Babies Born August 1st ~ 15th 2008 #7

[squidipa]

happy 6 months jet!!!

vic.. thats bad about the pool good on ay for calling and complaining and getting it sorted

pixie i hope your keeping cool!! I hear ya about growing up soooo quickly its crazy!

MM wow those teeth are just shooting through hey dont forget to take some pics.

quick hi becka *waves*

sasha loving that pic u got up such a BIG boy now hehe.

kiwiwgirl...

1. Usual total amount of sleep during day...........4-6 hours
2. Usual total amount of sleep during the night.....9 hours witha sleep feet or quick dummie insert or a 10 min grizzle
3. Number of teeth.... 0 teeth
4. Sitting up? ..... yep but then gets to exited and tries to take off forward
5. Crawling?... only army crawl
6. Favourite foods?.... havnt tried much RUSK sticks, chocolate custard and corn and sweet patato
7. Food reactions?.....none
8. Usual number of feeds?.... 1 feed food but trying to increase to two feeds he has just stated actually not pushing the food out of his mouth. 5 bottles each 250-260ml dailey
9. B/F or FF? FF
10. Working? no working here got to many ppl to look after.

yay cloth bums are u doing a store mel???

now for me the weeks are rushing and i feel like im being left behind would like to elaborate but got no time, Joshie's head like REALY sweats like it's always wet under his head my daughter was the same too so yeah not to worried anyone else having this issue.

[Arimeh]

yay cloth bums are u doing a store mel???

Yeah, my own MCN store.. its pretty exciting!!!

[MummyTummy]

Grrrrr!! This is the third time I have tried to post. Lucky I copied it before posting huh?

Congrats on the new store Mel!

Great idea Rach! And Happy 6 months Eli!

1. Usual total amount of sleep during day - Not sure, varies. If I do a fair bit of driving he gets more sleep than days he is at home.
2. Usual total amount of sleep during the night - Well we officially go to bed at 9.30, and officially wake up at 7.30, but we have 2 snacks, which vary as to what time.
3. Number of teeth - I'm sure all of them, but none are exposed as yet!!
4. Sitting up? - Yep. Still a little wobbly, but has no problem with falling over, thinks it is funny
5. Crawling? Nup! I think he is in favour of walking first! Also loves to stand and hang on to things to support himself.
6. Favourite foods? Toast and vegemite, banana
7. Food reactions? None so far.... and we have tried alot. Including steak, tandoori chicken, pancakes....etc
8. Usual number of feeds?
9. B/F or FF? B/F
10. Working? As a mum.... still on mat leave, still getting paid....just about to stop as of 13th Feb. Not planning on going back until May, but am hoping to extend that out until July.

Hmmm fires. I have so much to say, not sure where to start. But I guess this is a post that I am just going to let it all out and probably in a very rambled fashion so please feel free to stop reading here.

I live in a suburb on the very NE of Melbourne and our suburb is pretty much the divider between suburbia and rural/bush. Yesterday was soooooo hot. Hottest day ever recorded for Melbourne just over 46 degrees with such a strong hot northerly wind. The only way to describe it is having a giant hairdryer turned on you - same heat, same force. We wet our dog down, he went and had a pee and when he came back he was dry. That should give you an idea of the kind of weather it was. It was DH's birthday yesterday and so we thought we would take a drive down to the coast and back just to stay in the cool of the A/C car before going out to dinner with friends and family.

When we got back we went upstairs for a shower and got ready to go out. I left my phone in the car so didn't hear it ring. When we got back in to the car I checked it and I had 2 missed calls from a friend who I walk with on Tuesday mornings. She has a baby that was born on the 1st August, so she would be in our thread if she was on here. She has had a few issues with her partner and people undermining her in regards to her boy, and she calls me when she needs someone to talk to and some support. I thought it must be related to that. Especially when her first sentence was "I was calling because I needed somewhere to go". But she was ringing because she needed to get out of her house and her town. We did not know at this stage about any fires, let alone the seriousness of it. She had found somewhere to go, but she explained where the fires were. Basically they were covering right around our suburb, no further than 20kms away all around. How did we not know?? Later that night we heard that one of the towns (Kinglake) was burnt out. We know a couple of people that live up there, plus the vet up there is a close friend of ours and she also lives in Whittlesea, another town under threat. I messaged her to find out if she was ok, and another friend messaged the other two friends. I also messaged to check up on the friend who had originally called me. I received the following message from my vet friend in response tgo my "Everything OK?" message. "Only just. My place ok but fires still burning on ridge, whole hill glowing. Kinglake very bad all shops gone, clinic too. Still waiting to hear from some friends very yuk. Thanks for checking xo". This was when it really hit home as to how bad it was. Her clinic is (was) on the main street, where all the shops were. One lot of our friends lived about 6 houses down. We still hadn't heard from him. I didn't hear from my other friend again last night either.

My Mum rang me this morning saying that the fires were down near the suburb that I walk in on a Tuesday and they had them on high alert and preparing for evacuation. This is only 2 suburbs away.

This morning I tried to call my friend and message her again and couldn't get an answer. I was worried she had gone back in, her partner is in the CFA and was fighting the fires so it was a complete possibility. Met up with our vet friend who needed a spare tyre for her car as she would be going back in to the fire zone as soon as she was allowed to, to the very yukky clean up job for all the pets, livestock and native fauna. Which would obviously mean alot of euthanising. Lucky DH is a mechanic and has the connections, cos she couldn't find anyone open on a Sunday to help her.

Finally heard from the friend who lived 6 doors down from the vet clinic. Thankfully they were all ok. They (him, his wife and their young daughter) had gone down to his parents place to make good use of their air-conditioning so they were safe and well. However, they don't know what they are going back to, and presumably it has burnt down which means they are left with only what they had with them. They had left in the morning before the fires had flared up. Another friend we know is ok, but again don't know about his house which he has only just finished building and had only moved in to it 3 days ago. Presumably that will be gone too.

The other girl who I walk with on a Tuesday morning, who also has a baby born in August, messaged saying they were all ok, but they lost their house. At this stage they don't know to what extent. They were in the next town from Kinglake, closer to us.

Our suburb is the refuge town. Our community centre is full and busy with people who now have nothing and no where to go. It is just bizarre going past the normally empty car park and seeing it packed out, people everywhere, ambulances etc.

We are thanking our lucky stars tonight. It has just hit us that if the cool change hadn't have come in and the wind had have kept up yesterday our home would have really been under threat. Even though we are in a built up area, it is very hilly and lots of bush around. We also live next to a massive bush block and considering the embers were travelling up to 4kms we would have been next in line.

So if you have made it this far...sorry!! If you skipped all that - smart move! But please hug and kiss all your loved ones, the stories that are coming out of Kinglake are just horrendous. They had no idea it was coming. It was fine one minute and the next minute everything was on fire. 550 houses destroyed. It's a small town, so pretty much everything is gone. The town no longer exists. Last I heard 84 people are confirmed dead across the state, most are from Kinglake and expected to rise. Alot are from people driving to flee the fires and getting trapped in the car. Two children have died because their house caved in and their Mum couldn't get to them. I just feel so yuck tonight.

ETA: OMG, I'm watching the news report and it is just so much worse. And it is local. We just saw the friend that finished building his house and moved in 3 days ago in the background of one of the shots of Kinglake. He is ok. We saw another friend who is in the CFA on there too. Their truck caught fire. So they are extremely lucky.

[thepixie]

Amanda I have tears in my eyes reading this! So sorry that your community is going through this. will be thinking of you and your community tonight. I WILL get my act together this week and donate lots of clothes and other stuff to the bushfire relief. Take care xxx

[Arimeh]

Yup we are donating stuff here too.

I'm glad your friends are ok Amanda, cos so many people haven't been - pure tragedy - its just too sad to contemplate

I'll do whatever I can to help if your friends need anything - just give me a hoy.

[squidipa]

MT i am honestly speachless i am in shock like wow all this hapepned so fast and SOOOO soon, I am very teary eyed today and glued to TV. i just feel so useless we also will be donating stuff when we get the info of location drop off's, i wish they had mobile blood banks everywhere!!!!

[squidipa]

MT i am honestly speachless i am in shock like wow all this hapepned so fast and SOOOO soon, I am very teary eyed today and glued to TV. i just feel so useless we also will be donating stuff when we get the info of location drop off's, i wish they had mobile blood banks everywhere!!!!

[*Beema*]

Amanda

What a terrible time it is at the moment, I can't believe that towns have just been completely destroyed. It was so hard watching the news and seeing the cars that had crashed trying to escape. It made me feel sick to the stomach

Will be thinking of you, your family, friends and your community during this time, I don't think ti will ever be the same

[mountain mummy]

Amanda. My thoughts are with you, your family friends and community. It is so tragic. I had no idea that you were so close to it all

Seriously, if you or anyone you know need anything, we are more than willing to help out!

[beckoes]

I cant get the thought of these people outmy mind! its just so sad, i wish i knew what to do,we will donate, i cant give blood (they dont take english blood!!) just want to hug all those that have lost so much!
I heard a very true thing on the radio this arvo, "anyone who woke up in thier own bed, with thier family around them, a roof over thier head, electricity on and food in the fridge needs to do something to help these people" ! I couldnt agree more!
hugs MT

[MummyTummy]

Thanks for all the hugs and thoughts everyone, I will let you know if I find out anyone needs anything. There are still fires burning out there, including Kinglake still so no one is out of the woods yet. The wind has picked up too which is not good, but looking at the CFA site everything seems to either be on the small side or non threatening in this local area. It is worrying when you see big plumes of smoke on the top of the surrounding hills though. There is another big fire burning up near Beechworth which is the one they are concentrating on today.

They have asked people to stop donating goods, they can't cope... they would prefer money so that people can go and buy their own clothes, to enable them to feel some sort of sense of control over their lives. I believe there is going to be a telethon on Thursday night... It's just so tragic...

Bec - none of us can donate blood anyway, not until our babies are at least 9 months old. I looked in to it because I have a rare blood type, but they won't accept your blood until babies are 9 months old and they are mostly weaned off you, so if you are b/f they don't want you to donate either. But yeah, they are scared of the English blood because of the mad cows disease.

MM - I'm local, but thankfully was never under threat. It just makes it extra hard when you know the places so well, and you know people living there, and they aren't ok but you are IYKWIM. I feel guilty in a completely irrational way. And I guess because Kinglake is in a bushfire overlay (so are we mind you in Diamond Creek) people are prepared and we all tend to be a bit blase about the whole thing. There is usually some sort of fire every few years up there and it is always an emergency, but lives and houses are usually saved, not counted. But this just took EVERYONE by surprise that people just didn't stand a chance. And I think that is what is most tragic about it. It wasn't people being stupid, it wasn't people that couldn't help themselves, it was literally everyone who was there.