Category: baby

10 things on the 10th

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10 things I love about the first 5 months

1. Breastfeeding can get you out of most things and is just the nicest thing to be able to do.

2. No messy solids…. yet

3. Parents understand that you do anything that works to survive – there’s much less judgement about how you parent in the first six months compared to when they are over one year.

4. Squishy chubby legs (his, not mine)

5. There’s so much development – they go from a strange little blob, to your baby who recognises and smiles at you.

6. They stay where you have put them down.

7. They sleep anywhere.

8. Having a messy house is completely understandable and acceptable.

9. Everyone wants a piece of the pie. If you’re a social person and you’re out and about, a lot of people come up to look at the baby.

10. The gummy smile

What a lovely near five months it’s been. It’s so hard to imagine what life was like before he came along! What a treasure ☺

Little snores

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Is there anything sweeter than hearing your baby sleeping in his bassinet beside you, snoring softly? Julius is making the loveliest content sleeping sounds I think I’ve ever heard.

Hubs is on my other side, finally asleep and breathing softly. He has the flu and has been pretty miserable today. He hardly ever gets sick but this has not been a great year for him – I think this is about his 4th sick day this year! And considering that I think he had only taken a grand total of 10 (5 in a row because of shingles) since starting with Qld Health in 2013, it’s a lot for him. Get better soon honey.

And it’s official – we are heading to Toowoomba in 2018. I’m very excited about it but also sad to be leaving and stressed about getting all the house stuff finished before we leave! Eep!

Signing off for the night, listening to sweet sleepy sounds xx

Parenting 2-year-olds is not my forte

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Oh man today feels like it’s NEVER going to end. And it’s only 1:30pm. I feel like the afternoon is going to stretch out forever. It’s mostly my own fault – I didn’t plan an activity for the morning, so we just hung out at home after getting back from the gym. By 10am the kids were bored and even though I was trying to do puzzles with them and read them stories, they were underwhelmed and looking for something “fun” to do. I just didn’t have the energy for a playground outing, and the weather was rubbish so outside play wasn’t an option.

Parenting a 2-year-old is just an exercise in diversion tactics and redirection; constantly steering them away from breakable things, and finding out how durable (or not) other things are. And even though my darling Jules is letting me sleep through the night, I’m still being woken up by my darling 2-year-old at least once, mostly twice a night for various things so the exhaustion is still there.

Darby really is such a delight, and I have to remind myself that he won’t be like this forever. Chance was the same at his age, and look at him now! So big! They say the days are long, and this one so far has been going on for a week. Thankfully it’s playgroup tomorrow morning which the kids love, and it helps tire them out! I really need to look into a regular Monday morning activity! Any suggestions!?

11 weeks

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I’m not going to lie; I lost count after 8 weeks. I had to look at a calendar just now to double check his age. But here he is. 11 weeks old.

Family life is extra sweet with him around. He smiles for his siblings and Mama and Dadda and is still sleeping like a champion. The kids adore him!

There is so much going on right now and things are up in the air for our plans next year which stresses me out, so I’m really just trying to focus on the wonderful day to day stuff with the kids. We should know more in the next week about what 2018 has in store for us. Until then, I’ll be enjoying this little face…

Wouldn’t you?

Mount Morgan

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I’m not sure when it started, but every time Mum comes to visit, she takes the kids up to Mount Morgan. Over the school holidays, the kids were keen to go up again. so I took them up for my first solo adventure with four kids. They have their little routine they do when they are up there. First stop, the railway museum. They watch a 10 minute film about how the railway was built to cart gold from the mines down the mountain.

Then they hop on the old trains for a bit of a play.

Then I was directed to the Mount Morgan bakery to grab pies to take out to the playground at the dam.

Quinn showed off her mad pie-eating skills. She eats the top off then proceeds to eat the rest. It’s a sight to behold!
I was a little nervous about the solo-parenting, but it went well. Apart from Darby running away from me from the toilet block, with no pants on, back to the playground, past a couple of dozen people. Yeah, that was fun.

We then headed back to the Railway Museum for an ice cream before heading home. And when Mum was here this past week, they did it all again. They must have been up there 6 times in the last year and it never gets old!

School holidays

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Gosh it seems like ages ago that we had a house full of visitors. I love having people around keeping me company during the long days at home, especially during school holidays. And having extra hands to help out with the kids and cuddle the baby are always appreciated.

There was gingerbread cookie baking! (And eating!!)

Lots of jumping on the trampoline and running around playing cops and robbers (Thanks Uncle Jacques!!!!)

My gorgeous nieces, inside and out.

So many baby cuddles.

Family who Lego together…

It honestly filled my heart having family here, just spending time building Lego, baking, playing silly games, watching movies, eating Tim Tams (I only ever buy them when the girls come to visit!!) and eating dinners together. Thanks for all your help guys! Looking forward to having you back sometime soon!!!

2 months old

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So yeah it’s been a bit quiet around here on the old blog, and now two posts in one day! I even missed a 10 things on the 10th post which made me rather sad! You could say I’ve been a little busy around here staring into these eyes.

Can you blame me? I just get lost in that face of his. Especially because I’m trying my very hardest to make booby-time strictly phone-free. Most days I’m pretty good at it.

Mum is coming up for a week on Thursday and we are all excited about this. I’m planning on heading out to a party with Hubs on Saturday night after I’ve put all four kids to bed, and leaving Mum with a bottle of expressed milk for Jules if he wakes up. I’ve started trying it on him so hopefully all will be fine by then!

And if not I’ll only be 10 minutes away. Good old Rocky.

So I’ll leave it there. 2 months old. Just like that.

7 weeks

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Julius Becker. You little champ.

With his cousins

Holy moly this little angel is treating his Mama so well. He sleeps. He feeds. He makes cute baby noises. He is making this baby thing feel like a walk in the park compared to having a 2 or 4 year old or 6 year old (and all of the above!)

A typical day sees him wake up between 5 and 6am for a big feed, then he’ll sleep til between 7 and 8am. Then he’ll have another feed and be happy in his rocker while we all get ready around him. There’s no real routine for his day other than I feed him whenever he wants it and he has long and short sleeps. He usually has a 3 hour sleep in the afternoon and then he is awake til anytime between 7 and 9pm. I’ll feed him to sleep before 10pm and then he will either sleep through until 5ish or wake up at 2ish for a feed.

I know, right? Again, don’t hate me.

Also he does a huge burp and gets the hiccups after most feeds but it doesn’t seem to worry him. And he has started grabbing things. Like my necklaces.

Oh and most of the time I’ll just “put him in his rocker for a minute while I quickly do something” and he’ll put himself to sleep.

He really is a dream baby and we are all so so so in love. I truly thank God for him and my gorgeous kids and Hubs every single day. I’m such a lucky gal.

Don’t you…

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…forget about me!

How could I forget this guy? My number one. My super star. Oh my heart xxx

He has been such a big help since Julius came along. He really does make me burst with pride xxx