hear the babies heartbeat good and strong every time.
Eventually I felt like I needed to push, Kathryn asked me to get out of the water as there were just 'too many risks' I told Paul to tell her that Dr Dutt had said I was allowed to birth in the water as long as the baby was doing well, I still had to get out though. (Here is where I wish I had insisted and also wish I had Paul in the water with me as I felt quite spacey and needed something solid to hold onto) So I was up onto the bed for the last bit.
Apparently I pushed for around 45 minutes although I couldn't tell at all, it felt like a much shorter time. At each push I could feel progress but then it felt like the head would return to where it was before, I was so frustrated.At some point the doctor was there, he said there was just a little bit of cervix stopping the head coming out. He tried to stretch it with his finger, that HURT. If I didn't get it out on the next push he would cut. Boy, did I push then! As regards the pain, this was absolutely the worst bit, helped only by the fact that it was the 'last' bit of pain and would be all over soon.
5.13pm Dr Dutt said 'show me your hands' I held them up and he put the baby into them. She was pink and white, heavy, solid and real. I couldn't quite believe what I had in my arms. After all the noise I had been making I lay quiet and watched as the paediatrician checked her over and wrapped her in big towels to keep her warm, I can remember saying 'my baby' very quietly to myself, I didn't cry like I thought I would, because I don't think I believed it.
I was given an injection and the placenta was delivered, I saw it out of the corner of my eye but really wasn't too interested. I had struggled over the decision about whether to have the injection or deliver it naturally, but the baby was out and I really didn't care any more I just wanted the whole thing over.
The midwife asked for her to be unwrapped and put her on me skin to skin, she put her on the breast straight away. I know this from the photographs but can't remember anything from Dr Dutt stitching me up to saying 'I don't feel well' when I had a bleed and lots of people rushed in and poked and prodded me more. My temp was 101 and BP something over 30. Another drip to stop the bleeding, catheter and lots of pushing on my belly – and I thought the pain ended with the birth, I was wrong.
Don't know where the baby was, I told Paul to go find her. He wouldn't until I was feeling a bit better. Paul answered his mobile phone too at some point, and someone would have heard my screams. Next time phones will be banned.
Did I just say next time? Have I forgotten already?
Amélie Rose Jacobs, born 25-07-08 at 17.13 weighing 2870 grams (6lb 4) length 50cm head 34.5cm