the wee small hours

2.26 to be exact right now.

I went to bed at 11, and was finally getting to that falling asleep part when someone else woke up......

so guess who's been up ever since


Babykins has

we finally gave up on the getting back to sleep when she managed to wake daddy as well, so now we're downstairs and she's happily watching the goodnight show while i try to stay awake.

This has unfortunately become a rather regular occurance, second time in three nights, i think she missed the memo that you're supposed to sleep when it's dark outside. it doesn't help that she has another top tooth coming in and that today was the second dose of her flu jab, but she's all dosed up on baby tylenol and bonjela and still doesn't want to sleep. I really don't get the pattern either, it's not like she went down at 6 which we noticed a while ago if she went to bed really early you can guarentee a middle of the night session. She went to bed around 8 her normal time and for some reason decided after 4 hours that it was time to get up.

You'd think that the fact that she's walking and has pretty good balance, is trying to climb everything she possibly can and is into everything would wear her out more but that doesn't seem to be the case.we're lucky if a nap lasts more than 45 mins and theres only ever one these days (not three like her cousin) She's constantly on the move and doing everything so why is she not sleeping the sleep of the tired from a day of fun baby.

and now the cat is trying to claim my lap

til the next middle of the night adventure

It's all go

It is.

Here in the Babykins Household, everything is constantly changing. Our nap pattern has changed, we want to be on our feet all the time, we've left bottles behind and are now firmly using our sippy cups, we're talking lots and lots and theres this stubborn little look appearing when you say....no.

For Babykins, it's a never ending adventure of discovery. For mummy and daddy it feels like never ending exhaustion.

She loves music. The one thing guarenteed to grab her attention is any kind of music on the TV. She adores the Wiggles, and her very favourite song (yes she has a favourite already) is Rock-a-bye your Bear. In her quest to be ever on her feet, we're falling over a lot. Most of the time she'll just get right back up like nothing happened but ocassionally we need cuddles and sometimes for a big bump we need you tube and the ready video's of the Wiggles to calm the frustration.

She's also loving going to the tot lot and playing in the swing, I've always loved the swing so it's nice to see that she loves it too. She likes the slides as well as long as someones holding her, she's facinated by things that are going on and has to see everything when we're out. She's now a big girl who can sit in a highchair when we go out for meals and have some bits of finger food while we're eating. She loves sitting in the shopping trolley when we go to get things, and right now she has a thing about straws...she likes to play with straws while we're walking around. It's quite funny.

She also knows what she likes. She picked out her new pair of Pj's and held them while we shopped.

The best thing lately.......she's giving kisses on a more regular basis and she likes to cuddle when she's watching TV sometimes...

I love those cuddles.

One of those weekends......

so we knew I was having problems with the gall bladder after a trip to ER during one of my late night attacks at the begining of the month. I had these pains for at least half of the pregnancy, sometimes a week would pass without any othertimes 3 out of 4 nights I'd be up wincing with pain - put down by my OB as everything is getting squished up and protesting don't worry about it. the last attack had been just after babykins had been born while everything was still shifting back and then nothing......

til the week before July 4th when I had a late night attack that lasted hours and nothing worked, not the painkillers or anything else.....next time it happens said I we'll book an appointment and see the doc.....

3am on the morning of the 5th found Xero rousing babykins from her sleep to put her in the car and drive me to someone, none of the local emergency walk in places were open so off to the ER we went. A few hours and some morphine later the bloods came back indicating gall bladder and a small scan confirmed it. Saw our Docs office that afternoon and booked in to see a surgeon the following monday. That weekend was sore but the pain meds they'd perscribed were keeping things at bay enough for me to keep going. Saw the Surgeon who wanted a proper scan done just to document things since they couldn't get any details from the ER but since he was 99.9% sure he also went ahead and got us to schedule the removal of said gall bladder. Had the scan Wednesday and was very very achy afterwards, pain continued at achy but manageable until friday lunchtime when it got excruciating.....a bout of vomiting later and we were back in the car on our way to ER, So much pain I know I nearly passed out a few times. Bloods, meds, another Scan, said I'd developed Pancreatitis as well and they wanted me admitted, got transfered tothe hospital our surgeon works out of since he was already on the case and after quite some chasing up the on call doc actually perscribed more than one dose of painkillers to last through the night. IV hooked back up and Xero took babykins home, she'd been an absolute trooper and his Aunts arrived to stay the night with me because he didn't want to leave me on my own.

Saturday started with a visit from my surgeon......who explained what was going on, but couldn't figure out why the ER had told him one thing and me another (that there was a visible gallstone in my pancreas - the scans they sent over didn't show this) so we had xrays and an MRI to take a closer look, the Gastro-enterologists nurse practicioner came that evening and talked to me about what they didn't find and the possibility of them scoping me and was very nice. Next morning my Doc was back to explain that although nothing obvious showed in the MRI my blood levels were still all over the shop and he suspected that there might be something in there they couldn't see so they had decided to scope to make sure. Sunday was fairly quiet, I'd spiked a fever the night before and the pain had been lessening since then - did i pass a stone perhaps...we'll never know, but they did let me have a liquid diet for the day and Jello has never tasted so good.

Monday I got scoped, luckily they knock you out completely because I'm not sure I could cope with a tube down while still awake. I wasn't out long, they found nothing there, so the all clear was given for the already Scheduled surgery on tuesday. Tuesday I had surgery, Laproscopically done so I have 4 fairly tiny scars on my belly, surgery went well they tell me, i was out quicker than estimated and back to my room to continue recovery in just a few hours. I did feel sick after so had some meds for that which meant I had to eat and not be nauseous for a few hours before they'd let me go home. We finally got home at nearly half 8 last night to a very tired babykins who was still very stressed by all the crazy goings on. Grandma had driven down from Ohio on saturday so she could take care of babykins and she's been a real help in keeping her in a routine and in her familiar place with her toys and everything and bringing her to the hospital to see me as well. I know it's been hard on poor babykins to suddenly not have the one person who is always here, there.

So today has been challenging, I can't lift or carry or even pick babykins up because she's too heavy with just having had the surgery. the scars are in places that if she gets fussy with her feed she can really hurt me with a well place elbow or knee, she's been quite happy to have me home I know that but i feel like theres not much i can do with her, even though i know i need to recover and heal up myself.

On a positive note My Dad has finally been given the all clear to fly and is coming out with mum on Friday to take over babykins wrangling and sick cattiekins nursing from grandma. We're excited about this because although he's talked to Babykins on the phone and over the Skype video, they have yet to meet in person. I know he's been itching to get here for cuddles and to meet his youngest granddaughter properly.

Now i really should go take some meds and then go to bed once they kick in......

goodnight blog

time flys......

.....and remembering to blog is something thats not ingrained into my system yet, that and the last few months have been a whirlwind of events and stuff.

We had babykins baptism, she wore the replica of L's grandmothers robe and it was a hot May sunday. There were lots of family there to see it along with her godparents, her Aunt Kristen, Uncle Richard and our dear friend Anne. My great Aunt flew up from Florida to spend a few days with us for it, and my uncle and cousin flew down from Canada to do the same. It was a really nice ceremony, she behaved so well during the whole thing, smiling and gurgling.....no tears until afterwards when she was starting to get a bit hungry.

Babykins and her godparents

Nanny then stayed with us an extra couple of weeks to spend some time with babykins, grandad is yet to make it over the big pond to see her because of ongoing tests, something we hope will be over and sorted very soon. During this time babykins started talking.....firstly it was baba the day before everyone flew in, followed soon by dada which remains her favourite. before nanny flew home we'd also had a mama and nana though these are still scarce - it's like the baby in Dinosaurs she knows you want her to say it so she won't say it. She also started soldier crawling, but of course has decided that rolling is faster and now rolls everywhere and anywhere rather than crawling. We've started sitting up on our own and can nearly get ourselves from our tummy to sitting without help, we also like standing and taking the weight on our legs and can stand holding onto something.

June was also a busy month as well as a hot one. We had her little cousin's baptism (we say little he's bigger than her but two months younger), which was on yet another extra hot day, and meant babykins got to spend time with grandma and pop. We started to react to the cat and want to play with her. Mitzi has been really good and the few times Babykins has grabbed rather than petted she's not reacted like she would if one of us did it....I'd expect claws if i tugged her tail like that...baykins got a head whipped round and then a relax....it's like she knows the baby doesn't mean it and doesn't mean to hurt her. On the other hand babykins has decided it's fun to yank mummys hair by grabbing it at the roots which means it doesn't matter how I wear it or if I had it cut- pull she will continue to do.....I've had some success with saying OW loudly when she pulls but it doesn't always work.

The end of June was also the time when we visited the beach for the very first time and saw the Ocean. We liked looking at the ocean and we liked the dry sand on our toes......but the minute the waves hit mummy while mummy was holding us.....did not like, or getting her feet wet, though I made sure she wasn't immediately whisked away and 'paddled' for a little bit. We did however love rolling around the floor at the OP house and showing Grandma and Pop what a big girl we were eating all our food and the puffs she likes so much as well as sitting nicely and standing up holding onto the table.

with mummy looking at the Ocean

So why such a late night post, well someone likes to vary her bedtime depending on her mood and she's only just gone down after a long day. Mummy's on pain meds for a hopefully soon to be gone gallbladder, which means she was playing Daddy up when he's been trying to get her to go to bed. Daddy has been a trooper with her this weekend and hopefully we'll have news and be able to book a nanny or grandma to come help while I have and recover from surgery......She'll love having someone extra here to be cute with.

of teething and lack of naps....

Babykins is not a baby who likes napping. Naps are a thing to be shunned and ignored and fought against for as long as possible. Even when we try to have a quiet time to aid the ability to nap just doesn't work she will fight her way through.

The one thing she does like is the carrier, but even that can take a long time to aid the napping process and there is no guarantee that on carefully taking it off that she will remain asleep long enough to put her down. So when she does nap I try hard to get as much in and as much done as i can and this leads to tired mummy.

We're also on a teething jag right now which probably isn't helping the napping, she's constantly chomping on something and pulling fingers to her mouth to chew on.  I know it's going to get worse before it gets better.

And babykins is getting very very talkative, she spent ages yesterday talking to her nanny and cousins over in England. She loved it. I did too, after she talked to my eldest niece we talked to my eldest nephew who at 8 was very interested in what babykins calls me and his uncle and telling her that her mummy is his god mummy. He was also very concerned and told me all about that there had been an earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the tsunami had reached America and had it got to us......I told him we were fine that we're the far side from Japan and it didn't get anywhere near us.....he does worry so much  - bless him

Carrots are yummy....

that is the verdict from babykins. They are far yummier than the baby rice was and she complained at me a little while ago when they were all gone for today.

Another couple of days and then we'll get to see how yummy she thinks something else is, probably sweet potatoes

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babykins is insisting on helping with this.....i this that says get off the notebook mummy and play with me.....

hello again dark O'thirty

Any who knows me well, knows I am not a morning person.

I never have been.

Don't get me wrong, if I have to be up I can do it, just don't expect me to be coherent or sunshine and daisies for a few hours. When I used to work I had three alarm clocks to get me up for my awesome 2 hour commute - those two hours gave me the time to wake up and be semi-human by the time I reached the office or site depending on the day.

Once I moved over here we had a small double for two not so small people, and my natural body clock soon asserted itself so I was up til 2-3am and then I'd go to bed and Xero would be up at 4 for work and it was all good, tiny bed didn't lend itself to both of us sleeping at the same time for extended periods. We got a new bigger bed when we got the house and this is awesome, especially now with sleep patterns being all over the place.

See, we don't have babykins on a set schedule. I think she's taking after me as a baby. She will not go down in the bassinet if she is dozy or still awake in any way, shape. or form. When we've tried no one gets any sleep. She often falls asleep after her last feed if not during it, but this can be anytime between 6pm and midnight, depending on how tired she is and if she has napped during the day. She also seems to be getting into the habit of waking up at 5am regardless of what time she went to bed. I can hear you saying what about the nights she doesn't go to sleep at her feeding. Well those are the nights when mummy straps on the infantino carrier (which is awesome btw) and walks around the house, up and down the stairs until she drops off to sleep. It's probably a good job she likes the carrier, babykins has this big grin everytime she sees it because she knows it means we're going outside or she's going to get cuddles and singing while we wander around the house at all hours of the night.

Now if I could just catch up with myself and sleep I'd be as happy as a nitwit psychic wombat. However the sleep eludes me. I'm exhausted most nights and go to bed at the same time as we put babykins down (to do otherwize would be setting up for disaster) but of course 6pm is too early and I'm wide awake....9pm is a good time but then I spend half the night awake for various reasons, I wake everytime i turn over.....I wake because we have the lamp on and I can't sleep with the lamp on unless I'm utterly exhuasted and that only happens every few days. I know I'm not sleeping anywhere near as deeply as i used to which may also be adding to the general feeling of tiredness all the time.

And regardless of all this come 5am on a large percentage of mornings......the sweet and dulcet cooing of Babykins starts up with the is anyone awake  "oooooooo" and if she doesn't see a face soon.....ramps up to the wake up before I start screaming "aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh". She's such a happy and smily girl you can't be cross and when you look over the edge of the bassinet and her little twinkling eyes see you and this big grin spreads across her face........

well hello then my old friend 5am.....nice to see you again....lets enjoy together the quiet that comes with a contently feeding baby.

And lets ignore the crazy cat who thinks it's time to charge around the house playing with everything and demanding attention........it's babykins time.....not furbaby time

The difference a year makes

This time last year we had as of about 7:30am found out that we were just over 6 weeks pregnant with babykins

and today, a whole year on to the day, we have the most wonderful little girl in the world. Just look at how much she's grown.

It's hard to believe she's almost 5 months old......and still in her 0-3month clothing.....lol

oh such a Glamourous life I lead

This was the thought that was running through my head this morning about 45 mins after I'd gotten up. Babykins had been fed, we were snuggling and getting her wind up when the unmistakable feeling of hot, wet spit up running down my cleavage happened. No one ever warns you of these 'special' moments, or that your little one will then happily lay on the bed while you find a change of everything and giggle at you.

I don't know how some of these celebrity mom's manage to look so glamorous all the time mere days after having their latest baby - well yes I do - they have an army of helpers willing to take and feed the little one and pamper the mother til she looks like a goddess. There's the constant - she got her figure back in 8 weeks - you can too........

yes right that'll be in my dreams.

Babykins is a happy little thing, but she likes to have the time and complete attention of one adult at all times while she's awake. She's coming up to 5 months and is full of curiosity about everything. She loves watching Top Gear (why is my daughter already into high speed cars?) and for some reason, the weather channel.....especially the radar maps.....I think its the colours that grab her attention. Right now that's what she's doing watching the weather while concentrating very hard on a lovely smelly diaper for mummy.

I shouldn't complain, so I have no time to exercise regularly, but I get to play with the prettiest little girl in the world. The house is a mess, but when you only get an hours worth of nap a day you learn to prioritise  and getting a meal for me has become more important than dusting the house, and the dust bunnies are happily playing with the cat, so it's all good. Then April is coming up and the lull in the  HPKCHC should give me a little more time to throw at getting this house tidy and well it'll never be spotless but at least it can be said that we definitely live life in this house.

In other news, babykins has started eating real food - well baby rice. This is huge for me because it gives me a small break from her being on the boob almost all the time. she goes an extra hour between feeds when she's had the rice before her dose of mummy milk and I can't wait until the end of this week when we can start the next step of the food adventure and try.......carrots and then theres all the fun of sweet potato, peas, squash....and the fruits after that. So far it's not been as messy as I thought, she's been pretty good and hasn't spit everything out all over mummy......that I know will come soon and she'll find it hysterical that mummy is covered in whatever it is she has spit out in disgust.

And we're back full circle to how glamourous it is to be mummy when you end up covered in all sorts of things you once never thought you'd ever be covered in.

wouldn't change it for the world.

2 months

yes Babykins is two months old already, time flies.

Her 2 month check up was today and she's still a tiny thing for her age, finally into the 0-3 month clothing she's weighing in at 8lb 12oz - which is how much her youngest english cousin weighed at birth, and she's 22in long. This and her head measurement show that she's in proportion  and in the 5th-10th percentile.

She's doing well in other things, doing things like the rolling over that they don't expect to see much of until they're 4 months old, and babling away to her dr during her exam. She also smiled at the nurse before her shots. She calmed down really quickly after her shots, I was pretty impressed , it took me a lot longer to deal with needles so I'm hoping she'll be good about it and always take her shots so calmly.

I'm half expecting a cranky evening, Xero will be out gaming and she's been a bit fussy this afternoon, but we'll see.

of rolling and grinning and generally being cute

So we haven't really said much about babykins so far.

She was born late on a sunny afternoon by C section and the first things I heard ( being strapped down to the table and unable to move or see anything) was her crying and the nurses exclaiming how beautiful she was and how much hair she had.

She had a lot of hair.

Both of us were born with lots of hair so I was expecting the hair but it seems to be a point of exclaimation for everyone who meets her. It's lightening up quickly, it was so dark when she was first born and now it's mid brown and getting lighter, you can see blond strands in there and in the sunshine it has a beautiful coppery glow to it. She gets that from my side, and I expect at some point in the next few years she'll be a redhead for a while before turning blond and then slowly fading back to brown with red highlights.

Her eyes were very dark when she was born, deep dark almost navy blue. they as well are lightening over time and at almost 9 weeks old there a stormy grey/blue and so expressive.

Babykins other milestones are going well....she's laughing and grinning at us a fair bit of the time, she gurgles away at intervals holding a conversation with you. Last week she rolled over for the first time from her tummy to her back, and i caught it on our flip, not hoping she'd do it I was expecting to catch her wriggling herself forward a little like she'd done before. She repeated this rolling three more times before she got bored. She rolled again today, I'm such a proud mummy that she's so good at it. She's been trying to hold her head up from the very beginning. She's getting stronger with it all the time. She still loves curling up in a little ball on anyones chest to sleep.

Friday we go to see her pediatrician and she gets her first round of shots.....I'm quite glad that daddy will be home to help out with the probably cranky babykins.