Parenting

 

I still don't get it, I know no one ever does (truly) but obviously some people have a better handle on it than others. I thought I would fall into that category but instead here I sit scratching my head and throwing a lot of 'woe is me's' out into the world. I want to blame my child for not being an easy baby for crying more than laughing for frowning more than smiling but you can't blame someone for their personality. Then I get scared that subliminally I'm turning him into this unhappy little man because I feel so overwhelmed and that just about makes my head explode.

But still the weeks turn into months and I haven't wound up breaking down or following through on my threat to send him to China. When it's just him and me it is definitely a lot harder and I am looking forward to my Mum coming back on Monday! But I'm proud of myself for managing for a month without her dropping in every day - I've done some grocery shops, gone out to cafes with him and gone on a daily walk (weather permitting) every day.

I will never be one of those 'perfect' bloggers, I never have something set for a certain day and I definitely don't want people thinking that Logan is the easiest baby in the world or that I can handle anything he throws at me. He isn't and I can't! This was just a quick post (seeing as the little monkey has just woken up early) to let mums/moms around the world know that it's ok. You do survive but you also need to bitch and moan about it, don't keep it bottled up and for the love of your sanity don't compare your baby to anyone else's - that has been what destroyed me these last couple of weeks. Logan has been particularly tough and whenever I shared that the other mums just said teething or separation anxiety and yes my son/daughter cried too. I wanted to scream and say you don't understand he has always cried non stop its just really getting to me now. But everyone has their own shit to deal with so keep plodding along and dealing with yours because ultimately these little boys & girls are ours and ours alone and we can only do what we can do.

PS: That wasn't suppose to depress the hell out of you, I'm sure it gets better and I know from looking at my 4 year old nephew it's going to be awesome fun! But for the right now...well he's lucky I can't afford postage (that and he's so dang cute!).

C is for Cookie

I still have a little bit of time before my baby turns 1 but that doesn't mean the planning side of my brain hasn't already kicked into overdrive. I've been scouring Pinterest for themes and ideas and I think I have finally settled on one! Milk & Cookies - easy, cute and fun. I was going to do a "Make a Wish" theme but I think that would've been a bit too vague and girly. And don't let the above photo fool you it will not be a Cookie Monster themed party!

I'm still going to ask people to write a 'wish' down for Logan and then he can read through them when he turns 18. Or I can seeing as he probably won't care about that sort of thing when he's an 18 year old boy!

I've found some cute milk bottles and striped/spotted paper straws. I can see myself easily spending a small fortune but I think that will probably be it for the expensive decorations and the rest I will make or buy on the cheap. I'm also thinking I'll make him a cookie cake but I'll probably change my mind because that won't look very interesting when I want him to smash up his cake - see what I mean with the planning thing! My mother in law did the cake smash with Hubby and it is definitely a tradition I want to keep going. I think/hope Logan will be into it after all he was begging for one of his friend's lunch at Mum's Group and got spoilt with quite a few spoonfuls - he even went so far as to call her MaMa - my little guy knows how to worm his way into your heart.

So if anyone has any yummy cookie recipes please send them my way!

 

 

August

I can't believe it's already August, time feels like it's flying by but also crawling at a snail's pace. I haven't posted anything since July whoops! It's not that I haven't felt motivated or wanted to I just find myself having lots of other things to contend with and I'd rather sit back and read blogs during my relax time (or becoming crazily addicted to pinning!) than switch my brain on and come up with a blog post.

Apologies if I haven't been commenting enough as well, I have two different logins for my google account and half the time I'm logged into the wrong one. Trying to balance private and blog life gets a bit blurry sometimes.

At the moment I've been hit by the cold bug again and I'm going a bit stir crazy being stuck inside (other than taking the dog for a walk). I don't like sharing bugs so I'll always quarantine myself for a bit which sucks. It meant I missed out on a morning tea date and exercise yesterday and because I've been non-stop eating I feel like such a slob :( but tomorrow is Mum's Group and boxing and I think I should be over contagious phase. I can't miss boxing, last week was great but horrendous because I had to take Logan and he just cried the entire time :( none of the other babies are like that, sure they whinge but not non-stop and usually there's a reason eg hungry, nappy... I'm getting a bit jealous now of people with angelic babies but my cards have been dealt and I love my little guy to pieces so we just do what we can.

I'm pinning my hopes on the next one being good because we deserve that right so we'll probably wind up with a colicky bubba whose even worse than their older brother. I found myself considering just having Logan but I can't do the only child thing so fingers and toes are crossed. Hubby said he hoped we had twins next so no more kids and I may have fake slapped him and proceeded to shed light on what that would actually mean! But at least he was thinking of 3 kids which shockingly is still my magic number. But we're going to wait awhile and enjoy Logan and everything that he's going to be doing and discovering - the benefits of being the youngest Mum in my Mum's Group I guess.

So there was my disjointed rambled post, I will hopefully be back with more regular posting but you know what I'm like!

 

Currently

Logan enjoying floor time.

 

Loving: the rain, I didn't think I would because it stops outside goings-on but I've come to realise I'm so much happier when it rains. I think it reminds me to stop and smell the roses.

Reading: a whole lot of blogs (along with my usual favourites - check them out in the sidebar) one of my new favourites is Inked in Colour (yep there's a 'u' because she's an Aussie!), I highly recommend you check it out. I should be reading The Great Gatsby for book club but I can't get my butt into gear and it doesn't help knowing I'm missing that book club because it involves a road trip and I can't leave Logan because I'm the food source!

Watching: Seinfeld, I tried to watch the Olympics but instead I got Days of Our Lives when I switched on the telly *insert giant shudder here*. I am a very very very late Seinfeld convert but love this show about nothing, the episode involved Kramer wanting to put up photos of everyone who lived in the building along with their names so they could all greet each other. It backfired on Jerry of course but I thought the sentiment was great, it's sad that we don't live in a culture where knowing your neighbours is very uncommon.

Thinking about: the kindness of friends. My girlfriends who don't have kids have offered to be last minute babysitters should I ever need them. One of my other friends is letting us stay with her and her partner for our holiday (they don't have kids either!) and the mums in my Mum's group are constantly offering to help with Logan.

Anticipating: the goings on for the week. I seem to be super busy all the time now, less so during the day but definitely at night. From family dinners to catching up with friends, usually I hate being a social butterfly but I realised last week getting out of the house and having other people dote on/watch Logan is important for my sanity.

Listening to: the baby monitor going silent again after I managed to get Logan back on track for his nap (this is a huge WIN)

Working on: being happier. I've always been a bit of a downer and that's been 100x worse since having a baby. I'm trying to relax more, take deep breaths and not nag my husband to death. If anyone had any suggestions feel free to throw them my way.

Wishing: today wasn't Monday - I just realised it isn't so wish granted hurrah!

Proud of: doing my first big grocery shop with Logan. It helped that the shop was half empty and it seemed to be the time all Mums did their shopping but it was crap in terms of meat prices being down :( what day is the Aussie day for cheaper meat? I am going to have to start going to the butcher more!!! But yes I am so proud of myself. This was no small feat and is the first time anyone has taken Logan solo food shopping (other than a quick dash and grab) he is notorious for being a huge grizzle guts. I armed myself with rice rusks and toys, my list on the Woolies app and the padded shopping cart insert and it wasn't a terrible experience!

This idea was taken from Sometimes Sweet.

 

Month 7 Letter (23.06.12)

Dear Logan,

Month 7 really snuck up on us and I feel like this is the first time a month has really flown by! It has been so much fun watching you grow and learn. But unfortunately sleep has been eluding all of us.

One highlight was that you started to have longer day naps but that only lasted for a few days and coincided with you waking lots during the night. It feels like we've gone back to newborn sleep patterns and maybe that's why this past month flew by, we've all been stuck in a lack of sleep induced haze!

Other than our sleep issues, you have been changing your eating habits. You eat so much now, huge bowls and you have 3 proper meals often with snacks in between (you can eat an entire Weetbix and then some for breakfast!!!).

You still don't have a routine but you usually go to bed around 630pm and then wake anywhere from 2-6 times a night (usually dependent on if we are at home or out at a family dinner). You wake up around 5/530 and I feed you and far puts you back to sleep but then you don't sleep for longer than an hour/hour and a half so no sleep-ins for us. It is nice because you get to say bye to far before work but it would be great if we could get rid of that 5ish wake up (& even better if you decided to sleep through). We've also instigated a bedtime routine consisting off boob, bit of a play, dinner, bath, say goodnight and then go to bed (with the occasion book read by far - translated to Danish which is always good).

You aren't crawling and rolling has stopped, you will roll onto your back but that's it and then from there if you're really grumpy you can wiggle yourself around the place. You do get on all fours and rock back and forth which is really cute!

We also finally moved into your home, the house where you will create all of those amazing memoried so it has been a pretty full on month. We keep being amazed by you as you turn into this awesome little dude.

Love always,

Mummy

PS: no teeth yet and despite the judgmental voices of all your grandparents I think the necklace is rad ;)

One Week

This next week is going to be crazy! This time next week I will be 26, be on a plane to Bali (Logan's first flight!), relaxing after the wedding of the year and welcoming my new step-dad & step-sister to our family. We'll also have a baby girl joining our extended family very soon and I can't wait to meet her! I'm already missing the newborn stage but thankfully not getting clucky just yet...I still can't make up my mind as to how much of an age gap I want between Logan and his brother/sister but I definitely know I want another two but that's a topic up for debate as Hubby only wants one more (even though he's from a family of three).

So this week will involve lots of pampering (yippee), stress (boo) and celebrations (hurrah). Oh and Logan has decided to stop being a great sleeper and to begin creeping...wish me luck!

 

Sleep

Logan is a great sleeper, now if only we could work on him being a happy baby! Just some cute snaps below because I can't help boasting over how gorgeous my son is:

So long (at 2 months)

Our little Big Ears

The poop smile

Those legs are always going

And to prove that it isn't always sunshine and lollipops:

Life is a roller-coaster at the moment so I guess it's a good thing I'm of the opinion the scarier the better!

Honesty

Milk Coma

I'm in the process of writing up Logan's Birth Story but in between feeding, changing and uncovering what it really means to be a new Mum it's taking longer than I anticipated.

He's a very fussy baby at night as well, we're slowly learning tricks to get him to sleep but it's definitely taking it's toll. So far we've found swaddling him in Wombies (those zip up sleeping bags with no arm holes) is good, so is sleeping on his tummy (but I'd kill myself if anything happened to him because of SIDS so we don't do that unless we're watching him non-stop), having him in our room seems to be sort of ok but I think what we need to try next is a radio on low or something because he completely passes out during the day when everything is noisy and in the nursery he was used to the noise and the radio as well. If anyone has any other suggestions though I would love to hear them!

My cousin suggested doing a dream feed at 10pm and following the Save Our Sleep but I really don't want to be on a strict schedule...then again maybe that is what he needs.

It's amazing how much you're unaware of what being a mother actually entails and what raising a newborn is all about. For example I thought that breastfeeding would be relatively easy - how wrong I was. I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate it but I definitely don't get the joy out of it that lots of other mothers seem to get. It doesn't help that he won't latch on without a nipple shield and that I got mastitis in one boob plus the leaking drives me crazy (although at least it isn't waterfalls any more like it was when I was pumping & feeding him in the nursery). I also swore I'd never give my baby a dummy (pacifier) or bottle and both those things have gone out the window. Hubby helps me out with feedings because I've got so much milk expressed and he'll bottle feed him and yesterday I bottle fed him because my cousin & her partner were over for a visit and I didn't feel comfortable breastfeeding in front of them. I've booked myself in at the Breastfeeding Centre attached to the hospital so hopefully they'll be able to help me out (or at least get us on track to get rid of the nipple shield) because at the moment I'm counting down the days until I can stop breastfeeding and I've barely even begun!

Hubby has also sort of returned to work, he wasn't supposed to start until January but because the person who is 'in-charge' of him is leaving he needs to go in and work on lots of projects. Thankfully it's only half days but I wasn't expecting that to happen so soon so I feel a bit under-prepared. My Mum has been really helpful though and she comes over and helps out whenever she can, I don't think my house has ever looked/been cleaner. I just wish other people would take a page out of her book and help out when they came over instead of expecting us to provide everything. My cousin was the exception to the rule yesterday bringing lunch which was a lifesaver.

So to sum up my little rant: motherhood for me at the moment is tough, I am getting some moments of joy but I think the baby blues have taken over and it doesn't help that I've always been inclined to get teary/unhappy. I'm looking forward to Logan settling down a bit more and me too for that matter.

Photo Time

Finally on a computer!

Before he got moved to the nursery

First car ride

Chubby Cheeks

In his cousin's hand-me-downs :)

Logan's favourite position!

PS: Thank you for all the lovely comments xoxo
PPS: The Christmas tree is up however only 4 ornaments are on so far...fussy baby yesterday!

Introducing...

Sorry I've been AWOL but as of November 23rd at 345am I became a Mum to Logan Peter. He weighed 9.9 pounds with a huge head! Other than using the gas it was a VERY long natural labour.

Unfortunately Logan developed an infection & was in the nursery until Monday when we finally got our little (big!) man home.

Things are going well other than insane amounts of milk & a bit of mastitis.

I can't figure out how to add a photo because I'm using my phone :(

Hopefully I'll get on my computer today but our main plan will be putting up Logan's first Christmas tree!