Author: Renae

Living life as a wife, a stay at home mama of 3 kids under 5, a marriage celebrant, a craft and sewing amateur, a cooked breakfast lover, coffee enthusiast, extroverted socialite, and most recently, someone who is trying to keep a tidy house. It's tough I tell you!

Weekend with Ouma

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Hubs’ mum came up for the weekend for a grandkid fix and new baby snuggles. It’s always lovely having family around and the kids had a great time. There was a lot of this action…

We headed out to the Heritage Village yesterday for their open day and saw lots of cool stuff.

I think Hubs is quietly suggesting that we’d had enough fire engine bell…

There was also a bit of sitting around drinking coffee and wine and eating good food with good company. My favourite kind of weekend!

Thanks for visiting, Ouma!

A proud Mama

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This isn’t the only reason I’m proud tonight but I’m just too tired to write a whole blog post from my phone (again!) so I’ll fill you in on my Chance story tomorrow. But today I was matchy-matchies with my little man.

Cutes patoots!

Today was a good day

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A day in the life…

5:30am Hubs alarm goes off for crossfit.

6:00am I’m joined in bed by Chance. Darby has been there since 10pm the night before when he rolled out of his bed.

6:30am Get up and feed Julius while my superstar Chance makes breakfast for him and “the kids”. (Beaming!)

7:15am Hubs comes home to join the fun.

7:15-8:30am Kids make all good choices and have lots of baby cuddles and get ready for the day.

8:30am Hubs does the Chance school run with three big kids.

9:00am Hubs takes Q & D to indoor sports centre where they have an inflatable play set up.

9:00-11:30am I feed Jules and put him to bed about 7 times while doing Woollies online shopping. Decide to call it and just have snuggles. He’s asleep at 11:30am.

11:30-12:30 Pop in visit from rellies driving through town. Hubs returns with kids and Darby goes to sleep at 12.

12:30 Feed Jules again and put him down for a sleep at 1.

1:00pm I decide to have a bit of a nap.

1:00-2:45pm Hubs and Quinny play downstairs.

3:05pm I wake up from my nap. Hubs is doing school pick up. I wake Darby up. (3 hours is enough for you buddy!)

3:15pm Chance comes home and Hubs has to drop something off at work. Takes Quinny for the walk.

3:15-4:15pm I have a lovely hour with my three boys who are all being delightful.

4:15pm Hubs gets home. They have been to the op-shop across the road from the hospital. Quinn has two new pairs of jeans and a new shirt as well as a comic book. Chance doesn’t do his nut because he didn’t get anything. I’m genuinely surprised and incredibly pleased!

4:30-5:30pm We do a house tidy for the cleaner tomorrow morning. Everyone pitches in and no fuss is made. Feeling proud.

5:30pm The kids get to watch Wallace and Gromit for all their efforts while I finish off cooking the roast lamb. G & T time for Hubs.

6:00pm Kids sit down to eat dinner and actually eat their dinner.

6:30pm Bath time for all. They are having too much fun to get out.

7:00pm Out of Bath and story time.

7:30pm All in bed and apart from Darby being a bit cheeky, all asleep by 8:00pm. Mama and Dadda get to have dinner. Jules continues to snack.

8:30 Kitchen cleaned, Jules in bed, shower time for me.

9:00pm All six family members in bed and it’s time to blog.

It’s nothing too exciting, and what I didn’t mention was that Darby weed on the floor twice and Quinn had about an hour of driving me crazy with her “acting out” but the good far far far outweighed the bad, and Hubs and I looked at each other at the end of today and agreed that today was a good day. I have two blissful weeks of Hubs at home to help us adjust to life with four kids and I’m not even thinking about him going back to work at this stage. Just enjoying all of us being together.

Having babies is easy

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It’s having kids that’s the hard part.

We are knee-deep in newborn baby deliciousness over here and boy is it delightful.

Seriously this baby is gorgeous in every way.

It’s my two older children, the ones who know better, who are giving me grief at the moment. I swear there is no middle ground with them. They are either being completely wonderful and helpful and perfectly well behaved, or they are being disobedient, disrespectful little turds, pardon the French.

Honestly they have swung from the two extremes a dozen times today alone and Hubs and I are left looking at each other in bewilderment, scratching our heads and wondering who the hell these kids are.

Darby on the other hand is just doing his thing, and cementing himself as the cute little clown that he is.

Not that you would know they are being little ferals when you look at photos like this.

Oh yeah,perfect angel right there…

“Mama can you please take a picture of me and my favourite plane?” Yes dear.

Hubs is off work for the next two weeks so I’m hoping that gives us time and energy to spend some extra time with these two monkeys to sort them out. Oh and to toilet train Darby. It’s going to be a fun fortnight..

Not just “getting through it”

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It’s taken me four babies to finally realise something.

No one is to blame, but the words people use have a powerful and lasting effect on a first-time mum.

When I was pregnant with Chance, and shortly after he was born, I was warned about the first six weeks. And then the following six weeks.

I was pretty much told the first 12 weeks, or the “4th trimester” as it’s sometimes referred to, are really hard work, and I just had to “get through” that time and things will get easier after that.

I’m here to tell you that this time around, I’m not just getting through those first 12 weeks. Because my goodness they are 12 of the most precious weeks to experience and savour in a baby’s life.

There were so many times with Chance and Quinn in particular that I just knuckled down and pushed through without stopping and realising how much I adore the newborn infant baby phase. Like seriously, I can’t get enough of this.

Look at that face. My beautiful Julius Becker is one week old today. It’s nothing and it’s everything. He is already such a huge part of our lives and has taken over our hearts.

So yes, the nights are interrupted by feeds, but also full of cuddles and snuggles. This is just a season of his life and I intend to savour every moment of it.

My quiet sleeper

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I really had no idea what a comfort a noisy sleeper could be. When Darby was born and was in the bassinet next to me I could hear him through the night, snuffling and grunting away. He would fidget and move around a lot and it was a constant reassurance that he was, in fact, okay.

My little Julius is the most quiet, still sleeper I believe I’ve ever had. You really have to look hard at him to see his tummy gently rising up and down, and he doesn’t make a sound.

Utterly angelic and sweet but hard on the new baby mum nerves. Yes I’m surprised as well, that even fourth time around I’m constantly checking if he’s still breathing. It’s what we do!!!

He really is such a delight. Sleeping a lot (thank you mild jaundice!) feeding well and settling well. So far… Who knows what’s around the corner. So for the time being I’m just enjoying it and soaking it all in.

Home again

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Oh my heart. Having a baby is such a wildly emotional experience. The high and pain and doubt and excitement and fear and everything in between that you feel is utterly exhausting. Add to that sleep depravation, hormones, and healing wounds, and you get a mixed bag of crazy that is a new mum taking her baby home. Having done this three times already, I did prepare myself a bit better this time around, and even though I’m still feeling the huge surges of emotion, I’m so far not feeling overwhelmed by them.

The other thing I’m contending with is that I’ve lost my voice. Everyone in the house has had a horrible chesty cold over the last 2 weeks and it was my turn to come down with it on Tuesday. I think that, as well as sucking on the gas during labour, have contributed to me completely losing my voice this morning. And that in itself is exhausting! I’m down to a raspy whisper which makes the kids whisper as well which is hilarious.

I was really looking forward to coming home today and I’m definitely glad to be back in my own bed, in my own home with Hubs and the kids and mum. The kids are completely in love with Julius and constantly ask for cuddles which makes me burst.

I’m still not quite sure what life with four kids is going to look like but I’m excited by the possibilities.

Bring it on.

So many beautiful good times to come!