Other stuff

Oh, to have time to blog... or do anything in fact... My boys are definitely keeping me busy these days. Diesel is sometimes refusing to nap during the day which is FUN. He is sleeping now - we spent the morning at a playcentre so he wore himself out, thank goodness. Xander is sleeping better during the day, so I occasionally get a bit of time to catch up on housework or paperwork, but scrapping and blogging have taken a back seat!

I am dying to scrap these days - got a beautiful DT kit from kiti q with loads of Love Elsie Forrest which I'm dying to use. Kell got the new KI Memories Bloom lace cardstock in this week too. So much yumminess.

AND, me and my scrappin' mate Mel bit the bullet and subscribed to a kit club. I have had my eye on the kits at Studio Calico for ages cos they tend to be 'boy friendly' (we both have two boys). So many kits often include lots of pink, and I'd never be able to use them. With the exchange rate being so good at the moment, it works out really good, and we split the postage too... Anyways, the first kit arrived and it is so, so nice. Expecting the second any day now. But I have a complete overload of yummy scrappy goodness between kiti q stuff and the kit stuff, and no time to scrap which I am very sad about!

I did get these done for kiti q:




So, what else... We've all had colds this week. All getting better now. Xander is sleeping better at night too - at least six hours between feeds after his 9.30-10.00pm feed. Nice. Diesel is the biggest little chatterbox ever. He parrots everything we say, and tries to name everything - Diddle's (Diesel's) shoos, Nander's 'air (Xander's hair), mum-mum's book... My favourites have to be 'snotties' and 'farties' though ;o)

Pouring with rain today - typical - two days before we get our water tank hooked up! Nice to hear it pattering down on our tin roof.

K... boys are both in bed, although I don't think D will sleep for much longer... I hope he'll be in a good mood this arvo and let me do a little scrapping. We'll see...

Month one

Had this written two weeks ago... and things have changed so much already, but here's Xander's one month report...

Dear Xander

Today you turn one month old. Which is kinda crazy, cos it feels like you only just arrived. And that in itself is crazy, cos I really thought you were never going to arrive. And now as well as feeling like you only just arrived, it also feels like you’ve been with us forever. Follow?

It has definitely been a challenging month. For the first two weeks of your life, I thought we had made a mistake deciding to have another baby. I felt completely overwhelmed, under-prepared, and incapable of looking after two babies. But it passed. Things are still a little crazy at times, but the whole family of four thing is ok.

Generally, you are a pretty typical newborn. You sleep, eat and poo... And cry. A lot. You seem to have a bit of a wind problem, and spend a fair bit of time grunting and crying between feeds. I got you onto some medicine for it today, so we are crossing our fingers that it gives you a bit of relief. Your cry is a serious high-pitched scream. I can’t believe such a small thing can make such a big noise sometimes!

Your first few nights at home were fairly sleepless. I ended up sitting on the couch all night cuddling you and feeding, or snuggling with you in our bed to get you settled. After that, you slept in your cot, and started figuring out the whole night-time thing. Now you sleep fairly well from your 10pm feed until about 2.30, then again until about 5.30am.

Feeding was the same – started out very haphazard, but settled into a routine after a couple of days. You fed well from the beginning, but I still ended up with sore nipples which settled after a couple of weeks. You generally feed every 2.5 to three hours, with a four hour stretch at night. I am hanging out for you to stretch that out a bit more!!

With the wind, and general newborn unsettledness, you seem like a more serious baby than Diesel was, but you finally gave me a little smile last week, and a big one last night. Daddy is yet to catch one, but I think they will start to come a bit more readily soon.

It has been a bit tricky to get you into a routine because you suffer from serious second-child syndrome. We are always out and about, and you get dumped in and out of the car constantly. I suppose you will just get used to it!

Diesel loves you to bits... almost literally. For the first couple of weeks he would often try to hit, kick or smother you, but not in a vicious way. He seems to be settling down now, but he might just kill you with kindness – he is constantly giving you ‘duddles’ and kisses. I think you boys are going to best friends one day. Despite how he treats you sometimes, you look at him adoringly.

Welcome to the family, honey. We are in love with you. xxx