7 months old. And lots to catch up on.

Morgan now has four teeth, nearly 5.
Teething is horrible. She gets very rosy and very cranky. It sucks seeing her in pain.

She now also rolls everywhere. Nothing is safe as she gets into everything. Pulls everything over and will put anything in her mouth. Lots of baby proofing needs to happen. I cannot even pee without her getting into something. And let's face it, daddy has LOTS of interesting bits and piecdz.

A week before she turned 7months, she said her first two words. "mum" and "dad". Super cute and it's all she likes to do currently. No babble just words and growling.

I am now only breast-feeding during the night. I am not fazed by this to much, mainly the cost of formula is the worst thing. My days are more structured and she is much fuller and content. Constipation seems to be a problem this week.

Well tomorrow it's back to work. 3 days a week. Wish me luck. Wish John luck too. Will fill you in ASAP. Will also finish off Morgan's naming day blog soon too.

Aimee
X

Swimming!

Today was our first swimming lesson!!!
She was so excited when we first walked in and seen all the water.
When we got in she was not so sure but watching the older girl who was there swimming around made her extra happy and excited.
They say that babies really don't need swimming lessons but I thought it would be good to get her use to water, splashing, going under water when she's been a few more times and just for general fun. Good little bit of fitness for mum too.
Morgan enjoyed her swimming lesson which consisted of learning to kick, floating around, watching mum blow bubbles, having a swim around with her lovely teacher Rosemary and just having fun.
We will be going again as it was so much fun and Morgan wasn't so keen on getting out and going home.

And we have a tooth!

Time flies by, Morgan is now 5months old. She has one tooth. All nice and sharp. Making her a very angry baby three days after first cutting. Nothing a little bonjela could not fix.

We have just celebrated her naming day, with most of our amazing family. Once I have the photos I will blog about how I did everything, ceremony and all the exciting bits. Decorations, food, celebrant and what we will do different the second time around.
I am not returning too work quite yet, holding off till November.
Morgan is more interested in sitting up than rolling about. And we are hanging out for her first word. We are still co sleeping, only at night. It seems the dark and the cold seem to set her off into realizing it is night as she is fine during the day.
Our mums group are doing our own thing which is a lot more fun. The weather is so yucky though.
I am still breast feeding which is amazing in it self. Even with a tooth I am still going, something I never thought I would do.
Aimee. :)

Mothers groups/new mum groups

Morgan and I have been going to new mum groups since she was 4weeks old. We have meet some wonderful mummies and there beautiful little babies.
The new mums groups seem to be all ending, as they are ran by volunteers. So this week all us mums are going to try and form our own mothers group, for mum and baby socialization.
Fingers crossed this all works out, as Morgan really likes "talking" with the other babies, and I really like being able to ask the mothers with the older babies questions. We all of course need a place to rant about, sleep, boobies, poop, partners and realities.
Will keep you informed on how we go.
Aimee. X

Too return to work or not?

This is the current question plaguing me. I have a baby that will not take a bottle for anyone or go to sleep by herself as she likes to be cuddled to sleep. She is far too heavy for my mum to rock to sleep, or anyone else for that matter.
I need to go back to work for the money but at the current stage I see no way of being able to.
Suggestions?
What do other stay at home mums do??
Will see what happens.
Aimee.

Time out just for mumma.

Must sit for half hour. Not do housework. Just sit.
I find myself wanting the house clean but between baby, partner working two jobs and just generally not having enough hours in the day. Also entertaining a brother on school holidays. But if I do this every time Morgan naps I find myself burning out.

So during her afternoon nap, I let me furry animals in for a cuddle (as they live outside all the time now, something they are not overly keen on. But for health and safety reason it had to happen) a cup of tea and some rest.
This is something I had to learn to do. I would worry about what people would think if they turned up and the dishes were not put away. Or if John had not got the chance to make the bed. But then by the time Morgan would wake again I would find I had not rested and would be so tired.

So the key to me being a happy mumma in the afternoon is sitting just for a little while, listening to some VERY loud purring and a nice cup of tea.
Aimee :)

18weeks.

I have been a bit slow of late with the blogging. Weeks fly by and I notice changes within Morgan all the time. She can now sit up but it still a little wobbly. She is eating apple, banana, pumpkin and very happy to chomp on teething rust when I need to distract her whilst shopping or in the car. Tomorrow we are finally getting her 4 months needles done, as we have been trying to get her into another doctor so she can have both needles at once rather that one at a time.
Four months has flown by! As I said to John last night we barely have a baby baby anymore.
She is still struggling with teething. We can feel them in her gums and see them but they just will not cut! Nothing a little teething gel has not fixed. Hopefully soon, as it may help with her restlessness. She is sleeping 7 till 7. And informing Tizzie Hall's routines have worked wonders. I am still cuddling her to sleep though.
All in all, everything is great!
Aimee :)
Ps! Also stay tuned for Morgan's up coming naming day!

Solids.

This week we have started on solids. This has been really exciting!

After seeing our child health nurse earlier in the week, she pointed out at our visit that Morgan is ready to start trying solids, basically put some food on her tongue and see what she does. She can sit up straight, likes to sit at the table and watch at meal times and has doubled her birthweight and is now 8.3kg.

So we came home later that day with some baby cereal ready to try the next day. Well. She loved it. Surprise, surprise. I am very sure she would have kept going, but we did not want to over do it.

Today we are going to try her with some apple and see how she goes with that.
I cannot wait to share our solids experiences!

Aimee. X

Turns out persistence works... Sometimes..

Somedays morgan will settle herself. Others she will not have a bar of it. At night she tries so hard not to go to bed. She use to sleep from 9 till 7 in her cot beautifully. Now if I insist on her going into her cot, we end up still awake at 11.30pm!! And even then, she is only going to sleep because I do what I probably shouldn't and put her into bed with us. And yes I'm aware of the risk of SIDS. The bonus of this is she sleeps from 9 till 7. I can attend to her much quicker if she does wake and she goes back to sleep much quicker with no stuffing around. Downsides are she somehow hogs the bed and all 3 of us fight over blankets.
I find it very amusing that she knows as soon as she is in the cot at night as she sleeps perfectly in the cot during the day. Oh well what ever works I guess.
Aimee. X

The dummy debate.

I was one of those mums that said while pregnant that I did not want to use dummy with Morgan, unless I could help it. But having a baby who loved to suck and wanted to use me as a dummy, I gave in when we got home from hospital. She only has it to sleep, and spits it out once she is down. John and I do not have a problem with this, but I have been caught with remarks about it, even in public. The public like to tell you what's wrong with you baby, even though you know very well that they are not hungry, wet or any of the other things they like to tell you. What I am getting at is do what works for you. You may not want to give them a dummy, but it may buy you an extra hour of rest. People may offer opinions but in the end if it works, it works.
Aimee.

Persistence has paid off.

Today marks the day that Morgan fell asleep by herself in her cot with little fuss. No screaming fit, no getting over tired, no daddy home to feel bad that she is grizzly. Let's hope we can continue this happening. It's taken me a week to get her to this stage if not longer. Makes me feel much better. And now I won't have to deal with the "just let her scream and go outside and ignore her" comments. Because lets face it, that makes mum, dad and baby feel horrible. A music box with pretty lights and continually putting her dummy in is all we needed. No fancy rocking cots, no rocker just persistence.
Aimee.

Playing catch up. 13weeks

I have finally caught up with this new growth spurt. The not sleeping and extra feeding that Morgan requires at these times is quite stressful.
After seeing the child health nurse Friday and coming to the conclusion I'm just a stress head and was over tired, Morgan now weighs 7.7kg and is thriving. She can now roll from front to back and back over. And I doubt it will be very long till she can work out this can help her get places. I find myself asking John where our baby has gone. She is learning new noises everyday, her new favorite is to squeal, knowing that it brings everyone over to check on her.
Her sleep patterns are coming back now too. Makes planning easier.

One more month till vaccinations.
One more till we can start solids.
One more till I have to organize going back to work.
And not long now till another wonder week and she will be learning another group of skills.
This is a great adventure and I am enjoying every minute of it!
Aimee.

Breast feeding.. Again

I hate growth spurts. It takes days for my supply to increase. And mean while I end up with a very hungry baby.

Last night after thinking she was full, giving me all the signs that she is full other than not wanting to sleep. Come 11.00pm after being awake since her nap at 6.00pm. I decided to give her formula as a top up. She drank all 120ml of it.
Although this made me feel bad, after thinking about this, i figured there was no way of knowing that she was not getting enough. Unless I express all the time and then feed her the correct amount each time. And let's just face it, who has the time to do that? Tonight I'm going to start a formula top up at around 7.30 and see how that helps. Will post later in the week to let you know how we get on.
Also seeing the child health nurse tomorrow to see what she thinks and also to confirm if she is teething or not.
Aimee.

Rock and Rhyme.

Today we attended our first rock and rhyme session, with another mum from our chat group. (http://www.linc.tas.gov.au/events/whatson/linc/rock-and-rhyme-sorell2)
We sang songs, read books, and played musical instruments. Morgan really enjoyed this. She loves being showed books and being sung too.
Will be going back next week, and I highly recommend! Cause let's face it, babies do not know you cannot sing. :p

Mothers groups/ chat groups.

I was very disappointed that they no longer have mothers groups. I remember when mum had my brother and off she went each week to a different mums house to enjoy mummy conversation, play time/ social interaction for their children and do forth. But the budgeting for these groups has been cut, leaving mums without this great program.
So when we had our child health nurse visit, she mentioned the child health organization where holding a chat/morning tea group at the community health center.

So along Morgan and I went, we have been going every Monday since Morgan was 4 weeks old. It is great to have other mums to talk to, and to compare as get good advice. The babies range from 3months to 7months in our group. The youngest are all starting to "talk" to each other and love watching the older babies try to crawl and try to talk.

I really wish the mothers groups still existed, but for now I really enjoy theses 2 hour sessions and making to friends.

Self settling.

I can not get morgan to self settle. I'm pulling my hair out. I have tried everything that the other mums at mothers group have suggested and the child health nurses. At this current stage, instead of rocking I can get away with patting her till she goes off to sleep. But it takes me a good 2 - 3 goes of putting her into bed before she stays in there. Suggestions? She is happy to lay in cot for 10 minutes, and then goes straight to hysterical, there is no little cry in between.

Breast feeding

The first hurdle we approached after Morgan's birth. The firsts and 2nd day was fine, the 3rd she tore skin off my nipples after 5 hours of trying to get her full of colostrum, with little success. We then had an hour sleep and another 4 hours of the same thing. Needless to say by this stage we were both exhausted and Morgan was still hungry. So when the nurse came to check on us again, she found me feeding her again and crying. This is what they call the 3rd day blues, mainly because it means your milk comes is about to come in, so we made the decision to call the pediatrician as we thought she was becoming dehydrated. After waiting 3 hours for her to come, as it was a public holiday, we talked it through and decided to top her up with some formula to give us both a break and to get some sleep. After successfully giving her 50 mL of formula, I went to sleep and John rocked her in the bassinet and finally off to sleep. She slept for 4 hours and I slept for 3.
Once I woke up I decided to shower. And once I had hopped out I realized that John and Morgan up and she was crying. Getting dressed in a hurry, I couldn't work out why I kept getting wet on my stomach after I had dried myself, till I looked down and milk was going everywhere!! This made me so happy. Feeding her was so much easier now and I was so glad I didn't give in.
We continued with easy feeding for a while. Even though let down hurt a lot. And my nipples were really sore. Once home I decided to use nipple shields to give them a chance to heal, I also used healing pads. I used these for 2 weeks and after healing I started feeding her normally again. Feeling let down stopped, which made feeding even more enjoyable.
The next hump we hit with feeding was after her first growth spurt. I would spend 2 hours getting her full. She would sleep an hour then need feeding again. After consulting with child health nurse and our doctor I started taking motilium 3 times a day. This is used to help increase production of milk. I noticed straight away the difference. She took 20 minutes each side and would sleep for longer as she was fuller.
I'm writing this to show other mums that anything can happen and there are ways around obstacles. And after speaking with other mums I wanted to share.
Stick with it, it all comes together on the end, just remember sometimes it won't and it's not the end of the world. Topping up a baby with formula is not the end of the world that I thought, it helped me to get a rest.
Morgan is now 11 weeks and it takes 8 minutes a side to feed her. And she feeds Every 3 hours. I'm still taking motilium and still happy to breast Fred for as long as she needs it.
Aimee x

10.02.12

On the 10th of February 2012, I finally after 4 days of being over due gave birth to our amazing, not so little, baby girl. 25 hours after my first contraction.

This her birth story.

6.30am I wake up with period like cramps and head for the bathroom. To find that I have had a "bloody" show. This made me so excited! So off I waddled over to the main house to talk to mum. After chatting away, I decided to call the hospital, like they had said to do during birthing class, so they were kept in the loop. After speaking with the midwife she said to see if contractions start, keep time, and call back at 9 anyway to see where I'm at.

8.30am. By this stage contractions had started but they were irregular. Ranging from 10 to 15 minutes apart lasting about 30 seconds.

9.00am. I called the midwife back and she said to stay at home as long as I'm comfortable and if the contractions became regular and 10 minutes apart to call and head on in because we live 45 minutes from the hospital. The day went on with irregular contractions till 2.30pm. Which they then started at 12 minutes apart lasting around 2-3 minutes.

Come 4.00pm and they became 10 minutes apart. Lasting 5-8 minutes. I stayed like this till 5.45pm. when they became 9-8 minutes apart lasting 8 minutes. I then decided I wanted to head into the hospital so I gave them a call and told them I was heading in.

6.00pm. Mum, John and I arrived at the hospital. The midwife checks me in and does all the checks. Come 8.00 the next midwife on shift does another check, I'm made to shift from side to side to try to get Morgan to wake up. As she was not responding to contractions the way she should have. Come 11.00pm, and not being able to successfully sleep, the nurse gives me a pill to sleep. After turning out the lights and everyone snuggling up ready to sleep, Johns trundle bed falls down but he sleeps through and mum and I spend about half hour laughing about that. I sleep for about half hour till 1am and my contractions start on top of each other. I decide to use gas to help take off the edge of the contractions. I also hop into the bath to try and help things along.
After about an hour in the bath, I walk around for a bit. Throw up all the water I have drank. Twice. Hopped back into bed and dose in and out of contractions.
At 5.45am I over hear mum talking with midwife that I'm finally dilated enough for the doctor to be called. Thank goodness! And I mumble something about getting him out of bed now!
He arrived around 6. And FINALLY broke my waters!
He checked and I was 8cm dilated. And put in a drip to help re hydrate me. And off he went leaving the midwife to tell me when I should push.
9.00am and back comes the doctor, Just in time. He gives me a general anesthetic and I finally push her out.
"wow she is bigger than I said" comes from the doctor.
They deliver her up onto to my stomach and John finally decides through tears that he will cut the cord. I end up with 2 stitches. Which is surprising considering the 9 pound 7 ounce baby!
We spend two hours having skin on skin and getting to know each other before moving to our room.
Well hope you enjoy, and I can not wait to tell you more about our journey.
Aimee x