Dear Cat - 3 years 4 months

You have recently been very sick with Bronchialitis. We have never seen you so sick. Generally when you are sick it doesn't slow you down, you just keep going at normal. But this time you slept for 3 1/2 days and had a temperature around 39 degrees celcius which hardly went down with paracetamol. Normally you like medicine, but we had trouble giving you anything and you wanted lights off, curtains closed, TV off and you just slept. I slept with you at night to make sure you were ok and keeping hydrated. Now you are much better but clingier than usual, you want more hugs and affection.

Your most annoying habit at the moment is to pick a time when I am really busy and attach yourself to me so I can't move. You know the exact way to make yourself really heavy and hindering. I can't wait until you get over this stage.


You are not sure about your sister "the monster". I think you are afraid of her when she cries or makes loud unintelligible sounds. But we have fun playing together with her sometimes. Today we rolled a ball around with her, we had a lovely time. She just adores you and thinks you are hilarious and also cries if you leave the room if I am not there.

At the moment you favourite thing is space rockets and planets. You love to watch the rocket launch on Apollo 13 (the movie) and also read your books on space rockets and planets. Your first word was star and we have to sing "twinkle, twinkle" every night before you go to sleep as part of your routine.


You like to help me cook cakes, muffins and biscuits and also recently you have taken an interest in watching me cook dinner. Your new habit is to get a stool to peer in my pot to see what I am making. I would not be surprised if you turn out to be a cook yourself.


You like to pretend you are different animals, one day you are a dog, the next a bird, then a cat or a bunny. We nicknamed you Cat because you love your little Kitty Cat toy. It is your best friend.

You are growing up quickly, you have just lost your baby look and you are starting to look like a boy. You are acting more grown up too. You will often help me with things when I ask you to.

You have been doing great at swimming, starting to follow instructions really well, wearing your goggles and kicking and blowing bubbles. We decided to take you out of swimming over winter because you kept getting sick. You might take up soccer in July with your friend Torren.

You are clever and pick most things up very quickly, I showed you how to use scissors today. We cut up some tissue paper for a craft activity. You said "mummy show the cat how to use the scissors" (meaning you kitty cat toy sitting beside you) and I showed you and you started cutting like a pro right away.

You can not stay still, you are not easy to cuddle because you are always jerking around. You are just full of beans. It is hard to get a photo of you that isn't in a blur, it doesn't help that you want to see the photo before it has even been taken!

Thank you sweet little man for being my son.

Mum

Dear little Monster - 8 1/2 months

Just a little note to remember you at this stage in your life. You like to bounce. Earlier we used to put you in a Jolly Jumper, you don't need a Jolly Jumper, you can bounce quite well un-aided. You will bounce sitting on my knee or while being held, or held standing. This will be something about you I think I will remember overall about you as a baby. You have exuberance and joy. You love people - at a distance.


You are definitely Mummy's girl at the moment. You cry bitterly if I leave the room or if someone else holds you... this is flattering but frustrating at the same time.

You have three teeth now, the day you got your last two teeth you were chewing on my fingers like a Tassie devil.


Food You love your Mandarins, they are in season right now. When I am at the shops and you are in my sling you grab for Mandarins while I pick them of the shelf. Your eye's light up when I start peeling one for you and you love to grab and squeeze segments between your fingers. I peel the skin off the segments and tear the segments in two, removing the seeds for you. Otherwise you will eat pretty much anything, but you are not a huge fan of rich creamy things such as avocado or ricotta cheese.


SleepYou sleep well now. At night you will sleep from about 7pm (or when I get you to bed) until about 5.30 - 6am. I am so thankful for this because I value my sleep, I call you my dream baby. By day you prefer to sleep in bed and rarely nap if we are out and about, there is too much to look at and you wouldn't want to miss anything!


Your hair sticks up a lot. I love this, I like to imagine it is a mohawk. My hair was like that too at your age.

You adore your big brother. You will often stop crying if he is around or stop feeding if he is nearby. You follow his every move. You also love to watch Dad when he is home and you bounce in excitement when he is around. You like to "talk", saying "Ahhh" a lot and sometimes "mumumum", "bababab", "dadada", "yeah" stuff like that.

When you were a newborn you would scream if we put you in the bath. Sometimes you were ok with it if we put a warm wet washer on your belly. Now you love it! You kick you legs and splash with you hands and tease your brother. You don't mind to much if the Cat(bro) splashes you. You still enjoy a washer on your belly though.


You are great at sitting up, you can't quite lift yourself up from lying yet but you are very close. You are physically strong but not in a hurry to go anywhere just yet. This is A-ok with me right now. You'll do stuff in your own time. Today I think you waved back at me, but I couldn't be sure.

Love,
Mum.

Easter Eggs

Easter craft with E. We drew on hard boiled eggs with crayons, mum and I dripped candle wax on some and we dyed them different colours with food colouring. I was reliving fond memories of my childhood. Easter is my favourite holiday.

3rd Birthday Party

E's third birthday was last Sunday. We had a train party because trains are his current obsession. I had so much fun organizing this party, I think there is a frustrated party planner in me... what with the Wedding and High tea I planned last year for my sister. It is nice that he is a bit older now so they can play some party games. We did pass the parcel and some train craft activity. The train cake was the first cake I had made on my own. My mum made the cupcakes last year and for his first birthday mum helped me make the aeroplane cake.

O Christmas tree....

When people ask what he wants for Christmas E's reply is always "A Christmas tree!" When asked what he wants for his upcoming birthday, he says "a cake!" Like, why are you even asking?

Feeding problems

The last 10 weeks have been the hardest weeks in my life thus far...

Written at 7 weeks old Well my bub is 7 weeks old now. I must say that my first was not an "easy" bub but I can honestly say that looking after him was a walk in the park compared to my experience so far with Zoe.

E had reflux as a bub and was constantly regurgitating his feeds, where here I think Zoe has what is called silent reflux. I feed her on a slope so her head is up high so gravity helps her with digestion. When I put her down flat for a play, or on her front for tummy time she will scream the house down. I need to hold her upright on my shoulder for at least half an hour to an hour for her to digest after a feed and then put her in her bassinet which is propped up by towels. If I'm lucky she'll go to sleep. But mostly she is hungry again by that stage and we start the process all over again. She is using up so much energy through lack of sleep and crying that she isn't gaining weight. Although she is getting taller. If I need to put her down to tend to something else I put her in her bouncer which has a good angle to it, she is sometimes happy enough in this position for a short while unless she is having a particularly bad bout of reflux.

8 Weeks old. Her Paediatrician admits us to hospital "Failure to thrive." She is diagnosed with insufficient suck and reflux. We had tried feeding her with all different types of bottles at home and she couldn't get milk from any of them. We ended up feeding her with those plastic syringes you get with children's medicine. In hospital she has all sorts of tests for various problems that babies can have. She has an ultrasound, barium test (scary), blood test (just horrible) and urine test (messy). All of these tests come back clear thankfully except for the barium which confirms that she has reflux.

Zoe is 10 weeks old now and she is finally putting on weight. She is having breastfeeds and then is supplement fed with a nifty bottle called the Haberman feeder. This great bottle allows her to feed a lot quicker. She is also taking a supplement called poly-joule powder. It basically extra carbs to give her more calories (energy).

I am taking motillium to boost my milk supply since Zoe cannot draw the milk well and keep my milk coming strong. And I'm pumping when I can. I'm also eating all the things that are meant to help with milk supply.... Weleda breastfeeding tea (which contains fenugreek), steamed fish (the Chinese believe this helps) and sago (Indians say this helps).

And now I am looking towards breastfeeding her normally, am trying to see Speech Pathologist who specializes in infant feeding problems. There are only a few who practise in Sydney that I know of.

Some pages that have been useful...
Fact sheet on bottles

And then there were four...

Our Spring baby was born one stormy night in September. We named her Zoe which seems fitting as the name means "Life". There was something magical to me about the night she was born. She was a big girl at 4.35kg and 54cm long. Zoe and her big brother have been keeping me busy!

Bringing Zoe home.


Sleeping on Daddy.