Grandma

I went to see my Grandma yesterday, I don't get down to see her much so try to pop in when I'm down that way. I took her out to get some milk before I went out for lunch and couldn't get a park so convinced her to come out to lunch with my friends. She was pretty reluctant but I'm persuasive :P
Anyway, as usual at our lunches/ get togethers it turned political and birthing also as usual the main topic. Grandma was just sitting listening as she does and I brought up that she had an awful experience with my Dad's birth and she agreed saying she had been alone, disrespected and couldn't walk afterwards with the stitches although didn't elaborate saying 'oh well it was all ok a couple of weeks later'. Rose pointed out that she still remembered it though and she teared up saying she doesn't remember much any more and has always had an awful memory (which is *very* true!) but she still remembers that vividly :( How awful that 50 years later she remembers the birth of her first child sadly??? (I could under stand if it was the child himself that depressed her :P ).
It reminded me of a birth course I did where the lecturer was saying that women with dementia in nursing homes can't remember the names of their children but they remember their births. How powerful is that?? And our society glosses over it all. 'oh well you have a healthy baby' I may well scream if I hear that again (and I personally have had no reason to hear that). Is that all we want out of a life changing experience? A healthy outcome? Of course that is the number one priority of it but surely we can ask for more than that. Like after the little guys birth, I was totally empowered, my body birthed him entirely. No one touched me, invaded my space. Everyone was there only to support *me*. No one was in a hurry to get somewhere else or there with their own agendas; no policies, decisions were made by what was happening at the time with my body and baby and even then *I* made them! To get that I had to birth in my own home (which was fine with me!) and it cost me $2000 (and medicare nothing!). Surely every woman is entitled to have that wherever they want to birth their babies? How tragic is it that generations of women are remembering their births with sadness??
Anyway, driving home with Grandma I asked her if she enjoyed lunch. She said she had and also enjoyed the great company and conversation. I said 'hope it wasn't too full on with too much profanity' she just laughed and said 'well they are passionate' hahaha!!!

The reason for our lunch was the due date of my friend Tammy. Her little one was due yesterday but is taking her sweet time. Who'd have thought number 4 would be the longest pregnancy??? Most unfair. Sending love and strength and loads of empathy your way Tammy :)

Childcare Rant 2

Ok so just found out that on our higher than average income the government will pay 60 odd percent off the chilcare costs per child. Woohoo. NOW that isn't all.... every quarter they are going to give me back another 50% of what I actually pay. So overall it's going to cost me $10 a day to put my kids in long daycare each child with the rest subsidised by the taxpayer. Am I the only person to see the insanity of this??? This second 50% payment isn't means tested either!!! (I am not 100% sure of that but from what I gather). By leaving my baby in daycare, not only is the government paying for a lot of the care but they will then be more likely to pay for hospitalising him with various ilnesses. Now he is lucky in that I can provide breastmilk for him thus decreasing his chances of illness significantly but how many other mothers can when they have to leave their babies at young ages to work?? I know of one mother who has managed this and we all think she is a supermother, extraordinary, etc. So obviously, sadly it isn't the norm.
How can it not make more sense to pay mothers their full income to stay at home with their babies for 12 months??? They do 18 months in Sweden, it's doable. I'd go so far as to say it's a right for our babies to have a parent at home (preferably the one with the breasts) with them for at least 12 months. I saw Steve Biddulph talk at hot milk last year. He is a wonderful speaker if you ever get the change to so him DO! Anyway, he was talking about the dangers of childcare for under 3's especially boys and it just makes so much sense.
Thank goodness they are looking into this now. I seriously had no idea how much taxpayer money is being wasted to keep mothers and babies apart :(

names

Working in paedatrics and NICU, I have seen a huge variety of different names people give their children. Countless called Emily and Joshua, lots of lovely names and quite a few odd ones. I am hardly one to criticise names, my children all have different names that you won't find in the top 100 lists but there are a few that are just cruel. There are so many beautiful names out there, loads I wouldn't call my children but that's good too, I wanted my kids to be different :) I got to thinking about this on the weekend after work and there being a couple of children there with what I think are just cruel names.
Whyyyyy do people make up names to give their children?? There are thousands upon thousands to choose from so why on earth would you call your little girl Blaze?? It's a descriptive word, a particularly big fire. Not the name of a tiny baby. Gawd surely even Emily is better than that?! (no offence to any Emily's out there, you've got to admit it's an awfully common name). It gets worse. I even prefer blaze over this doozy.... Equine. Seriously. WTF??? Like the parents who see a word written down and using their own pronunciation think it sounds like a great name and go with it. Did they not ask the advice of anyone else. Were people just dishonest and said 'oh um.. yeah that's lovely I guess..' Surely not. Poor baby!
THINK people!

To my friends of which many have just have new babies and are probably thinking I am the most judgemental bitch and wondering what I think of their choices... I love them all, not that you were really worried about what I thought :P


Childcare update: Seems like all will be ok as predicted. The centre seems nice, we can afford it and the kids seemed to like it. A couple of practices over the next few weeks and we start for real next month.

childcare

hmmmm.....
So I finally rang our local community child care centre here. Feeling pretty confident so far after getting good vibes off the woman on the phone. Apparently they will rock my baby to sleep and he'll have the same carer everytime and it's not an issue to be giving him expressed breastmilk. And the big monsters will be in the same room which would suit my shy big boy. Still, it's $50 a day per kid. So for one day a week I'll be paying $300 a fortnight. I know I can get some back from the ccb but hmmm...... Well at least I didn't cry on the phone to the woman, there were a few hairy moments asking if they will rock my boy to sleep but I got through it with dry eyes so a good start. Off to actually look at it tomorrow.
Was discussing it with Mark before, this centre is open from 6am until 6pm and takes babies from 8 weeks. So conceivably a 2 month old baby could be without it's mother 12 hours a day 5 days a week :( What on earth is wrong with this country that that can be allowed to happen?????? Will be watching the investigation into paid maternity leave with earnest, really hoping the world is a different place by the time my daughter is having babies and that she won't have to leave her 7 month oldwith strangers to go to work :( Thank goodness it'll only be one day a week I guess.

EUROVISION!!!!

oooh forgot about this..
We love Eurovision here. This year has been slightly disappointing in that the stupid $200 TV tuner for the laptop is only picking up 7 and 9 digital and the rest analogue. SHIT reception. Still...having lots of fun :) Waiting for votes to be counted now, first year in ages I don't already know the winner. Mark does which is a shame so he's off being a nerd reading sci fi crap. Nevermind...loved the pirates and have Kalomira's song stuck in my head..'secret combination da da da da da' pmsl! Shame the Irish puppet didn't make it :(
One year I'll manage to enthuse some others and host a Eurovision party. We need a public holiday for the next day!
ohhh voting counting starting.....

another war wound

The littlest man gets quite bruised for a 7 month old. I noticed today he has a graze on his toe, probably to do with crawling about on the concrete after taking his socks off. He has bruises on his legs (lots of falling on stuff the likely culprit) and then just before bed I noticed he has burn blisters on his fingers!! Oh my, if anyone saw him I'm sure we'd be reported. No idea how he burned his fingers, he does like the heater but we're pretty careful with it. He did grab the oven door a week ago ( left him in the other room to check if a cake was cooked, he flew back in and tried to stand at the oven door under my feet before I'd even noticed his return!!). The bad side of early movers I guess. Does your 7 month old have rocks in his poo and dirt under his nails?? Must look like the worst mother ever!
So he's an early mover but slow on other things. Still no teeth. Those bottom 2 were on the verge of cutting with this nasty croup he had but with him being better today the teeth have disappeared for another day *sigh* a week of teething sleepless nights for nothing!!
Oh well he does have the cheekiest grin and is the snuggliest bubba ever! Oh and he now knows his name :D

poor sick bubba :(

My poor little one has his first virus. I guess 7 months is pretty good given he has older buggy siblings but still not nice. Seems a little better today so hopefully it's getting towards the end. No fever which is odd for my kids, they seem to always get high fevers and burn off all their viruses.
Has gotten me re thinking about vaccinations. So far we have delayed Atti's with a plan to give them later. Seeing as his immune system is being challenged maybe it's ready for vax's? Another thing that has really gotten me rethinking is we were around a tiiiny bubba on Thursday night...I would hate to think Atti might pass on a potentially vaxable disease to baby too little to have been vaxed himself...So anyway, found a GP who didn't call the police when I told her Atti wasn't vaxed and think we *might* think about it....The most confusing thing ever! Or maybe homeopathics, lol! Really no decision made at all..

Studying again

Found out yesterday I have a new job :) All very exciting, still at the same hospital but permanently in the NICU and I've been accepted to study the NICU course. Great in that I will be on the roster so no more worrying about not getting shifts in the casual pool when quiet and getting shoved in oncology or surgical or other scary places. Bad in that I have to work 2 days a week as well as an extra Thursday frequently to do study days (paid for though I think). So there lays the big downer, I need daycare :( I My Mum is going to help out but god love her she is not all that reliable and lives an hour away. And she works a LOT. Family day care is near on impossible with 3 monsters to accomodate. And will a childcare centre rock my baby to sleep??? And can I afford a child care centre??? Another option is a nanny but that is NOT cheap. Ah what to do?? The universe will provide I'm sure..... Will investigate all options and it'll come to us I guess.

As I type I hear squeals from outside. Thank goodness it's Friday. Apparently helping Daddy build the chook pen is a bit tough when you are this tired, poor loves. Oh well..hopefully the weekend will lead to a chook pen with three chooks in it come Monday. Have a nice weekend all!!!

bargain day!

I love bargains :)
Especially accidental ones! I had planned on taking the kids to head, heart and hands to get some wool felt to make little gnomes but it was closed and I saw the opshop was open. I found a few things and since I only had $10 on me decided to get $20 out at the servo. So I grabbed stuff as I looked, not really adding up and as I got to the counter had a mini panic that I'd spent more than I had. Need not have worried, $13.60 total!!
And for that measly sum I got:
about 5 skivvies for the kids
2 cord overalls for the little guy
a pair of slippers for the bigger ones including real sheepskin ugg boots for my big monster!
a hank of white wool yarn
a cord jacket for me
a pair of jeans for me
a big heavy cotton jumper for me!

Very impressed with my haul, will take photos once they are dry!!

the value of a good husband!

Mark can be awesome sometimes (and this isn't a suck up, he doesn't read this :P ). Weekdays he gets up at 5am and is out the door at 5.50am. Overnight he regularly bedswaps with the kids and totally deals with the two big monsters every night. Granted I do feed the little guy *all night* too, not undervaluing myself or anything, lol! But not only this, he lets me sleep in every Saturday morning without fail. Like really sleep in. I got out of bed at 10.30am yesterday!! Had been feeding the little one for a few hours of that, but a) I was still in bed and b) He's pretty good but he isn't lactating :P
Our children don't sleep in either. The biggest boy was up at 5am yesterday and the littlest joined him about 5.30. Thankfully one of my children got my non-morning person genes and my princess stayed in bed with me for a few more hours.
So refreshing to have that one day sleep in, usually up at 5.30 myself on the Sunday for work and I have to get up with the kids weekdays when Mark leaves for work.
I do feel for him. I have volunteered to let him have a sleep in one Saturday but, god love him, he refuses.

If only we could get the kids to sleep past 6am!!!

Anyhow, just a brag post really :P

cute things

While my children screech at each other in the background (my assistance has only made things worse so I'm butting out!) I am reminding myself how lovely they really are!

-My big boy told me yesterday 'I love you huuuuuuge much mummy' awwww!


-My princess is losing her dimpled fingers. We were snuggling to sleep last night she threw her chubby hands around my neck and I noticed her dimples on the back of her hands are slimming away...She is almost three!!!!

-My little guy is always a delight :) Lately when breastfeeding he has started grabbing handfuls of breast and squeezing like a cat does in your lap before they go to sleep. Not so cute before I trimmed his nails but now as his sleepy eyes stare at mine.....*melts*
That same little one is singing a sleepy song as he drifts on in the sling right now :D

SO I'll keep them for now, hahaha!

more changes...

We have been making a load of changes lately that have coincided with moving and I thought it would be good to list them so we can remember later how we used to live, pmsl!
-I have stopped drinking coke. I always hated coke but it was the only thing that helped my headaches while I was pregnant with all three and I have just continued to drink it since the little one was born. And I can't stop. Well that's a tad melodramatic, I can stop, just I tend to drink it until the bottle is finished and it makes me feel like shit. Now we have our wonderful puratap water I really have no excuse. I thought it was jut coke but discovered the other night at a friends house that it's anything sweet. So I need to just stop buying it (which I have) and drink something else, preferably water while I'm out. Not to say, unlike chocolate, that I'll never drink it again, but I think I'll drink something other than coke. Let's be honest, it's pretty gross when you think about it.

-We no longer have a TV!!! Sounds like the most dramatic of our changes but to be honest it really has been no big deal. The kids have barely noticed but I have noticed such a difference in the way they play. They are making up scenarios, Scarlett has become obsessed with her babies. Jasper keeps turning the house into a firetruck..all very cute :) We are able to watch TV on the laptop but we rarely do, only watching 2 shows. So glad we did it, painless really :)

-We spent this evening severely culling the kids toys to a minimum. No more puzzles etc. I think we kind of forgot the point of the toys we wanted for them and just bought stuff because it was wooden, lol! I really don't think they'll even notice. Meant we had more room to get their other toys in our tiiny playroom so we should be better equipped to handle the rain that's coming over the next few days without too much boredom.

More to come..we are getting there :)

Changes....

Oh how infuriating!! I just wrote a massive post and lost the lot. No idea how!
Anyhow...it's about chocolate. More specifically chocolate that has been produced with slave labour. I first found out about this issue a few years ago with posts in a forum I go to with posts from a friend I had in Canberra Whilst concerned about it at the time, I made lots of poor excuses to myself as to why I couldn't do anything about it and continued to eat a tonne of baaad chocolate. Have been thinking about it a lot more lately, not sure why, maybe because we are making a few more changes.... And when eating some organic chocolate with a friend last week realised it'd been well over a week since I'd eaten non fair trade. If I could go that long on a bad coping week, surely I could in fact survive without it??
Now I am under no illusion that my little protest is going to make cadbury's quiver in their boots. In fact I am well aware that it'll make not one iota of difference really. There are other reasons for this decision, firstly what am I teaching my children? That it's ok to consume something purely for pleasure for which others (some likely to be as young as them!) are suffering for. In fact, some are DYING for! Seems a tad selfish don't you think?
SO...I will no longer eat chocolate that has been produced with slave labour. I don't think everyone I know should join me (although you are welcome to :P ) but hope that my friends and family support me by not purchasing any for our family.
Links for those interested...
http://www.worldvision.com.au/wvconnect/content.asp?topicID=97
http://www.fta.org.au/
There are many more gory sites but I am not great with stuff like that and those sites are enough for me.
More on it later...need to cook dinner and still cranky about the massive post I lost!

displaying the perfect latch

Open wide and ready to attach to Cosmos's nose. Nose pointing to the roof of his mouth.


Good grasp of cosmos's upper lip. Well attached baby :P

birth stories

I was lucky enough to attend birth stories night through the homebirth network last night. It was lovely, lots of people sitting in a big circle on cushions telling their stories by candlelight. So nice to see so many people! There were a few couples there expecting their first babies and it was heart warming to know that the stories they were hearing of birth were positive and beautiful rather than the negativity they would be getting in mainstream circles. I was more than a little jealous that they were going to have beautiful births with their first babies, unlike me (a beautiful birth after one ok and one decidedly average!). Sad that so many women only look further into birthing after bad experiences... I love birth stories, telling mine and listening to others.
Anyway. I told my story of Atticus's birth and I really want to write it down. I started a few months ago but only got to where I went into labour, lol! Must really get to that.... The little monster used that time to crawl around the circle as if to show himself off as the product of the story :P Then boobed to sleep and spent the rest of the night asleep on the beanbag.
Was great to catch up with my midwife, the amazing Wendy :) And see my lovely friend Tammy who is uber close to bringing her baby girl earthside. Can't wait to meet her, although I'm sure the three big brothers are even more impatient!

Right... on to that birth story. Might put the other 2 on here too..

Oh my birth photos are available on request to those who would like to see them, I'm proud and all but just not ready to share them with any lurking strangers :P

Hard day...

In the car on the way home from kinder

Friends

Lilly and atti sharing the love

Happy Mother's day!!!

Well I spend today working sadly although we did have a Mother' day yesterday. The kids got me a pair of gumboots, Mark bought another pair in case the leopard print put me off but I love them and my princess insisted I keep both. My wonderful husband let me sleep until after 9am!! And then he went to the shops to get the stuff for my most favourite breakfast of all time- English muffins with smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and topped with garlic aioli...heaven!! We had a nice day pottering around the garden. And I made sticky date pudding after the monsters were in bed that was out of this world. Perfect day :)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all Mummies :D

What do you know the little monster does like banana!

On the floor again....

*sigh* it was nice while it lasted! Whilst heavily pregnant with the littlest monster we finally bought a bed base for our king family bed. This was after the poor middle child fell off the top of the mattress a few times as there was a gap with the bed in front of an unused sliding door, and me having a heart attack worried I'd find a newborn in the same circumstance. It was lovely, I felt like a real adult, lol! But the time has come. The young man has rolled out of my side of the bed once and is now as of last night able to roll over and climb out of his hammock (we have moved so the falling off the top of the mattress is no longer a possibility). Sadly our lovely leather bed base was packed away in the garage and we are back to sleeping like uni students. The hammock has gone into retirement (time will tell if it ever gets a reprieve!) and the littlest monster is on the cot mattress on the floor next to our bed. There are of course positives, I can now lay with him to feed to sleep and then just leave him there. Buuuuut I miss my 'big girl' bed!

We have heat!

When buying this house we were a bit concerned about the old oil heater. The only time it has been touched was when Mark and Scott played with it after a few beers and had flames flying everywhere. Too scared to touch it since then, we've survived with a tiiiiny fan heater that is warm 20cm in front of it and probably has the electricity meter whirring! After Mark spent several weeks pouring through the ebay heater section and finding gas heaters stupidly expensive I decided to just get out a oil heater guy to see if ours was salvageable. Well what do you know, it's fine!! And we have a full tank of oil sitting there waiting for us. Turns out it was user error (funny about that) so we paid $110 for instructions, lol!

Been a good week for the house, Monday we got a new hot water system installed which gets all the rebates etc like a solar hot system, a fancy
heat pump. It's not all that hot and we have to talk loudly when it's running but hey, it isn't dripping water through our ceiling like the old one so I'm happy!

And yesterday we finally got the puratap installed so we can drink the water without retching :) Sliiight problem in that all the pipes in the kitchen are in the walls so the plumber couldn't access it and it's now installed in our laundry sink but again beggars can't be choosers so I'll take it!

Now hopefully we can spend the weekend finishing unpacking this house and continue on in the backyard. Mark has some birthday money to spend so we might get started on a chook dome for our vegie patch, very exciting!

Joys of a 2 year old

So I manage to convince Sara to watch my three monsters so I can run to the shops and get some fruit and vegies that we are all so desperate for. I spent a bit at our local organic shop hoping that a good dose of vegie goodness might help the mood of the older monsters not to mention myself.

Imagine my joy when Jasper announces there is only one mushroom left. Slightly annoyed but shocked that they were actually eating raw mushrooms. Ah no. Scarlett was feeding them to the damn dog!!!! Along with all the tomatoes and plums. Awesome.

Free 2 year old anyone???

He was crying not 30 seconds ago!

Another one

I did have a blog a while ago but given the last post was my positive pregnancy test and that baby is almost 7 months old I'll stick with this one Kim accidently started yesterday. She took that lovely self portrait with young Atti which is the first post and then somehow created a blog on my mobile, clever huh?!

Ah thankfully Sara is here to save my sanity, woohoo!!!

My princess cranky pants

My lovely little man and one of his equally lovely god mamas, Kim