Formula break-through

Hooray! Andrew just drank about 50mls of formula in one sitting. It's the first time he's drank more than just a few sips at one time. He'd just gotten up from a nap and was a bit grizzly so I got it ready and warmed it up more than I have done it the past. I think this may be the secret - he doesn't like milk just luke warm, it's got to be fairly hot. Of course, not too hot. Towards the end he started getting cranky again and pushing the bottle away so I changed his nappy then sat back down with him. I could tell he was still hungry so when he started pushing the bottle away again I just gave him a breastfeed and he was fine. But still a step in the right direction.

Friday night turned out to be great. After getting my legs waxed and a pedicure (SO nice!!!!!) we went to a restaurant in the Valley called Wagamama. It was delicious! Andrew was a really good boy and fell asleep in the pram before dinner arrived so it was still a romantic anniversary dinner. We picked up some low-fat ice-cream for dessert on the way home and Andrew went straight to bed after a feed and a bath. Really great night so we forgot all about the horrible day before.

Sick Anniversary

Yesterday Daniel and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary - well, celebrated might be the wrong word. We exchanged cards in bed (nice start) and then Daniel got up and got ready for work. At about 8.30am I started to feel a headache coming on which is very unusual for me. Andrew went back down for his morning sleep and I took a couple of pills and also went back to bed to try and knock it on the head. When Andrew woke me up at about 10.15am my headache was much worse and I was feeling really nauseous. I had to ring Daniel and ask him to come home as I really wasn't able to look after Andrew. Daniel's work was great and let him come home straight away so he was home before midday. Daniel looked after Andrew all afternoon apart from the odd breastfeed. He is such a good husband. I stayed in bed nearly all day. The nausea went away during the afternoon but the headache hung around, although wasn't as bad.

Poor Andrew must have picked up that his Mummy wasn't well too because he wouldn't settle last night. Daniel took him for a drive to try and put him to sleep, which worked but he woke up as soon as he got home. Then I gave him a feed and he went back down but woke up 10 minutes later. It was about 8pm by now and I was back in bed. I suggested Daniel just get him up and let him play for a while and see how he goes. That worked for a while and then he started to get cranky again. I got up again and tried to give him another feed but I don't think there was anything left in my boobs for him anyway. He didn't take them and just got even more cranky. Daniel had been dealing with him all day nearly and was a bit stressed so I said I'd try and rock him to sleep and he should go and hide in his computer room for a while. Unfortunately it didn't block out the screaming so he eventually went for a walk. AJ cried full-on for half-hour! Not very nice when your head still hurts. But he finally fell asleep, just as Daniel walked back inside after his walk. I thought he was going to be back too early and have to go out again! Daniel was very grateful that I had managed to put him to sleep. We sat on the couch for a bit and watched some telly to calm down. AJ stayed asleep until normal time this morning.

So not the best way to spend your wedding anniversary. I was also supposed to be working last night so I felt really bad letting them down so soon after only being back a couple of weeks. This afternoon Daniel is getting his hair cut and I'm having a leg wax and pedicure at the same place in town so we're hoping to go out for a nice dinner afterwards if Andrew isn't too grumpy.

Dirty Boy

Andrew really didn't want to be a clean little man yesterday. He was a bit smelly yesterday morning from sweating in bed so Daniel took him for a shower with him in the morning. That was fine but just after I had him all dry on the change table I put him on his tummy so I could talc his back and he did a big wee. He was laying in a big puddle of it - yucko! I was about to go for a shower myself so he came in with me and I rinsed him off and we tried again. Success!

Then last night he'd only been in the bath a few minutes when he decided he needed to do number 2s - even more yucko! Talk about floaties! At least these days he's poos are more solid. Daniel just yelled out "Ahh! What do I do?" I said "pull the plug and get him out" so it was just a quick bath last night.

Last Thursday night when I got home from work Daniel was standing at the door with Andrew in his arms waiting for me as I drove up the driveway. I immediately knew he hadn't had it as easy as the week before. He had taken Andrew for a walk not long after I left for work and he'd fallen asleep. He stayed asleep until about 7.15pm I think and then been a bit of a handful apparently. He'd eaten his solids but wouldn't take any formula (as usual). But poor Daniel had forgotten that I'd left some expressed milk in the fridge too so he might have calmed down a bit if he'd had that. Then again, he might not have. He hadn't been crying all the time but just didn't want to be left alone to play so Daniel had to hold him the whole time. Of course, I came in and stuck a boob in his mouth and he fell asleep straight away. And so did Andrew! ;-)

Speaking of work, I'm doing 10am-3pm on Sunday at the Kippa-Ring store this week. They are really desperate as their one and only casual just quit and their manager is on holidays. I asked Daniel first if he would be ok with Andrew for that long and he said yes. Being it's during the day I'll get him to drop me off and pick me up again so at least he has the freedom to drive around. If worse comes to worst he can come into work and I'll feed Andrew in the back room. Will let you know how that goes.

Food & Back at Work

Look - 2 posts in a week! It's a miracle!

Thought everyone might like to know how Andrew's been going with his food this week. As I said in my last post I've just started him on some different solids this week. After giving him some apple and peach a couple of times that first day I went on to some vegies the next day and he loved them. I warmed them up in the microwave so too which I think he likes better than cold. Lets face it though, none of us like our vegies cold either. He at a whole little jar of those in a day over three separate meals so then we moved on. I cooked up some carrots and processed them with some water and he ate them. Now he's having solids 3 times a day, about half a jar each sitting! And I'm still breastfeeding him the same amount. He's a growing boy. When I weighed him last week the scales said 6.66kgs (was a bit worried he had turned evil!) but that is healthy for his age - right on track!

Mmmmmmm, rice cereal!

The other big news this week was I went back to work! I just did a Thursday night shift, 5.30-9pm so Daniel could look after Little Man. I left some expressed milk and breastfed him just before I left at 5pm. He hasn't been taking a bottle for some time now so I was a little worried he would play up a bit for Daniel, especially as he's usually a bit feisty in the evenings anyway. (I'm trying to convince Daniel to blog about how he went with him now for his side of the story.)

When I got to work I felt so excited to be there. It really felt like I hadn't been away for very long. Since Kat has been manager she has made some really great merchandising changes but apart from that it was all pretty much the same. When I went to do my first sale I didn't even have to think about how to do it or which buttons to push, it all just came flooding back. A bit scary really - been doing this job a long time I guess. Even answering the phone I didn't think about, just went straight in to the spiel. I really loved being back and Daniel has agreed to look after Andrew every Thursday night now so I can continue to work that same shift every week. Kat's happy to have me too as she is a bit short on staff at the moment so it's worked out for everyone. Looking forward to next week already.

Catch up

OK. So I'm slack. Not as slack as Daniel though. He hasn't blogged since mid November! I've kept putting it off because I think too much has happened and I haven't got enough time to put it all down. What I should do is what my friend Veronica does and do more frequent short blogs. Shall try doing that after today.

As you can imagine, a lot of stuff has been happening since I last blogged. It took a bit of time to get used to being by myself with Andrew again after coming home from Tassie. I got a bit lonely and homesick but I'm lucky I have great friends in Kirsten and Libby who are really terrific support.

Speaking of Kirsten, the Saturday after I got back we went wedding dress shopping together with Kirsten's mum. I left Andrew at home with Daniel and some milk so us girls were able to have an uninterupted shop together. Not that we needed that long in the end as Kirsten ended up getting the first dress she tried on. Just to be sure though she did go and try others on after and it took quite a while because I think every bride-to-be was out shopping for their dress that morning. It was crazy! The one she has chosen is beautiful and really suits her. We actually went out again a couple of Saturdays ago to choose the veil and tiara so now she's just about all set.

In late January we had some time just for Daniel, Julia and Andrew. It was really just what we needed. We went to stay at Kirra Beach down the Gold Coast for just over a week. I know we'd only just had a holiday but when we visit Tassie we spend a lot of time catching up with other people and don't have a lot of time to ourselves. Besides, Daniel wasn't there very long and that time was REALLY busy. We took Andrew swimming for the first time, and surprise, surprise, he loved it. We also took him to the beach but the waves were a bit strong so it wasn't really very safe. At least he can say he went in the surf when he was 3 months old - a real Queenslander. We spent most of the days going for walks, relaxing and watching some telly, swimming in the pool, going out for coffee, and generally just chilling out. It was really the first block of quality time Daniel had had with Andrew and I made sure he was involved with everything including getting him to sleep. Andrew slept really well down there actually as it was all air-conditioned - 8-9 hours most nights. He didn't sleep so well when we came back as he was getting really hot at night again. Poor Baby. Weather is better now so he's generally sleeping 8-10 hours now.

Andrew and Mum at Kirra Beach Resort - About to go for a swim in his new cossie

My Mum came up to stay for just over a week at the end of February. It was bliss! I really loved having her here and I think Daniel enjoyed it to as it meant I was happier. Mum was great at taking AJ out for walks in the morning so I could get a bit more sleep or just have a nice quiet brekky. Daniel and I had a duet massage on the Saturday while Mum took AJ for a walk around town. She helped with washing and cleaning and cooking. It was great! I really missed her when she went home.

Andrew is growing up so fast and surprising me with new things nearly every day. He started rolling over on to him tummy by himself a few weeks ago - a day after Mum left actually. Timing! He really only started doing it a lot though in the last few days. I even went in to get him up one morning and found him on his tum looking around waiting for me. Problem is he hasn't learnt to roll back over yet so once he's there he can't do anything and gets a bit upset after a while.

Also while Mum was here we tried him on his first solid food. We bought some rice cereal and mixed it with water and he ate it no probs! I've been trying to get him on to formula too but he really doesn't like it. I tried mixing it with his cereal and he didn't like that either. Yesterday we gave him fruit for the first time, apple and peach, and he made some really funny faces but he didn't spit it out - well not all of it anyway. Because he's not eating a whole little tub at once we put it back in the fridge and then he ate it cold later. It's the first time he's had anything really cold and I think he liked it. Probably quite soothing on the gums as we think his teeth might be coming through really soon. Everything is going in the mouth these days!

We've had to buy him some new stuff now he's getting bigger too. A new high-chair and a car-seat have been the big purchases. We've also bought a few more clothes as most of his 000s are too small now. Bought him a new denim jacket a few weeks ago too and it's so cute! Pity it's still too warm to wear it yet.

Andrew loves his new high chair

Wearing his funky new jacket

Well, that's all for now. I think this is long enough. Will try to update with shorter posts more regularly from now on.

Andrew's First Christmas

As I think I've mentioned, we went to Tassie for Christmas this year and we had such a wonderful time.

Andrew and I left on Decmeber 15 and he slept all the way on the plane. I had deliberately not fed him for a few hours before boarding so I could feed him on the way up so his ears didn't hurt. However, he decided he'd like his breakfast (or I should say, second breakfast) just as we were taxiing down the runway. I figured he'd still be eating by the time we were taking off so that was fine. Unfortuntely we had to wait on the runway for quite some time before taking off and he'd had enough before that. I managed to force my boob back in his mouth as we zoomed into the sky but it really didn't worry him and he fell asleep. On the way down into Hobart I tried to get him to suck his dummy but again, he wasn't fussed and slept all the way down without the dummy.

The first week I spent at my parents place out at Campania and it was lovely. So relaxing. Daniel's Mum rang me that night and asked if she and Gran could come and visit the following day - Friday. I thought this was quite restrained of her - I half expected to see her at the airport! So they came out for afternoon tea and had a cuddle. Then both Daniel's parents came out to see Andrew on Sunday too.

We also went to Andrew's first carols at Richmond with his Pa (my Dad) up on stage singing with the Richmond Village Singers. It was lovely! Andrew slept for some of it but mostly just sat in his pram or on my lap quite happy.

Daniel arrived on Wednesday and had missed us heaps already. On the Thursday we went over to his Mum and Dad's and stayed there until Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve we all went to Mass at St Therese's where Daniel's Dad played trumpet for all the carols. Actually, Daniel, Laura and Glyn all went back home after the half-hour of carols and I stayed with Andrew and his Mum. It was really lovely. I forgot how much I liked going to church, especially at Christmas.
On Christmas Day we opened all our prezzies and had a lovely breakfast with all Daniel's family there. Andrew got heaps of great stuff and so did we! Then we headed off to my parents for lunch visiting a few friends on the way. We called in on Sarah's family and friends and everybody gave Andrew a cuddle, then called in to Pam and Ray's where I quickly fed Andrew and we headed off again. Our friends Matt and Kirsten were also in Hobart staying with Matt's parents so we called in there to wish them Merry Christmas then drove out to Campania again. It had been all go since we woke up so I was glad to get back out home to relax for the rest of the day. We had a late lunch - mmmm, roast chicken and roast vegies, the benefits of spending Christmas in a cooler climate - then I went and had a nap. My brother Neil and his wife Annette arrived later in the afternoon and so it was time to open still more prezzies! I love Christmas! We all got some more great stuff (this blog would go forever if I started telling you all the things we got - check out the 'photos' link for some pics of Xmas) and had a light tea before veging out in front of the telly. It was so great just being all together. It is the first time my family have been all together at Christmas since 1996! Neil and Annette were living in Adelaide and now live in Alice Springs, so it was quite an achievement.

To try and catch up with as many people as we could we had a BBQ at my parents on the 27th. It was really amazing how many people made the effort and came out for it. I was really touched. It was also a bit of a Close Shave (Daniel's old barbershop quartet) reunion, with 7 members past and present putting on a show after lunch. It was great watching their faces as they tried to remember words they hadn't sung for years and years, but they all did remarkably well and everyone enjoyed it.

The next day Daniel and I had our first afternoon out by ourselves since Andrew was born. I had expressed some milk and we left him with my Mum and Dad so we could go to see the latest Harry Potter film. We also caught up with Matt and Kirsten for a coffee afterwards before heading home. Andrew was fine but my boobs weren't used to not being drained for that long so I leaked quite a lot and they were a bit sore.

Daniel's parents did the same thing for us on Friday but I fed him just before I left so it wasn't so bad. We went down to the Taste of Tas and had some yummy food and then as we were heading back we got a text from Daniel's Mum saying not to come home yet because Andrew was still asleep. He'd fallen asleep just before we left and I think she was looking forward to some time with him by herself. So we went down to a nearby shopping centre and picked up a few things and didn't get home until just after 3pm. We'd left at about 11am so figured Andrew would definitely be awake by now but he wasn't! He woke up about half-hour after we got home so Daniel and I went for a nap and let her feed him anyway.

On New Years Eve we had Andrew Baptised. It was a lovely simple ceremony and we had asked my brother and Daniel's sister to be the Godparents. All our closest family were there and a few close friends and it was really great. We all went back up to Daniel's parents place for afternoon tea and then out to dinner at my favourite Chinese restaurant, the Har Wee Yee. Matt and Kirsten and Neil and Annette then came back to Daniel's parents palce where we played Lord of the Rings trivial pursuit. We finished the game just before midnight and watched the fireworks on TV and could see a few of the ones going off in town too. Matt and Kirsten stayed the night and Neil and Annette went back to her parents place.

New Years Day was pretty quiet and we packed up all our stuff ready to head back over to my parents that night. We went over and had a really lovely dinner with our friends Greg and Mel that night so they got to meet Andrew too.

Daniel flew out the next morning at the crack of dawn but luckily Dad drove him to the airport and Mum and I stayed to look after Andrew. I think I spoke to Daniel at least 4 times that day!

We didn't do too much over the next week and a half. I caught up with a few more friends and family and went to stay with Daniel's parents for another couple of nights.

We flew home on the 11th and Daniel picked us up from the airport. You'd think we'd been appart for 10 years not 10 days! But we were both very glad to see him too. Unfortunately we got hit with 18kgs of excess luggage - too many prezzies! Cost us $90 - bloody JetStar :-(

Look familiar?

Me as a baby

Andrew

My Mum and Dad sent me these photos yesterday. How spooky is that!

Sleeping Part 2

We have a new world record! Little Man slept for 7 hours straight! He slept heaps during the day yesterday so I was worried that he wouldn't sleep last night. He was only up for an hour at a time yesterday then back to sleep for 2 or more hours. It's been really hot up here though so I thought that could be why. Then he woke up at 6pm and stayed awake and quite happy while we were entertaining him until 9.30pm. I put him down and with little fuss at all he fell asleep until 4.30am! And this time I slept well too. I went for a shower as soon as he was down and then went straight to bed. Think I was asleep about 11pm so that's the longest sleep I've had too. Even better was after a short feed at 4.30 he went straight back to sleep and so did I. Then he woke at 7.45am another short feed and we both went back to sleep until 10am. Best night's sleep ever! Feel great today!