Category: baby

Nanny and Chance

/ Renae / Leave a comment

While we were up in Brisbane, we visited Nanny & Grandpa each week. Almost as soon as we arrived, Nanny would tell me to sit and eat while she took Chance to the lounge room to play. Chance is Nanny & Grandpa’s first “grand-grand son” and they really doted over him. They didn’t quite understand that “Chance” is a name, so in true style, Nanny said to me “I just call him Harry.”

Nanny would sit herself down on the couch and put Chance on a cushion on a stool in front of her and tell him all about how life works.

And kept him cool in the warm Brisbane summer:
And sometimes he would go to sleep:
He really loves his Nanny!
The 4 generations together:

Chance is so lucky to have 4 great-grandmas and a great-grandpa. He hasn’t yet met his Ouma Lies in South Africa, as well as the rest of our family over there, but hopefully that will be on the cards in the next few years!

“Helpful”

/ Renae / 3 Comments

Throughout my pregnancy and ever since Chance was born, people have shared helpful as well as “helpful” comments with Hubs and I.

The helpful comments are things like:
“You’re going to just love being parents.”
“Every year it gets better and better.”
“You will love this time in your lives. It’s so special for you as a family.”

These comments from family, friends and strangers really built me up and up and made me even more excited about being a mum.

And then there was the lady on the plane coming home from Brisbane who had a “helpful” comment for me. I was holding Chance as we were looking for our seats and he was crying/whining a little bit and she looked at me and said “Don’t worry, it only gets worse.”

This really bothered me. Hubs reasoned with me that she was only joking and I know that, but I couldn’t work out for a few days why it annoyed me so much. And then I realised, it’s because there are many women who struggle with postnatal depression for the first few months of their baby’s life and if that lady had made that comment to someone in that fragile state-of-mind, that would have been extremely unhelpful for that new mum. What if she had been thinking “this part is really hard but surely it will get better.” No matter how much you reason with yourself, it’s hard to fight those demons, and comments like that can really send you crashing.

Plus she’s wrong. I know it’s just going to get better and better.

(By the way, I have more time to blog now! Hubs set up one of our laptops (we have a few) in the lounge room so I can play with Chance while I blog! Multitasking!!)

Aaaaaahhh….. sleeeeeeeeep…..

/ Renae / 1 Comment

I don’t know what it is about getting a good night sleep that makes me want to tell people all about it. It might be because good nights sleep are so few and far between with a newborn (is 11 weeks still considered “newborn”??) not that I’m complaining – it comes with the territory. But last night, Chance went to sleep at 10pm and only woke up for a 4am feed, and then, this is the best part, he slept until just after 9am this morning.

Absolute bliss.

He normally wakes up for a 2am and 5am feed, and then is up for good around 7-8am, so maybe this is the start of a new routine for him. I know I know, it’s only been one night. I shouldn’t get too carried away. But you just never know! I feel like a million bucks today! I wonder what he has in store for us tonight.

It has begun…

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I’ve already had to put away nappies and clothes that Chance has grown out of. Last night I found some newborn disposables and said to Hubs “Can you believe he used to fit into these tiny things???”

So cliche…

Home sweet home (finally!!!)

/ Renae / 2 Comments

It has been one crazy week. We left Brizzie on Monday morning (it seems like weeks ago, not days!) and flew back to Melbourne on route to Wang. About half an hour before we were due to land, the Captain made an announcement that due to changing winds in Melbourne, we may have to redirect to Sydney or Canberra. Hubs and I started talking about what we would do if that happened, but decided to just wait and see, and thankfully, we were able to land safely. We picked up the kombi and headed straight to Nathan and Cal’s place – our home for the following 2 nights. Poor Chance didn’t know what was going on – the number of different places this kid has slept, I tell you what. But as usual he adapted wonderfully.

We had made plans to have dinner with Hubs’ aunt and uncle and cousins on the Tuesday night so we headed over early to do some shopping beforehand. Unfortunately on the way there, we ran into some car trouble. Long story short, we had to leave it at the mechanic overnight, so Hubs and I decided to get serious about buying a car – something we had been talking about for months. We jumped on line and lo and behold, found a car that ticked all the boxes. We took it for a test drive and committed to buying it there and then on Wednesday.

It’s a burgundy Ford Falcon (yes, we’re in the country now) Futura LPG station wagon. This is the first car that Hubs and I have actually chosen and bought, both separately or together. All of our other cars have been bought from (or given to us by) family or friends so it is a really exciting thing!! Another long story short, we were supposed to receive the bank cheque we ordered (only drawback of being with ING – no bank) on the Thursday and leave that afternoon, but it didn’t arrive til Friday morning so we didn’t get home til yesterday at 2pm. I got to drive “Sherry” home and what a ride! It certainly has some power behind it!

So we walked in the door, emptied the car of all our stuff and proceeded to do absolutely nothing about it. We were then invited to our friend’s place for lunch today so we only just got around to starting to unpack an hour or so ago, hence my presence in blog world! Hee hee! Chance is being an absolute dream, just chilling on the floor and being mesmerised by the mobile hanging over him, so we are actually getting a lot done. Blogging was a big priority for me! I’ve really missed it! I was worried after my hiatus that I wouldn’t really get back into it, and am so glad I’m a keen bean.

I have lots of half-thought-of posts in my head, including the one I plan to write on Monday/Tuesday, entitled something along the lines of “Day 1 of just me and the kid” or something perhaps a bit more eloquent.

Aaaaaaah it’s good to be home.

Third time lucky?

/ Renae / Leave a comment

I’ve started writing this blog post 3 times now, so hopefully I might actually post it this time! Life is so hectic and I don’t know how it happened but our 6 weeks in Brisvegas is coming to an end. We leave on Monday and have had a great time catching up with people and spending time together as a family. It’s been such a blessing having Hubs around to see all the changes in Chance that I’ve been able to see, and I don’t know what I’m going to do when he has to go back to work a week after we get back to Wang! I really love all the get togethers and socialising that comes with staying in Brisbane, but to tell you the truth I’m ready to go home. That’s really hard for me to say as I don’t want our families to think that I want to leave them, but it’s really tiring to be on our best behaviour for 6 weeks solid without much down time.

Having said that, I can’t wait for the fam to come and visit us down south again asap. It’s been so amazing having that support – always having someone there to take Chance for an hour while we grab some sleep or do some cooking or write a blog post. Like just now I heard Chance cry, followed by my Dad’s voice saying “Hello there. What’s going on? Maybe you need a cuddle.” I’m really going to miss that when we leave. Just thinking about it is giving me a headache 🙂

(Chance, 2.5 weeks old)

We’re going to spend a couple of days is Melbourne catching up with friends before heading back to Wang on Wednesday. I’m a little nervous about being so far away from our support networks, and with Hubs working full-time hours, but I know we’ve made some really good friends who are more than happy to help out when we need or want it. In the mean time, I just have to remember that everything always works out. Not always how we think it will, but it works out none the less.

Thank you to everyone for all their love and support and best wishes over the last 9 weeks, and in particular the last 6 weeks. We’ve enjoyed the chats and the beers and games of ping pong and pool, and watching the cricket and tennis, and celebrating life’s special occasions with you all. If I don’t get to blog again until we hit Wang, please forgive me, and know that I have lots to share with you in the coming weeks and months.

Wifey  xx