Fidget bum

Do you think fidgeting could be genetic? My husband and I are incessant fidgets. Neither of us can just sit calmly without picking, pulling, rubbing or touching something. It looks like young Romily has inherited this from us. She just never stops. She's the go-go kid.

My mum said she had never seen a baby feed like Romy. Legs and arms going in all directions, pulling on and off the boob and generally doing anything but feeding! She does get a good feed in, but she just so distracted by EVERYTHING that it takes a while. She certainly doesn't have any good feeding manners!

We still wrap her up to sleep. We've tried weaning her off the swaddling, but she's just so busy sucking her fingers, rubbing her eyes, tugging her ears, playing with her feet that she just wont go to sleep. She gets more and more tired to the point where she goes feral. Unfortunately, our brilliant sleeper has decided she doesn't like it anymore and is getting harder to put down for a sleep. She has even started waking up in the night for feeds. We think it's more teeth, but it's hard to know for sure.

This has been a hard week. I know I've been incredibly lucky to have a baby who has slept so well up until now, but I feel like we've really regressed these past few days and it's very exhausting.

However, she remains adorable and I just love her to bits. I just keep chanting "This will get better" to myself and look forward to being on the other side of teething.

Happy anniversary to my parents

I think 36 years of marriage deserves three cheers:




Hip hip hooray
Hip hip hooray
Hip hip hooray

Here they are with their five grandchildren at Christmas last year.

Computer free Fridays

Inspired by Mommycoddle, I'm instituting computer free Fridays. I need to get more stuff done around the house and this is a great way to do it! You just don't realise how often you're online when the computer is on all day.

With teeth comes babble

Despite my crappy day (see below), I am totally charmed by my little cherub. She has begun anew with the baby talk and it is just so gorgeous. It sounds as though she truly thinks she's having a conversation with us, chatting away about this and that.

It's all ga ga ya ya ya. We see little flashes of the toothiepegs between gabbling and I think that because she's working her jaw up and down getting used to the teeth, it's changing the way she 'talks'. It's just lovely to hear and I 'talk' back to her all the time, repeating her 'words'.

I am very much looking forward to the day she says 'mum'. I know it probably won't be for a while, but it will just make my heart sing! I do love being Romily's mummy.

Argh

Far out. I've had one of THOSE days.

Woken up by Romily at 6.30am. Pretty good! I felt great, as I'd actually had 7 hours sleep. Went upstairs to grab my pump and a bottle and headed back down to Romy's room to express a little milk before feeding her. Got 100ml in 10 minutes - happy with that. Fed the bubba and then we went back upstairs to have my breakfast and give her some rice cereal.

While she was playing after her cereal I went back downstairs to get the bottle/pump and discovered 10ml had leaked out - the seal in the bottom of the bottle was loose. Grrr. I hate wasting breastmilk - it's like liquid gold and I work so hard to get it out. Grr.

Baby REFUSED to sleep more than 30 minutes all morning. She was crabby and so then was I. Despite her crabbiness, we went off to the clinic for a weigh and measure. She's now 8.25 kg and 67cm long. Got back home and realised it was too late to take her to Gymbaroo (we'll go Wednesday instead). Put her down for a sleep and she slept - but only for 45 minutes. This might sound okay, but this meant she'd only had one hour and 15 minutes since 6.30am - this is nowhere near enough.

I went off to the supermarket while Grandma babysat. Got home and was getting the bags out of the boot and suddenly BANG!!!! It sounded like a shotgun, but was in fact a glass bottle of mineral water smashing on the garage floor. The gas inside the bottle turned the glass into shrapnel and it went everywhere, including into the skin on my ankles. I had tiny little cuts all over my lower legs. Fabulous. Cleaned it up and put the baby back to bed, as she was VERY tired. Do you think she would sleep? Hell no! I tried to get her to go to sleep for an hour and then gave up.

I put Romily in the Jolly Jumper to burn off some energy and then it was time for another feed (#4 for the day). I put her to bed and thank goodness she went to sleep! Went upstairs, reheated my cold coffee (thank god for microwaves!) and then proceeded to spill it all over me and my new gossip magazine that I'd just bought at the supermarket. Managed to catch most of it in my lap, so I saved the wool rug!

Oh my god it was all I could do not to cry. I must be a little tired I think!

Not long after that it was time to take mum to the airport - bet she was glad to be going home after today! I was just hopeless. Oh well. She's my mum - she'll understand.

I am so buggered I am not cooking our planned dinner of steak and salad (and how easy is that?!). Instead we are having spaghetti and store-bought pasta sauce. And a glass of red wine. Bugger the diet I say!

Let's hope we have a better night tonight. At least Romily is still sleeping beautifully at night. Those teeth are bothering her, but not too much. Yaaaaaah.

Skyfire

Canberra's night of nights is the annual Skyfire event, held around the shores of Lake Burley Griffin.

We went along for the first time on Saturday night and took Romily to see her first fireworks. They were spectacular! She wasn't scared and loved looking up at the lights in the sky. It was wonderful to be there together with Grandma. It was a fabulous night - although we did keep Romy up way past her bedtime. I don't think she suffered too much though - she went straight to sleep when we got home and the next day was her happy self.

Aaaaaaaaaaahahahaha

I am treasuring these moments. I am storing them up for the future. For when she's three. For when she's 13. For when she and I aren't best friends anymore. For when I run out of patience with her. For when I have thoughts about why why did I have a child (I hope these will be few and far between, but, let's be honest. Every parent thinks this at least once in their child's life!).

I love this photo. It shows how much she just loves jumping in her jumper. And she's in her cute retro bodysuit, which I think is just gorgeous. Can you tell I love my little Romily?

Not a bad effort...

Well I was going to say this is my very first patchwork attempt, but as I was sewing away on my trusty Janome (that is truly Lily-proof), I recalled that long, long ago, in a high school far away, I made a patchwork apron! Yes, it's true. Of course the lines were all crooked and the ties were twisted. I was soooo hopeless at craft!

But, apparently, with age comes the ability to sew in straight lines :) I am also very pleased with myself being able to cut the fabric square. Oh yes, big pats on the back for me!!

I've appliqued the small heart onto the large heart and will blanket stitch around each layer. I think the materials are looking good together and I think this project is going so well I may even finish it!

A big thanks to my mum for 'reminding' me how to do blanket stitch. It was somewhere there in the back of my mind!

Yum

As you can see from this picture, young Romily is enjoying her food! But only if it's bland. Here she's enjoying home-cooked potato mixed with sweet potato. She's also enjoying sucking the last remaining bits off the spoon.

Grandma, who's visiting from Melbourne, is very impressed with her granddaughter and is amazed to see how much Romily's grown and how much hair she now has.

Romily is seven months old tomorrow. It seems impossible that it's been that long since she entered our lives. Grandma was one of my birth partners, so it's lovely to see the bond between my mum and Romily growing.

That's not all that's growing! Romily has cut her first tooth! After the false alarm in January, she now has her lower right front tooth. The left one is not far behind. It was nice of Romy to wait until Grandma got here to get her very first fang!

No it is not permissable to wear this in public...

Inspired by Tiffany, after I saw this on the weekend I had to create my list of fashion no-nos for men.

1. Thongs. Not the ones you wear on your feet. I don't care if you're Brad Pitt. No!
2. Combovers. This is never a good look. It is never justifiable. Even if you're the Pope.
3. Diamond ear studs. Sorry if that's you. But I just think it screams 'try-hard'.
4. Socks with sandals. Tiffany I'm with you on this one.
5. Bum bags. These are also called fanny packs by our US friends. Enough said.
6. Man bags. Beloved by the men of Europe. Behated by moi.
7. Cartoon character ties. This is not cute. It's naff, it's daggy, it's not on.
8. Shirts with loud sleeves. You know the kind. They were popular in the 90s to wear with a matching bow-tie under dinner suits. These belong in the bad taste bin.
9. Black socks with runners. That's trainers for those of you in the US. This doesn't even work under jeans. Try white socks gentlemen.
10. Spiky gelled hair. Okay if you're 13. Not if you're 31. Get a style makeover next time you go to the hairdresser! Spiky hair does not hide the fact that you're losing your hair. Get over it and get a number 2 buzz all over. Now that's hot!

Did I mention the Jolly Jumper?

Being ever so spoilt at Christmas, Romy was given a Jolly Jumper by her granddad. She just loves it. She loves it so much we have to limit the amount of time she spends in it, as, if it were up to Romily, she'd stay in it all day. So, we take her out after 10-15 minutes.

After initially not knowing how to make it 'go', she is now the master boinker and just loves going up and down very fast! We've now tied a balloon to a piece of string and then tied that onto the harness of the jumper. She's fascinated by the balloon, but has become very adept at grabbing the string and trying to - you guessed it - eat it.

Yep, she is just too cute :)

Oral fixation

Romily's latest 'thing' is to try to eat the 'linky rings' that hold toys onto the frame of her activity gym. She just loves them. Must love the tast of PVC.

It's funny to watch her now. When she was just a wee baby she used to lay there looking up at the lights blinking at her. Then she went through a phase where she had discovered her feet and used to kick the overheard arches so hard we thought they'd end up across the room. Now she's almost mobile she rolls over and tries to bite the arches, pull all the toys off and eat anything she can fit into her mouth. A couple of times I've thought she might actually manage to fit an entire ring into her mouth. That wouldn't be much fun trying to get it out! I think I'm going to have to upgrade the rings to a sturdier variety!

#1 use for overripe bananas

Ever wonder what to do with those two very brown overripe bananas sitting in your fruit bowl? Feel bad about throwing away fruit that started out perfectly good but you forgot/neglected to eat it? Here's the solution!

Jono's Banana Cake.

Oh my goodness this cake is gooooood! Here's one I made yesterday :)

Quilt pox diagnosed

I booked myself into a Beginners Patchwork class! It starts in May and runs for eight weeks. The lovely folk at Rosemont are running it and we'll make a sampler quilt (a section of which you can see here).

I'm really looking foward to it - I've been totally inspired by books and magazines, not to mention all of the amazing quilty blogs around the net. I'm thinking I'll choose a range of oriental/Japanese style fabrics for the blocks and maybe a black or dark green fabric for the borders and sashes. I bought a gorgeous Japanese-style card for my husband on Valentine's Day and I think I'll take my cue from that. It'll be great, because I can incorporate some applique hearts into the quilt, which will tie in with the heart cushion I'm making for Romily. This is good, as the quilt will be for her cot!

So, according to Sandra, I now officially have Quilt Pox! Ah well, I'm sure I can live with it :)

Not a baby anymore

Well I guess I have to face reality now - Romily's really not a baby anymore! I've been packing up her 0000, 000 and 00 clothes today. So sad. It seems like only moments ago that the newborn clothes were roomy on her tiny little body. Not any more! She's now comfortably fitting size 0 clothes. No more shopping in the baby stores. I now have to go the 'little girls' aisles!

Don't get me wrong - she's turning into a fabulous little girl - it's just that she was only a little baby for such a short time. Here's a baby photo (she was one day old) just because I can.

A bit of fun!

What was the hit song on the day you were born? Find out here.

Mine was "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" by a band called Middle of the Road. Hmmm, not a blessing!

In full bloom

Another reason why lillies are sooo much better than roses - they last a full week! Here they are looking just glorious. Oh yes I am a lucky gal!

RU486 bill passed

Wow. The House of Representatives in the Australian Parliament passed the RU486 bill during the week. I can't believe that sense prevailed over emotion. It's such an emotive issue and on the whole our politicians were remarkably sensible in their debate. There were a few loose cannons who confirmed their status as not the sharpest knives in the drawer, but, on the whole, the majority of them acted like adults.

I cannot imagine how difficult a decision it would be to have an abortion, but if I had to have one, I would want all of the available options open to me. It was quite an amazing day for democracy Australian-style and for the women of Australia. Wow.

The red man

It's not like Romy doesn't have enough toys. She's six months old for goodness sakes! But, I just couldn't resist the red man!

Neither could she apparently!

Not so sweet

Our adventure with 'solid' food continues. Today we introduced sweet potato. Romily readily opened her mouth for the first spoonful, but when she realised it wasn't el blando rice cereal, she had the most surprised look on her face! Followed immediately by a complete rejection of what I'd just popped onto the back of her tongue!

Most of it came back out, but some of it made it down the plughole! All in all, with a bit of encouragement, she managed to eat 2-3 teaspoons. Not a bad effort! We'll try some more tomorrow lunchtime. I think we might add some stewed apple to the morning cereal as well.

I don't think this is allowed in my diet...

Yesterday was my lovely's birthday. His request for a cake? Chocolate Ripple. Hmmm, I suspect this is not actually allowed in the CSIRO diet!

I made it in two parts - so we could have the other half tonight! Yum yum!

Roses are red but lillies are better

Today is our second wedding anniversary! Yes, we were married on St Valentine's Day in 2004. This was not deliberate! Rather, the reception centre had one Saturday left in February and that was it. We had such a lovely, happy day. I can't believe it's two years ago, but on the other hand, it seems like a lot longer ago than two years!

My lovely came home last night with an armful of gorgeous lillies for me. I am a lucky girl to have found someone so wonderful to share my life with. He loves me for me and that's not something everyone's so lucky to experience. He is the love of my life.

Awww!

Too pretty to cut?

Well, I bit the bullet and bought some material, thread, batting and braid! We are away. Although looking at the gorgeous colours in the material I'm thinking it might be too pretty to cut!

I went with my gut feel for reds, pinks, cream theme. I'm planning on making a quilted top for a cushion cover. The cushion is going to be 40cm x 40cm, so the 'bits' won't be too fiddly. I'm doing my own pattern, no block, and will applique aheart in the middle. I bought some wool batting and some solid colour material for backing/back of cushion cover. The braid to go around the edge of the cushion cover is cream, and will go well with the pinks, reds and cream materials.

I was lucky to be able to browse Spotlight for quite a while on Sunday as my husband took care of Romily for a couple of hours to give me some time out of the house 'unencumbered'. It was lovely to be able to wander around without lugging buggalugs too!

It was quite hard to choose five materials for the quilt top. I unwrapped all of the pieces and played with them on the floor. This is what I came up with -->

I'm looking forward to having a play and seeing what I can create. I bought some new 'tools' too - a metal ruler for cutting against with my rotary cutter and some other odds and ends.

I also bought the latest edition of the Australian Quilter's Companion today. It came with a free DVD on how to make a quilt. Hmmm, maybe I should watch that before I start on my project!

Love a bit of culcha!

We had a lovely day today mooching around the National Multicultural Festival. There were performances, stalls and lots and lots of people. In fact, there were so many people there today I think the whole of Canberra's population turned out for it. It was a beautiful sunny day - but not too hot - so I don't blame EVERYONE for coming.

Romily saw more people at once than she'd ever seen before and smiled and laughed her whole way around the place. She isn't frightened by crowds any more apparently!

It was reassuring to see so many people enjoying themselves and soaking up the myriad cultures that mix together to create what's so wonderful about Australia. A far cry from the so-called race riots in Sydney late last year. Let's hope tolerance of 'the other' continues and we grow to understand that we are ALL Australian - not just those of anglo heritage.

Well it's a start

Today was a momentous occasion! Inspired by Sandra, Tonya, Duyvken and other quilty bloggers, I bought my first quilting tools - a cutting mat, rotary cutter and a square ruler.

I have a little project in mind - a cushion for Romily with a heart appliqued onto a patterned background, in reds and pinks. I haven't bought the material or other bits yet, but I plan to do this next week and get stuck into it. If it works out, I'll take on a bigger project. If not, well, we'll see...

Senate making sense

Well common sense has prevailed in the Senate. The ayes were 45 and the noes 28, so the Bill has passed our upper house. It now goes to the lower house where all commentators believe it will be a very tight vote. Our conservative Prime Minister has already announced he will vote against the Bill - but that's hardly a surprise.

The 7.30 Report last night had a very interesting piece on the senate vote. Almost all of the women in the chamber voted in favour of the Bill, while most of the men were against it. Again, it's probably not a great surprise that the vote is splitting along gender lines, but it is disappointing. What's more disappointing is that the House of Representatives is heavily populated by men. Let's hope some of them are of the more enlightened variety.

RU kidding?

Please skip this post if you are offended by my pro-choice stance...

I am finding it difficult to come to terms with the debate currently raging in Australia over the authorisation for use of the abortion drug RU486. Our supposedly venerable politicians are argy-bargying it out in parliament, trying to decide whether the non-qualified health minister or the eminently qualified Therapeutic Goods Administration should decide whether it's a drug that is fit for purpose for use in Australia.

Of course those against abortion are making a case against the drug's safety, while those who are not siding with the so-called 'pro-lifers' are being painted as killers. The emotive language being used by interest groups is quite disgraceful, as is the sending of images of foetuses to the parliamentary committee.

This is not a question over whether abortion is legal or not. That debate has been had. This is a question of whether women should be able to use the method best suited to their situation to abort their unwanted foetus. Looking down at Romily sleeping peacefully in her cot, I can't understand how anyone could abort their baby - but that's because I have a little angel of my own. If my life circumstances had been very different, I may have chosen another option.

I think women should have all the available options at their disposal. Deciding to have an abortion is difficult enough, without having to fight to do it in the most straightforward and safe way possible. People need to think about the needs and wants of the mother, as well as those of the unborn child.

In this very secular society, the religious views of politicians and interest groups should not be dictating what options are open to me and to all the other women of Australia.

Please don't cry

Darling Romy, please don't be sad. It breaks my heart when you are crying out and whimpering in your sleep. What could be wrong? What in your life could give you nightmares? You're only six months old! No, wait, could it be:
1. memories of your six-month vaccinations
2. remembering me accidentally snipping off the very tip of your thumb when clipping your nails
3. reliving being wedged up against your playgym when you rolled over into it
4. dreaming that you've got your leg stuck out between the cot slats again?

Poor Romy. Life is very tough when you're half a year old.

It's playtime

I took Romy to her first playgroup today. A bunch of lovely ladies (and one man) and their gorgeous 18 month old bubs meet every week for a chat and play. I'd never been to one before and they were all lovely. I even had a mutual friend in common with one of them.

We went to storytime at the National Museum of Australia - the kids were cute, but the storyteller was struggling to hold their attention as she didn't have many props! We moved on after a couple of stories and went to have coffee. Romily took it all in and was quite fascinated watching the other littlies run around!

After playgroup, we rushed home to squeeze in a nap before going to Gymbaroo. Aside from being a little tired from not enough sleep in the morning, Romily seemed to really enjoy it. There was a baby swing that she was particularly fond of. I enjoyed showing her new things too and will look forward to going for the next nine weeks. We can go on Mondays, which I think we'll do, as playgroup and Gymbaroo in one day is a bit much for Romily - and for me!

Mmmm yum rice cereal...

It's sad but exciting at the same time. Our little girl is not a baby anymore and is growing up - we started her on her first 'solids' on the weekend: El blando rice cereal mixed with a little breast milk - hmmm, that doesn't sound very appetising to me. (Heaven knows why they call that slop 'solid'!)

It went surprisingly well! I was lead to believe that there would be food everywhere, but no! She ate most of it up and only a little was squeezed back out between her lips when attempting to get the food over the back of her tongue! I think the mess starts when they try to feed themselves!

By day two I got a little overexcited and I think I gave her a bit much. She was opening her mouth wide for me, so I kept shovelling it in (in very small amounts). But I read later you should only give them 1/2 to 1 teaspoon, and I probably gave her 3 or 4 teaspoons! We paid for it later - she had terrible trouble getting off to sleep that night and then didn't poo for a whole day. Whoops.

However, she now seems to be right, with her body sorting itself out and me giving her a little less! If all continues well, we'll try some sweet potato next week.

Water baby

We took Romily for her first swim. She was fantastic! We have a pool in our complex and it was lovely and warm after a long hot spell. We've been following the Laurie Lawrence learn to swim program and conditioning Romy to the water.

She was so comfortable that we were even able to submerge her completely under the water and she was great - she didn't swallow any and looked completely unpeturbed when we brought her up out of the water. She even managed a smile when we were lifting her up and down in and out of the water making big splashes. Let's hope we have a water baby on our hands!

Sydney visit

Romy and I had a wonderful day yesterday, catching up with some of the mums and bubs from my online mothers' group.

We flew up to Sydney in the morning and Romily was wonderful on the flight. I fed her on ascent and descent to make sure her ears were equalising and she wasn't disturbed at all - not even by the landing! We took the pram and checked it through, and I just carried her around the airport in our Baby Bjorn carrier. It worked quite well, although I did look a bit like a packhorse carrying the nappy bag on my back as well!

The group meet was at Sydney Olympic Park, which brought back some memories - I was part of the Australian Defence Force task force that supported the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Of course it wasn't as hot during the Games as it was yesterday. It was somewhere around 37 degrees in the shade! Luckily there was a lovely shady spot near where we were meeting and I found my friends there with their babies.

We had a lovely time catching up and it was so nice to meet these women I've been online chatting to for more than a year now. And to meet their babies! So many happy, well-fed babies was wonderful to see.

Romy and I caught the train(s) back to the airport in time for our return flight and we were back in Canberra and home in next to no time - and it was hot, hot, hot in Canberra too - 38 degrees when we got off the plane. Poor Romy was so hot. I just kept feeding her to keep her fluid intake up. She only managed a couple of catnaps on the trains, so was pretty tired by the time we got home, but she wasn't too feral and settled herself to sleep after not too much carrying on!

I was very pleased that she travelled so well - we might even manage a trip further afield one of these days!

Yaaaah feeling better

Thank goodness I am feeling a little better! I have progressed to the chesty cough disgusting stage of this infernal infection. Gross, gross, gross. But I am not feeling sick anymore so I can get some stuff done around the house.

I have my happy smiley baby back! She must be feeling a lot better too, as we have lots of smiles, giggles and chatting. Lord knows what she thinks she's saying, but it is too cute! She's trying - quite hesitantly, which is very endearing - to make the 'bah' sound that we've been mouthing at her. I'm sure she'll catch on soon! She still thinks it's hilarious when I say 'mum, mum, mum' to her.

Feral Beryl

I'm thinking about renaming Romily. Her name should be changed to Beryl after this morning's little performance. Why Beryl? Rhymes with feral.

She got off to a bad start with me this morning. I wasn't quite ready to get up when Romy woke after a short sleep at 8.30. We had already had her first feed at 5.50am and Carl got up with her for an hour to let me get a bit more sleep after another cough-interrupted night last night. (I've been sleeping in another room to let both Carl and Romily get some unbroken sleep.)

So, I brought her into bed with me where she proceeded to go crazy! She reached over to touch my face (very sweet I thought) and then grabbed the sensitive cartilage of my nose - the bit between the nostrils - and twisted hard. Yeeeeouch! Oh my god that hurts. She didn't mean to do it so I tried to not to react too much and just moved out of her reach after saying 'no' quite firmly.

She just went ballistic on the bed, waving her arms and legs around and squealing her lungs out. Hmm, thinks me, it looks like she isn't quite ready to be up - these are tired signs. So I gave her another feed and put her back in her cot, wrapped up tight.

I checked on her after about 20 minutes because I could hear manic laughter emanating from her bedroom - she had managed to kick her feet out of her wrap, but her hands were still secured. I wrapped a bunny rug around her feet and left the room to go and have some breakfast. All went quiet, so I assumed (wrongly as it turned out) that she'd gone to sleep.

Just as I was finishing my breakfast I heard loud squealing coming from Romy's room. I went in and not only had she broken out of her wrap completely, but she had rolled onto her tummy and was doing laps around the cot. She had obviously been on her tummy for some time, as the giant poo in her nappy had decided to go with gravity and leaked out onto the sheet. There was also a huge wet patch, which was either a spew or a wee. Delightful!

So after a wipe down with a cloth, a change of nappy and complete change of clothes and bedclothes, I took my little miss upstairs to have a jump around in her Jolly Jumper to burn off some of this crazy energy that seemed to have possessed her.

After 15 minutes I took her out and she started rubbing her eyes rather vigorously. Yippee! A tired baby! I gave her another feed and put her to bed and now hope that a good long sleep will sort her out.

May I have my cute little munchkin back some time soon please?

Like death warmed up

Well I'm still sick. I haven't been this sick for more than a year - and that was before I had a baby! I have been coughing up my lungs for the past 24 hours.

I finally got to the chemist today to get something to help stop the constant coughing. The chemist recommended a cough suppressant, which helps a little, but does nothing to get those razor blades out of my throat. My husband had a similar lurgy last year, so has developed a little sympathy for me and has been doing an admirable job of looking after me last night and today.

Romily is a lot sparkier today - she hasn't had as bad a dose of it as me. Thank goodness for the antibodies in breastmilk that are protecting her from the worst of it.

So, I'm feeling pretty sore and sorry for myself and completely useless. What a sad sack! I hope I'm feeling better soon - this is not a fun way to spend the weekend with my family.

We sick

Somehow both Romily and I have managed to pick up a chest infection. I hardly ever have chest colds – I usually succumb to disgusting head colds – so I am feeling awful and not a little sorry for myself.

Romy doesn’t seem to have it as badly as me. She’s not complaining much and only has a little cough every now and then. No doubt she’d let me know if she was really suffering! I’ve been giving her Panadol when she’s been quite unsettled, but she seems to be sleeping through most of it.

As I’m still breastfeeding, I need to be careful in what medication I’m taking to relieve my symptoms. I’m steering clear of cough medicine, etc. as most of it contains a decongestant, which can affect milk supply. This is the last thing I want to happen, so I’m putting up with most of it, apart from reducing my temperature by taking Panadol and sucking on lozenges to take away the razor blades that appear in my throat each night.

I’m also sleeping a bit more, which is helping greatly. Let’s hope this doesn’t last long. Being sick is bad enough, but looking after myself and a sick baby (and trying to keep her entertained) isn’t much fun.

Good old Telstra

Good old Telstra. Mid-morning Monday our phone went dead. I had to go out, so hoped that the phone would be working again by the time I got home. Nope. Totally dead. I disconnected the modem, to check that it wasn’t the ADSL broadband causing problems. Nope. I checked both handsets to ensure they were on the hook and that it wasn’t the phones causing the problem. Nope.

Looked for the phone book to find the Telstra fault reporting number. Couldn’t find it (still haven’t found it!). Found an old invoice and called the number on our pre-paid mobile phone. Before the call connected the phone told me I had $3.20 credit remaining. Fabulous.

Half-way through call to report faulty line my mobile phone went dead. Beautiful. Lovely lady at Telstra had fortunately taken down my number and was able to call me. I told her we’d better keep it short as the battery was nearly flat too and I couldn’t find the recharger – she said some days are just like that.

The phone line was fixed by mid-morning Tuesday. Excellent. Went to check my email and couldn’t. Broadband internet connection down. Not excellent. Spent 25 minutes on the phone to Telstra trying to get them to fix it, only to be told I wasn’t an ‘authorised person’ on the account and that my husband would have to call them. Argh argh argh.

Wonderful husband called them. Then phoned me with instructions. Which did not work. Argh. Rang Bigpond technical assistance and spent another 15 minutes on the phone with them. Not fixed. Not happy Jan.

To top it all off, it turns out there is a problem on their server but it will take them two working days to get to it. Not my fault, but somehow my problem. Che?

Good old Telstra.

As you can see from this blog entry, we’re back on line. According to Telstra their software turfed us out of the system for no apparent reason…

Still no fang...

Well the desperate sucking of fingers, tugging of ears and whingeing has disappeared and our happy smiley girl is back. No sign of any teeth. Looks like it was a phantom after all. Several of the girls in my parent group have had a lot of phantom fangs with their babies too. Who knows when her teeth might make an appearance? At least she's getting off to sleep a little better now.

She sits!

Romily can now sit on her own. She's only 5 1/2 months old *sob*. This is a bit on the early side, so I secretly think how fantastic it is that my clever daughter can sit unaided. But I also know that we are in BIG trouble - she's going to be on the move soon!

I met a cheetah!

Well three actually. My wonderful husband bought me the most amazing Christmas present: a Meet a Cheetah experience at the Canberra National Zoo & Aquarium. I went into the cheetah enclosure with the keepers and got to pat and scratch under the chin two of the cheetahs today.

It was so exciting! One of them was purring as I scratched her neck and it was just gorgeous. We spent 15 minutes with them and they were just fantastic. I've never been that up close and personal with a wild animal before - they are lovely big pussycats!

We also had a lovely walk around the zoo and saw all of the animals - Romily even took notice of some of the very brightly coloured and noisy birds there. She hasn't really worked out animals yet, but she's interested in anything that moves. This includes fish apparently - we went into the aquarium and they have the most amazing maori wrasse - it's huge and came up to the tank wall to take a closer look at Romy. She looked fairly non-plussed!

There goes the gummy grin

It's official - Romily is teething. According to our maternal and child health nurse, there are at least three bottom teeth trying to make their appearance.

I've suspected this for the past week or so, as Romy has been tugging at her ears, rubbing her jaw and sucking on her fingers like there's no tomorrow. While there's no medical proof that teething makes babies more susceptible to illness, I'm guessing the fact that Romily had a slight temperature and vomited in Launceston last week has something to do with the action in her bottom gum.

The Bonjela has been getting a workout, with Romily sometimes unable to put herself to sleep until her gum is numb.

I'm a little bit sad that teeth are coming - Romy's beautiful gummy grin will be a thing of the past and it's just another sign that my baby is growing up. There's no doubt though that she will look cute as ever with a couple of pegs!

Learning to crawl

Poor Romy! So much effort for so little return. Romily has been rolling onto her tummy every time we put her down on a flat surface and trying desperately to get moving.

She lifts her bottom up into the air and buries her face into the floor and pushes as hard as she can with her feet. Unfortunately her belly and chest are firmly planted on the floor and she gets nowhere. She tries so hard and gets so frustrated that she can't move.

She gets stuck on her belly and gets quite upset. We have to roll her back over onto her back, as she has apparently forgotten how to do this. Thank goodness we have the Jolly Jumper to distract her! We put her in there for 10 - 15 minutes at a time and she has a lovely time - giggling and grinning and generally making us laugh.

Although she's only 5 and a half months old, she's dead keen to get moving. We can't stop her and we can't help her - she'll have to work it all out on her own. Part of the joys and frustrations of being a baby, I'm afraid! And of being a parent!!

Our Tasmanian travels

Well we've just returned from two weeks in Tasmania. We had a lovely holiday, spending time with family and visiting friends, but also travelling around just the three of us. Our first family holiday!

We caught the Spirit of Tasmania car ferry overnight from Melbourne. First stop was Adventure Bay on Bruny Island, which is an island to the south west of Hobart. You also reach this island by car ferry, but it only takes 10 minutes, not 10 hours! We spent a week with my parents, as well as with my two brothers, sister-in-law and nephews. There were 12 of us in our parents' two-bedroom beach shack. It was chaotic but fantastic that we were all there together.

After our week on Bruny Island, we spent 3 days in Hobart just mooching about and meeting up with my friend Kate and her partner Pete. It was lovely to see them. We had hoped to catch up with some of our other Tassie-based friends, but they were away and we ran out of time!

From Hobart we travelled up to Cradle Valley in the heart of Tasmania. The feature of the valley is Cradle Mountain, a craggy peak that stands over a very picturesque Dove Lake. We had fantastic weather (a first for both of us) and took Romy for a walk part-way around the lake. I strapped Romy into the Baby Bjorn and carried an umbrella to protect her skin from the sun - we looked like we were on safari!

After two short days we headed east to Launceston. The weather was great when we got there but the next few days saw clouds and rain descend upon our holiday. Maybe this was a sign from the gods that it was time to go home, as poor little Romily came down with a temperature and did a huge vomit at Seahorse World in Beauty Point - of all places!!

Launceston's main attraction is the Cataract Gorge and we took a boat trip up part-way and then walked up the side of the gorge to have lunch at a restaurant at the head of the gorge.

Our planned catch-up with friends Mike and Kim was cancelled, but fortunately we were able to have coffee with Mike the next day before we headed back to Devonport to take the ferry across to Melbourne. It was my brother's 30th birthday, so we went straight from the ferry into town to shout him lunch. After a sinful plate of pancakes each, it was off to Bendigo for the three of us for a night before the long drive back to Canberra.

Romily's granddad was thrilled to see her and loved having his only grandchild in the house for the third time this trip. He bought her a Jolly Jumper for Christmas and by the time we got back to his house in Bendigo after our Tasmanian trip Romily had worked out how to jump high in it! She is an absolute crack-up in it and she just cacks herself laughing. We only let her jump around for 10-15 minutes at a time otherwise she would jump herself to the point of exhaustion. She just loves it.

Romily travelled really well, although after 5 weeks on the move she was becoming a bit fractious and was sick of being strapped into her carseat. We decided that one of us would sit in the back on the way home and that helped Romily sleep better on the way back. It took us 9 1/2 hours from Bendigo to Canberra with 3 stops, instead of the 11 hours and 4 stops it took on the way down. We'll be able to turn her seat around to face forward soon, which will make travelling a little easier for all of us!

We had a fabulous time - loved Tassie and reconfirmed our desire to settle there eventually. We also loved coming home. There really is no place like it!

Baby's first Christmas

Romily is blossoming by the day and we're very excited to be celebrating her first Christmas tomorrow. We've been out and about visiting friends and family in Victoria and she's been really good - still sleeping really well although we have completely taken her out of her routine.

Our families celebrate Christmas today and tomorrow, so we're spending this afternoon with my parents and brothers, my sister-in-law and my four nephews, and then heading off to my aunt and uncle's place tonight for our huge clan gathering - there will be more than 40 people there!!

Tomorrow we head to central Victoria to have Christmas lunch with my father-in-law. We are spending Christmas Day in Bendigo and my father-in-law will love having Romily in the house for another couple of days before we head down to Tasmania for two weeks.

Romily is enjoying having more people around and my parents think she's just lovely. She's been rolling around lots and laughing and smiling at people. This morning she learnt how to blow raspberries and she's just getting cuter by the day!

Although she won't really understand what all the fuss is about, she'll have presents to 'open' tonight and I can't wait to see the look on her face when she gets all that paper to roll in and chew on!

Feeding time at the Romily zoo

There’s a huge debate about feeding babies. If it’s not breastfeeding versus formula, it’s an argument about when solid foods should be introduced. It’s quite ironic that there called ‘solids’, as they’re anything but!

Fortunately for Romily and for me, breastfeeding worked out. We had a rocky start – thank goodness we had some very wonderful midwives who spent hours with us in hospital making sure both Romily and I knew what we were doing. After four days, we finally ‘got it’.

Fast forward four months and breastfeeding is still going really well. Romily knows what she’s doing and so do I. Lots of people give us advice on positioning, etc, but we’re comfortable and that’s all that matters (everyone’s an expert on breastfeeding!).

Romily is so comfortable, in fact, that she breaks off her feeding quite often to look up at me and smile. Then she buries her head back into my breast and drinks some more, before breaking off again to smile at me. It is just so cute that I can’t help but laugh, which makes her do it all the more.

We have a lovely relationship and I’m sure breastfeeding helps cement that bond. I feel very sorry for those women and their babies who want to breastfeed, but can’t. Of course, formula fed babies do very well, but I can’t help thinking they’re missing out on something special.

As for solids, some people start their babies on solid food at 3 or 4 months. World Health Organisation recommendations are to start at the 6-month mark. Romily still seems to be very happy with just breast milk at this stage, so we won’t be rushing to introduce solids.

Breastfeeding exclusively seems to suit us both – Romily has put on nearly 3 kilograms since her birth. We’re doing something right.

Rock and roll

Well my clever little munchkin proved me wrong this morning. She rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time! Of course it was while I wasn't looking - I was in the kitchen stacking the dishwasher and looked up over the bar and there she was on her mat on her tummy and elbows looking at her mirror. She looked very pleased with herself and was 'talking' up a storm!

Very cute and very clever is my little girl. But oh boy - I hope this doesn't mean she's going to be an early crawler. Our house is definitely not yet baby-proof!

How beautiful it is

How beautiful is it when babies discover their hands? Romily has found out that the things on the end of her arms are useful! She can pick things up (eventually) and now sucks on one, two or all of her fingers at once. She turns her hand over to suck on her pinky and looks very impressed with herself.

The down side of this new discovery, however, is that Romily has also learnt to pinch. Usually my boobs when she’s feeding! Yee-ow it hurts. I pull her hand away but she always puts it back and grabs a handful of skin and twists. She also does this with my clothes, but hasn’t worked out it hurts me when she does it to my boobs. And she doesn’t understand the word ‘no’ at nearly four months old!

It’s lovely to watch Romily playing with her clothes, bunny rug, teddy and reaching up to grab the dangly toys on her play mat. She’s getting bigger and doing more every day and I think she’s so clever! And I tell her all the time. She’s my clever smiley girl.

Tummy time

When your baby is born and you take them home, a maternal and child health nurse visits you at your house after about a week to weigh and measure the baby and to ensure your house is set up for a baby.

The nurse explained to me that ‘tummy time’ is very important for all babies, as it helps them strengthen the muscles they need to sit up. Romily hated being placed on her tummy so I tended not to put her there very often or for long.

At her next check-up, the nurse asked how tummy time was going. I said Romily didn’t like it and the nurse suggested I get down on the floor with Romy so she could see me when she lifted up her head. I tried it and Romily liked it much better.

I also bought her a stand-up mirror so that she could look at herself when she lifted her big noggin up. She now thinks she’s pretty clever being able to see herself in the mirror!

I can now see why tummy time is so important. There’s no way Romily is strong enough to sit up at this stage but she gets so frustrated lying on her back all the time. So we’re doing a lot more tummy time now and she’s getting much stronger and better at it. You will have seen from the previous update that she has worked out how to roll from tummy to back. I think learning to roll from back to tummy is some time off yet!

Three months and counting...

Well Romily is now three months old and she’s wonderful. We had a big day today – she rolled for the first time! She was having ‘tummy time’ and I ducked downstairs for a moment and then heard wailing. I raced back upstairs to see what was up and lo and behold Romily was on her back. She looked quite shocked but I made a big happy fuss over her and she looked very pleased with herself!

I put her back on her tummy and she rolled straight back onto her back for a second time. Clever girl!

She’s so lovely!

Romily's birth

My little bubby turned head down at about 28 weeks pregnant. As she started to get heavier, I started to feel increasingly uncomfortable in my pelvis. Strange and transient aches and pains sometimes made me cry out in pain. My obstetrician told me this was a good sign! He said it meant everything was loosening up ‘down there’ and my body was preparing for labour. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if I went into labour before the due date of 25th of July.

With this in mind, I was very pleased to finish work at 37 weeks. I was finding it a real struggle to make it through 8-10 hours a day. I was physically and mentally exhausted. My Mum arrived from Melbourne when I was 39 weeks to keep me company and to be here for the birth. Fast forward two weeks and I was still pregnant!

Several visits to the obstetrician later and I was booked into hospital to be induced. My darling husband took me into the maternity centre at 6pm on the night of Wednesday, 3rd of August and two hours later the first lot of prostaglandin gels were applied to my cervix. It was on!

My husband kissed me good night and I settled in for my last night of sleep before becoming a mum for the first time. At about 1am I woke up (despite having had two sleeping tablets) with what felt like a severe period pain and was excited to think labour had started!

I went back to sleep and woke when my first jug of iced water was brought in at about 6.30am. I was examined by a midwife only to find that absolutely nothing was happening ‘down below’. A second, larger dose of gel was applied to my cervix and then I had breakfast.

By about 8am I was having contractions. They were terrible from the get-go. No one tells you the truth about how bad contractions really are. My husband and Mum arrived at about 9am and tried to help me distance myself from the pain during the contractions, which were coming about every 15 minutes. They started to increase in intensity and were coming closer together. I felt just terrible.

After a couple of hours of this the on-duty midwife came to check on me and as my contractions were two minutes apart decided it was time for me to go to the delivery suite. So I was put in a wheelchair and taken up to the suite where another midwife did an internal examination. She had to then tell me that I was still only 1 ½ centimetres dilated and that I wasn’t actually in established labour.

Not in established labour! Were they kidding?

They called my obstetrician and decided that a shot of morphine was necessary to calm me down, take the edge of the contractions and hopefully get my cervix to relax. I agreed to have the drug and was wheeled back to my room on the ward. My uterus was doing all the work but my cervix wasn’t paying any attention. So my husband and my mum were sent home so I could get some rest. The morphine was good as it helped me to sleep between contractions, which, I had discovered, weren’t the right kind of contractions – I was in ‘false labour’.

Several hours later, another internal exam was done and I was thrilled to hear that I had dilated to four centimetres. Not far enough to have a baby, but progress! I called my husband and said it was probably time for him and Mum to come back to the hospital.

My obstetrician was consulted once again and it was decided that he would come in later to break my waters to get things happening. In the meantime, I was to just work through my contractions as best I could. This was fine, but they started getting stronger and so I asked for some more pain relief. This time it was pethidine, which I had had before. The last time I had pethidine I loved it – it had given me a lovely high where I felt that everything was good in the world. Unfortunately I had quite a different reaction this time. It did absolutely nothing for the pain and made me sick. Vomiting and having contractions at the same time is not much fun…

The contractions continued to intensify and heat packs, soothing words and gentle pats had ceased to provide me with any comfort. I was also feeling ‘pushy’ – that is, experiencing pushing contractions. The midwives told me not to push, as I would only damage the cervix and make labour harder. So I puff puff puff pant pant panted my way through the next little while until I could take it no more.

The midwives were looking a tad concerned by this stage and asked me what I wanted to do. So I uttered those words that so many women have spoken before me: ‘Give me the epidural!’ They looked disappointed (they want all women to experience a drug-free labour and I had hoped I’d be able to as well) but agreed to arrange it if my obstetrician agreed. He did.

As soon as a delivery suite became available (it was a busy afternoon for the maternity centre, with five babies born within hours) I was wheeled speedily back to the same suite I had visited briefly earlier. The contractions were coming thick and fast by this time and fortunately I was able to suck on some gas (a nitrous oxide and oxygen blend) and this helped to resist the urge to push. I was also hooked up to the electronic fetal monitoring machine so they could keep an eye on bub’s progress.

The anaesthetist arrived not long afterwards and, after warning me about possible side effects, administered the epidural – between contractions. He had me sit up on the bed with Mum on one side and my husband on the other and while I held my breath he inserted the catheter in between two vertebrae. After a couple of minutes he asked me if I could feel the anaesthetic taking effect. Nope. Nothing. Nada. He said he must have just missed and would have to do it again. Do it again? Okay just hurry up!

Well now I know why so many experienced mothers told me to have the epidural! It was bliss. It just knocked the pain right outta there and I felt sane again. I had no idea that contractions could be so mind-blowing and soul-destroying. They were just awful. Someone had told me they were just like bad period pains. Not for this little duckie.

My obstetrician soon arrived to perform the amniotomy. My waters burst with a rather large gush and we all hoped this would speed things up and get my cervix fully dilated. An oxytocin drip was inserted in my arm and I was advised to top up the epidural dose whenever I felt like I needed to (I had a little widget that gave me control of the regularity of pain relief I was receiving), but once I was fully dilated to stop the epidural so that I could feel the contractions, allowing me to work with them during the final stage of labour.

I heard the obstetrician say to the midwife as he was leaving, ‘Check her dilation again at 11pm and let me know what’s happening’. This was at about 8pm. At least another three hours! Thank god I’d had the epidural. Mum and my husband settled in for a long wait.

Meanwhile, I was still experiencing strong contractions – without the pain though! It was comforting to see them coming on the monitor and feeling my belly tighten. The baby was moving around quite a lot between contractions and occasionally the monitor would beep loudly because it lost the heartbeat. As this kept happening the midwife decided it was time to attach an electrode to the baby’s head to make sure we knew that everything was still all right with bubs and that labour was still progressing well.

The pushing contractions were becoming more regular and the midwife was starting to get a little shitty with me because I kept telling her I wanted to push. She kept telling me to relax and not push because I wasn’t ready yet. How would you know? I thought – you haven’t checked me. I soon discovered she was going off shift and didn’t need me to be having the baby right now, as it would mean she wouldn’t be able to leave.

At about 10pm I started to shiver uncontrollably. My mum got a blanket out of the warming cupboard and put it over me (on top of the blanket that was already there), but it didn’t stop the shivering. I wasn’t cold.

Our new midwife arrived, took one look at me, and knew that I wasn’t far off delivering this baby! She said she’d be back in a few minutes to examine me and see how far my cervix was dilated. About 15 minutes later, after she’d received her handover, she came in with latex gloves on and had a look. ‘I can see the head!’ she proclaimed. It turns out I’d been shivering because I was in transition!

I knew it!! I felt bloody ready and I was. So, we began. She coached me through the first couple of pushes, and alternated with my husband on one side and Mum on the other, each holding one of my feet in tight against their hips. The midwife hurriedly called my obstetrician and told him he’d better move it as I wasn’t far off giving birth.

About 10 minutes later he walked in the door to find that bubs had crowned and birth was imminent. I was feeling pretty stuffed by this stage but just kept pushing every time I felt a contraction. I could see my husband and mum getting excited so I knew it was close. I pushed so hard – I thought my insides would explode out.

The obstetrician soon had his gloves on and assumed the catching position. He and the midwife coached me through the last couple of pushes required to get the head out. With a god almighty grunting groan on my part out popped the head! Oh yay oh yay! They told me to hold it there until the next contraction.

By this stage my mum was just beside herself with excitement and my husband had a look of wonder on his face. The next contraction arrived and I gave one final push and out slithered the body and a whole lot of fluid. After taking a look at this little slimy bundle with its right fist raised triumphantly up in the air, I just fell back on the pillows exhausted. The obstetrician said to my husband ‘Are you going to tell her what it is?’ and my husband proudly announced ‘It’s a girl!’

It was all my mum could do to stop jumping around the room with excitement – she had two grandsons already and really wanted me to have a girl. Carl cut the umbilical cord and Romily Margaret was placed up on my chest.

Congratulations all round as Romily looked up at me and I stared into her cloudy blue eyes wondering how I could have just given birth to such a wonderful beautiful little thing.

I was stitched up in no time, having had a second-degree tear, but no major damage. My wonderful midwife helped Romily to attach to my nipple for her very first feed and our obstetrician made a gentle departure, bound for his bed.

So after six hours of pre-labour and 10 hours of established labour, Romily was born at 19 minutes past midnight on Friday the 5th of August 2005. Little Romily weighed in at 3.720kg and measured 50.5cm long and her head 34.5cm around. She was perfect.