Glad to hear everyone had a great Chrissie and New year.
We are just hanging around in our serviced apartment in Vic right now waiting for our furniture to arrive so we can finally move into our house! This has been the longest move ever - DD and I have moved around 7 TIMES in less than a month! I am so desperate to get settled down. DD also got quite sick last week and has been sleeping really badly too. While she was sick she didn't sleep for 5 nights in a row - I nearly lost it completely from lack of sleep! Other than that Catherine is going really well - she is cutting her fifth tooth and is such a happy little girl and she actually slept through last night! She understands so much right now but is already starting to throw some pretty full on tanties. I think we are in for a hard time once she hits the terrible twos!
prama - gees, that is bad luck. I hope you can change to PT sometime soon. It will be so hard being away from Poopy so much. I am thinking of looking for some PT work in the next couple of months once we are settled in a little, and am already thinking of how hard it will be to put our little ones into daycare. I think in the long term it is probably not so bad - good chance for socialising with other kids etc, but I know I will be a wreck the first time I drop her off! Sometimes I think it is harder on the parents than it is on the child!
couer - woohoo on DS saying mummy! I can't wait for DD to start talking, I bet she will say Daddy first though!
esme - i love all the gifts you are thinking of - they are pretty much exactly what I am considering for DD's first birthday! We need to start doing some shopping soon as DD's birthday is not far away now! It is so hard to believe they are almost 1 already, where did the time go?
sueby - happy birthday! My birthday is approaching too and I am not looking forward to it either, it is the big 3-0 and I can hardly believe I am almost past my 20s! Eeek! I hope you have a good day
Hi All,
Man.....i have been away from here for so long I can't possibly read what you have all been up to.
Bun, I did read a bit about Catherine being tiny and thought I'd make you feel better by telling you that Zoe only wieghs 6.4kgs at just over 10 months!!!! hehe. No one seems too worried about it. She's happy, healthy, strong and doing all the things she's supposed to be doing, so I am not worrying about it. In fact, it's great cos I can still carry her with one arm and i can even drop her on the ground using only one arm still!
I guess a lot of us are heading back to work now huh. Sorry to hear about your troubles Prama. I am starting back on the 23rd Feb. Zoe will be in childcare two days a week and with my mum one day a week. Not really looking forward to leaving Zoe, but I am looking forward to using my brain again!!
anyway....sorry i couldn't catch up properly. I just don't find the time to get up here much anymore and when i do, i write some emails, have a squizz at FB and then have to scurry back to bubs!!! Oh well....i will still try to pop in whenever I can.
keep up the good work girls!
Roya - I love the idea of a push along/ride on truck! We have some in the local library, will take Jasper there to see if he likes them. So many things I would like to buy for him... He got a fisherprice swing from Santa and now we can't go into the backyard without him having a swing in it; he absolutely loves it.
Sue - Yay on Sophie sleeping through! Jasper is starting to do the same, but in the process decided that 5.20 is a good time to wake up.... I now let him play in his cot till about 6 and get up after that. I have decided to cut out the night feeds so he could be getting used to that. I also just had another birthday, lucky the big 3 0 was last year (isn't as bad as it sounds, bun). Wouldn't it be great if we could just skip birthdays after 25?
Karlie - how are Jake's teeth going? Hopefully he (and you) will get some relieve soon. Jasper still hasn't got any teeth at all. Does the ranger wagon come with a dogharness ?
Bun - Hope your furniture will arrive soon! It will be so hard all that moving around with a little one. At least it will be a Xmas you won't forget! Jasper is starting the tantrum thing too; hopefully they will have it out of their system by the time they turn two.... How is Catherine going with her solids? I found a nice recipe here on BB that Jasper loves; spinach, ricotta and egg in the oven; he loves it and he can eat it as fingerfood. Even though he has decided that it is a lot easier if mum puts it in his mouth...
Danda - Carrying 6.4 kgs around sounds a lot better than over 9 kgs... My shoulder hurts a lot, because DS likes to throw himself around a fair bit!
OK, time to go for now. Better hang the washing before DS wakes up...
Looks like I dropped off the face of the planet in September. Which sounds fairly accurate as that is when things started going downhill. I'll give as brief a update as I can but be arned I'll probably still write an essay .
Alex...
Well September Alex would have been seven months old. He had three teeth at seven months, was rolling from tummy to back, could sit up unassisted if I sat him down, and was starting to become interested in toys.
The journey to crawling was thanks to the Roll-a-rounds that he continuously chased after. He started off pushing himself up on his feet and then throwing his body forward - almost like the commando crawl in reverse. At this stage he would only get himself from one side of the room to the other but enough to keep him entertained with his balls. He started crawling at about 9 months when he made a little friend ho could move faster than him. He still crawls funny, uses his left knee and his right foot. I think the foot propels him further forward or something. He chases things everywhere and I can't get five seconds peace. He now even follows me to the toilet and then, of course proceeds to pull himself up on my legs and stand there.
He is standing and pulling up on furniture very independently, and he can take up to 10 steps on his own, which is very exciting, but at this stage we have to hold him up and then he takes off. He is becoming more an more steady by the day, so I would say he will start letting go of furniture and scooting by himself soon enough. I'm tearing my hair out just thinking about him walking.
Loves balls and more balls... has just learnt to bounce, it's quite cute and it makes me giggle.
He has eight teeth and is currently cutting at least one, but I think both bottom molars.
Speech wise he is still a babbler. He can say dadada and bababa and rarara. He can sort of say hello (thank you INTG), and he also sort of says Ta. But the 'ta' comes out as anything he feels like, including 'gok' at one point. But we sort of look at it as it's great that he is eliciting a response and I am very proud of him.
We finished breastfeeding at 9 1/2 months but I'll go into that more below, I was really keen to keep trying as I still have heaps of milk but even if I could get him to suckle he no longer likes the taste of breastmilk .
Umm I think that is it for him.
Me.
Ummm I turned 21 in September, which isn't particularly exciting. Guess it made me feel more validated as a parent however as I'm an 'adult' now. Anyway, no big deal. As you know I had been on AntiDepressants since July, but I took them pretty sporadically. Major issues with denial.
I trust you girls to not make judgements here, but normally I don't share my PND story outside of the private forum, so this is a bit of a heartspill for you...
I don't actually remember a lot of what happened with me betwen my birthday and November, but it was horrible. Even though I had been taking the Zoloft regularly, I deteriorated mighty fast. I was at a point where I was wanting to strangle Alex and had serious thoughts about not only harming him but also myself. I, at times, would feel nothing and even went through a phase where I refused to tell Anth that I loved him because I just didn't know if I felt it.
My house fell apart. I stopped doing dishes and washing on a daily basis, and I would only drag myself out of bed to shower every 3-4 days If Alex cried when he woke up I would physically hurt him by squeezing too hard when i picked him up. I didn't even realise I was doing it. I even once tried to smother him with a sheet. I was really aggressive, angry and not myself. The reminder of things that happened really scared me.
I hated him breastfeeding. I hated the dependance. when he would refuse a bottle and would have to have boobie I would sit there clenching my fists and crying. At times I would cry just because I felt so pathetic and that only made me feel worse. I really withdrew from the world. I hardly spoke to my family, my mum and anthony and I had started to fight regularly. I couldn't stand Anthony touching me, talking to me, hearing him say 'I love you' made me cringe, and if he breathed on me I wanted to vomit.
I had terrible insomnia and struggled to get to sleep until 5am most mornings, with Alex up at 7:30.
Somehow I soldiered on until November and then had a major breakdown. I called my local clinic and said i needed an urgent appt with my GP and then called PANDA and cried my eyes out. I talked to her for about an hour and then she called my GP so she could explain some things before I got there. I ended up being there for 1 1/2... How embarrassing when I only got booked for a 15min appointment. Anyway, we talked about everything, and we tried to get in touch with a mother/baby unit. Got the run around and had to talk to this other clinic, who I have a major dislike for (she insinuated that as a young couple we should of had an abortion. I was livid), but made an appt for the next day. Went in there talked, to to different people and then they said they needed to make more calls, go home and theyd call us back... WELL....
Who should call when we got home but Child ****ing Services. Behind our backs. I won't even bother going into my rant here but my psychiatrist said that it wasnt necessary. I was furious. They claim they did it because they were worried that Alex was bad for my safety and not the other way around but it certainly doesn't come across that way. Anyway...
Landed a spot a W'bee MBU and it was a Godsend. My meds were doubled over the course of my three week stay, psychiatric counselling, group therapy, baby bonding, learnt that i have many many mother issues... I'm still **** scared somedays but I am infintely better. The change is leaps and bounds more than I expected. I have written an extended journal of my stay but won't bore you with it
Then we went on holidays to NSW (which was delayed by two weeks because of my hospital admission) and decided that we're moving there. Will be living around the corner from Anth's parents in Yass and although we will be far from our friends, I will at least have much needed family support. We move next weekend. Currently on the hunt for jobs and feeling very anxious about it all but I know it's the right thing to do.
Since then we have had Christmas and New Year, all way too hectic for my liking, but fun nonetheless.
Okay that's me over with, I will try catch up with hat's been going on soon! Please link me to pictures of your gorgeous babies. I can't believe some of them are turning one soon, how time has flown....
Prama darl I hope you and L are feeling better soon. Hope the stay achieved what you were wishing for.
You look organised I haven't even bothered with the dread R word in our house
Hi ladies. Sorry have been MIA. We have been plodding along here. What to report...
Amber still only has 2 teeth. I have a feeling she is going to get a whole lot at once. I have bought a baltic amber teething necklace from ebay in anticipation. Amber still is not sleeping through the night. She was such a great sleeper until she turned around 6-7 months. She now wakes a couple of times a night. Sometimes we can get her to settle with putting the dummy in and sometimes I have to get her up for a feed. She also has had 2 colds in a row and possibly the third in a row is on its way. So who knows. Other than that, she is crawling as fast as she can everywhere. She is crusing when she can and has a strong personality. She eats like a champion and we are still managing to bf. I would like to get to 12 months and then I will reassess. I think possibly we both could have had enough soon.
So thats it with us.... Enough of us being selfish.....
Ash- My god you have gone through a lot. I had no idea how bad the PND got for you. Hopefully your move up north with give you the support you deserve. Would it be rude to ask about how the support from your family has gone? You must have a keeper in Anth! LOL I have been looking at your pics on FB and you seem to be smiling again and that is so lovely. All of the girls are here if you ever need to vent. Oh and your little man is a handsome one.
Prama- I am glad you have learnt from your sleep school stay. It is probably something we should do too. When do you go back to work? It is such a bugger that you cannot go back part time. Hopefully they can come to their senses and you will be able to go part time soon. I hope you feel much better soon.
Bun- Welcome to VIC! Hopefully you can get settled into your house and get back into your routine soon. Hopefully Catherine is sleeping during the night for you and you are getting your much needed rest.
Danda- Hi to you and Zoe. 6.4 kg is certainly much better to carry than nearly 10 kg! Good luck when you go back to work.
Karlie- I was in benders over Christmas. We made the mistake of going to the market place on Boxing day. people EVERYWHERE! How is Jakes teething going?
Well DD wants my attention. Sorry for no more personals..... Hello and sorry to everyone I missed.
i havent posted cos we've been at tresillian over the week, but poopy got sick, suspected gastro so he got expelled on thurs... haha
i found some personality traits seeing him going thru the settling process and playing with other babies. he's been very stubborn in accepting the new routine, but seems to be getting better. slowly but i t hink we will get there, and he will learn to go to sleep himself w/o being rocked etc.
the other thing i found when he's playing w other children is that he loves playing with all the kids, and goes around playing with each one of them, but at the same time is independant and will go off and explore other things by himself. the downside i found is that he's got toy envy.. he wants to play with whatever toy another baby is playing with!!
he's starting to self-settle. i feel a lot more confident and now can distingush his different cries, just plain protest or him being upset. and know when to go in and comfort him. it is tough love, bron.. but it also taught us that he has to learn to accept what he teach him, instead of the other way round. it was really hard at the start, my heart would tear into a million pieces w each cry but i got more confident and understood how he's feeling. it wasnt so bad as the nurses stood w me outside the door and explained to me each time, what he was going thru and we didnt let him cry for more than 5 mins.. it was all up to me when i wanted to go in.. and tehy guided me. that's the SS in brief...
as for his other routine, they said at his age of almost 11 mths, it should be like this...
bf before bfast
bfast
sleep for 1.5 hrs
play
lunch
formula
sleep 1.5 hrs
play
dinner
bath
bf
cuddles/story
bed.
im going to bf morning and night and ff in the afternoon as he will be in daycare.
im sick now.. vomitting all night Friday and some yest, poopy's better, only one vomit yest but still not wanting to play a lot and just wants lots of cuddles...
my poor little itty bitty. he's having jus a little to eat, mostly bread and plain rice. no formula at the moment, so fully bf. formula will make his gut worse, cos it's dairy.
poopy still fights his self settling during hte day but at night he seems to go down ok. he slept from 6.30pm to 5am. i saw on the baby monitor he stood up and whinged a bit for a couple of minutes or so and then lay himself down which he has never done. and went back to sleep till 6.. so that's something good.
ash - dont worry, you've had so much happening.. and ive done the same too.. thot nothing was happening but a new thread had started and i didnt get any notifications...
? 
.
If Alex cried when he woke up I would physically hurt him by squeezing too hard when i picked him up. I didn't even realise I was doing it. I even once tried to smother him with a sheet. I was really aggressive, angry and not myself. The reminder of things that happened really scared me.
over the course of my three week stay, psychiatric counselling, group therapy, baby bonding, learnt that i have many many mother issues... I'm still **** scared somedays but I am infintely better. The change is leaps and bounds more than I expected. I have written an extended journal of my stay but won't bore you with it 
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