Babies Born March 2007 #12

Rachel, thats great news! Congratulations. Hope all is good and you dont get bad morning sickness. Oh argh about the fatigue - that was one thing I found really difficult when I was pregnant. Claire is back to her normal self again, so everything is good. She is a happy little ball of energy again.

I went a bit crazy the other day at IKEA. I got a whole lot of things for Claire! I got her an easel (so she doesnt paint/draw on the doors!), a little table, a shelf, a rug for the floor in her room and a little wooden train set thingy. I've been saving $ for a little while now and I'm so happy I could get her this stuff. Her room was terrible before, but we dismantled the study desk we were using for a change table and I've put the rug, easel and shelf there instead. She LOVES the easel and the train set. And the rug is so soft and she likes walking on the spot on the rug. I'm sure it will get filthy pretty quickly though! hahaha. Her room is now more open and looks more like a little girls room than a converted study. And she's getting so good at putting away her toys when we ask her to. She actually has somewhere to put them now!

... so... now that I've been to Ikea, I have in my mind all these grand plans for our bedroom and loungeroom. I should really not have gone to Ikea when I was in the mood to redecorate.

I think I want to take the side off Claires cot soon. I will need to make her room more Claire-proof first ... bolt the shelf to the wall so she cant pull it down and get all the cords for the blinds up off the floor and do something with the powerboard/powerpoint. We have one of those kids fold out couch things and sometimes she wants to sleep on it so I let her, but then I go in later to find her sleeping behind the door or something. Those of you that have taken the side off the cot: does your little one wander around the room and destroy it, or go and sleep on the floor instead?

ok thats all. Its time to go wash some nappies!

Hey Rachel! Congrats hun thats fantastic newssssssss! Hope the fatigue don't hit to bad hunni! They owners are not pushing so much to sell now as they know we like it here :) which is great! Work is good, soo tiring tho when you haven't done it for a while, just settling back in... Hard tho when i don't get to see tim for days!

Doctors was for another reason - I wish I was UTD! But still not working, But its only a matter of time :) I've stopped thinking about it so much now, I know that it will happen when he/she is ready to come into and enlightin our hearts even more :)

I am going to be a doula! Going to start studying when i go on my holidays from uni in NOV! I am sooo excited then i will see babies all the time :) and be able to help the mummy in one of the most important memerable lifechanging events!

Did have abit of an arguement with Dp about it tho, which was kinda upsetting (i wrote a boohoo) but he misconstude what it was about and everything, but after a big chat we got it all sorted!!! He's supporting me 110percent!!! :)

There was something else that i was going to write but i have forgotten all about it! haha!

Oh thats right, my little brother has came down to live with me and tim for a while... Get him away from the group of friends that he made up in townsville and in a last attempt to get him to stop wagging school and hopefully pull up his grades!

Umm.. I so buggered (just worked tonight, and last night, and night before etcetc) i can't think of anything else to say!

Night night! Im going to sleep :)

Congrats again Rach!

Oh it has been a long time no chat

Ozzy - first of all :redface: HUGE APOLOGISES from me for not getting in contact with you in Brissie. Took all these things down with us to give to you and then we all got struck down with a bloody tummy bug that lasted nearly the whole time we were there! Just when we thought we were over it someone else woud have another episode and everyone we went round to see ended up getting sick - felt like typhoid Mary. I really didn't want to pass it on and I kept meaning to contact you and I am just unbeliveably slack! Hope oskar is feeling better and hope the pregnacy is coming a long well. I still have a bundle of things for you so will have to post it down :-)

Rachel - congratulations!!!! It's offical now hey! I had a lot of mixed emotions with #2 also even though we were ttc once it happened I was really confused and actually got a bit depressed, I think it was just all the hormones. Once you have that baby in your arms it's all OK, although I did take a bit longer to bond with Ari as it was almost like another thing on the to do list! Make sure you set aside time to do things you did when pregnant with Grace, like pregnancy yoga or photography, something special otherwise your pregnancy is over in an instant while you're running around after a little on already.

Cass - pleased to hear the house is going well and Izzy sounds fantastic! Good luck with the ttc.

Bec - CONGRATULATIONS:hooray: Tabitha is such a beautiful name! Enjoy your little princess and congrats to seb for becoming a big brother! Hope everything is going well and you are getting some rest!

Karina - ohhh ikea, so pleased we don't have one here I wouldn't be able to stop myself either.

Cass, Karina, Cass and Sarah...THANKS!! Starting to feel a little more real now as told family and AF still hasn't come...plus this fatigue thing was not good today and am starting to wake up feeling sick...all good once I have breakfast but not so good beforehand as have to organise Grace's first.

Sarah..thanks..good to know i'm not the only one that gets some mixed emotions when it actually happens. I've stopped trying to worry about all that now and just making the most of the time that we have left of just the 3 of us and looking forward to our family of 4!! Oh...and that will be it then, lol.

Karina...Ikea...I could go mad there as well. Glad you got the stuff you wanted, it's nice to come home with new things for the house..makes it feel all fresh and new. Grace is still in her cot but we are on the hunt for a bedroom setting for her and will try to transition her probably after christmas...have so much to do in so little time!!:o

Cass...good luck with your Doula course. Glad you DP is behind you...that is the most important thing when you are studying and starting a new career..very difficult to do otherwise.

Cass...my fears are mainly about Grace as well...will she get jealous (of course) but how can we help that...will she get left out by other people so besotted by new baby (this is my biggest concern...she gets SO much attention now)..had heaps more fears some are about work, money etc..same old same old..but as it's becoming more real most of the fears are subsiding.

Grace is doing well. She is so gorgeous and cheeky. Although she has become a bit of a rascall at times...more often when she gets tired..she started to hit out and kick..she thinks she is playing but she can hurt sometimes. Also if she doesn't get her way she loses the plot...today I took her outside on her trike and we went down the street, anyway I wanted to turn back and go home and she didn't like that idea..ended up having to carry her, the trike and her hat and sunglasses that she had discarded. Then when we got back home I put her down and she ran straight onto the road to get away from me...she was in big trouble!! Don't really like this side....I know it's normal but gosh it's testing lol. My holidays are coming to a close and have to go back to work on Monday which is a buggar...but can't stay at home forever (not until mid next year anyway haha). Once I go back to work is when i'll get into the OMG what am I going to do about work thing again for light duties and time off etc...so much to do! hehe. Take care ladies and thanks again for your good wishes.

Ohhhh sooo cute! izzy lately has had a MAD facination with babies she just loves them! from tiny little ones to toddlers her age she calls them all bubbs and goes and gives them a kiss and a cuddle. My best friend was looking after her friends baby today (12w old) and as soon as she saw her she went bubba bubba and then my friend walked the other way with the baby and izzy screamed because she didnt get to say hello to the baby... So had to let her know that friend was just going inside and she can go inside with the baby to have a look and she was very happy with that :)

I remembered this story as i heard rach mention grace might get a little jealous... well when we have our next our problem will be keeping izzy away lol!~
thanks sarahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh - hope all is well
Rach, with the jealousy, i have been told to keep the older ones as much informed as you can (age appropriate) and let her have very special mummy and daddy time while the baby is here, and when the baby does come, you could try giving her a gift *from the baby* so she doesnt fell left out with all the gifts bubs will be getting, and still make sure she gets that special mummy and daddy time for the first couple of weeks / months)

with the besotted by other people - let them know that you are worried about them and asked them to still give grace special time. when my friend had her 2nd, the eldest girl was sick of only the baby getting cuddles so now every time someone comes and gives the baby a cuddle, once they put her back down she goes and says cuddle me! itsss sooo cute!

izzy is throwing the tantrums now tooo she dont get her own way she flops onto the floor and cries (i really is quite amusing - didnt think this was going to happen untill at least 2) ... but where ever she is and throws a tantrum she gets left there and i walk away until she has stopped and got up again (i mean at home she hasnt thrown a tantrum anywhere else)

anyeays neeeeeed sleep nigth ladies~

Aww Cass, Izzy will be such a gorgeous big sister one day!

So disappointed in the weather this week. On the weekend, I was looking forward to being able to take Claire to the pool today or tomorrow (too crowded on weekend so i prefer to go during the week) but its cold and I think she is getting sick.

Actually, I'm thinking of going to the Zoo in the next school holidays because I can get free tickets from work (work is one of the major sponsors of taronga zoo). Do you reckon Claire will appreciate seeing the animals or would she be too young? She's scared of dogs!! lol.

Cass, I've been thinking about the doula thing too. Actually mentioned it to Andy ages ago. I will wait a while though cos obviously there are logistics to work out as far as little kiddies and what/how to cope if I'd have to be somewhere and Andy has to go to work...hmmm. How's it going with your brother?

Sarah, it's cool believe me!!! Oskar was sick at the time with throat infection then he got tummy bug then the next week he had throat infection again, so 3 weeks straight poor little man was sick.

Karina, I'm scared to go back to Ikea...haha. I know I want sooooo much from there. As for the zoo, Oskar would like it and he doesn't like dogs getting close to him so maybe she would be ok. He loves looking at animals and making the sounds...lol.

Rachel, I still feel a bit yuck in the morning before brekky and have to wait until I've done Oskar's brekky too. That's the worst bit, especially if he's being a pain...lol.

Hi girls..just thought i'd drop in and say hi. Hope everyone is well. Not much happening here. We have been having an up and down week with Grace...she has found a very naughty streak and it is not going down well. I believe it is just a phase as a few kids from mum's group are doing the same but I really hope it is a short phase! We had a good day today though so I am in a good mood tonight ;). Are you having naughty children problems? Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Rachel, Claire gets really really cheeky sometimes, but luckily not too often. Its mostly with her just being destructive and occassionaly she goes into the kitchen while we're cooking even though she knows "its hot!" (the stove, that is). She has days where she's an angel and then days where she's so feral. The other day she went and found a RED crayon and drew on all of the WHITE kitchen cupboards. She was very proud of her artwork - it was very lovely - but I wasnt too impressed on the location of it! She usually gets a bit cheeky/naughty when she's tired or bored, so I just try to keep her busy with something else - i know, not easy when youre tired and feeling off! Hope she gets over it soon.

I also just wanted to say Claire likes doing wees in her toilet. Well, its a potty, but we call it a toilet because I really dont like the word potty. She goes into the bathroom and starts pulling at her pants, so we help her take them off and then she sits and wees, then she stands up, gets some toilet paper, tries towipe and then she throws the toilet paper into the potty. Its so cute! and she looks so impressed with herself afterwards. She doesnt wee every time and sometimes she stands up and wees on the floor, but she's only done that a couple of times. Not sure if I'm keen on her pooing in it yet though. She's been doing some horrible poos lately!

Hooray for Claire and toilet training that is AWESOME!!! Ari is completely anti-potty at the moment that girl just LUVS her nappies too much me thinks. she has even stopped telling us when she has pooped which completely unlike her.

Ari has been in the terrible twos since she could roll over :-) but yes she is starting to became really cheecky - like looks to see if your watching before doing something wrong and running away from us giggling with something she knows she can't have but 99% of the time she is just gorgeous. I do worry all the time though with autism - Do your little ones throuw some serious wobblies? Yesterday Ari threw the biggest tanty after I left her shoes in the car at daycare. She also crcked it the other day becasue we couldn't bring a toy elephant to daycare with us. I left her there with tears in my eyes as she was inconsolable. Anyone else got bubs very set in their ways?

lol Claire just got a bit obsessed with toilets after she saw one of the boys at FDC toilet training.

Sarah yes,Claire sometimes throws wobblies. It'll be about something totally unusual sometimes too. Like, she got all her shoes out today and had them all in a pile and then I said to her "lets put your shoes away" and I picked them up and she went off! She took the shoe off me and dumped it back on the pile and just say there and watched the pile of shoes. I wasnt even alowed to touch her shoes, and I certainly wasnt allowed to move them.
Also does same sort of thing with her crayons. Sometimes they CANT go on the crayon box, they have to be scattered on the table (this is when she isnt even using them). And sometimes her Giraffe HAS to sit on the table and watch her eat. If he is not there, she gets grumpy.

i dont know, she has some quirks but nothing I'm worried about. I just secretly laugh at her!

thanks Karina it's reassuring to know that she's "normal" DS NEVER threw a typical tanty until he was a lot older but use to obsess about trains and bins and we could move anything in his room. It was very different to Ari's little tanties but still I worry...

And these girls and shoes honestly! I shudder to think what they will be like as teenagers. Ariya has 3 times the number of shoes I have (and yes I bought them but she insisted :-)

LOL Sarah! I'm sure Ari is a normal beautiful little girl.
I'm not sure about the tanties. Claire only just started doing it really recently. We're getting better with our responses to it. I think its a bit of a developmental thing too.

Claire LOVES shoes so much. Any shoes. She gets so annoyed if I put the wrong pair of shoes on her - she's so picky about what shoes she wears so she'll put it off her foot and get the pair she wants to wear. She puts on my shoes and walks around the house in them and she loves trying on ladies shoes in the shops (we cant go past the shoe rack in target without her wanting to stop and look). She tries to put on DH shoes too but they're huge boots and they're really heavy so she cant walk in them (she just falls over). I think she has about 6 pairs of shoes. I bought a new pair yesterday because I thought we had lost one shoe while out at the shops yesterday and I didnt want her to walk barefoot as the shoppping centre floor was pretty grotty and she likes to suck her toes in the car... but then after buying new pair of shoes, I found the shoe I thought we lost... inside her container of biscuits. I just dont get her obsession with shoes.

lol...Grace is the same with shoes as Claire...I wouldn't dare put on the wrong pair of shoes or watch out. She knows exactly what she wants and when..although she threw a massive tanty (Sarah Grace throws huge tanty's at times) the other day because she wanted to wear DH thongs as I was wearing thongs...had to hold her down to get her shoes on her. She is the same with trying shoes on in the shops unless I want her to actually try a pair of shoes on for her..then she's not interested. DH is a tad worried about her shoe and handbag obsession.

Saram..Ari sounds like a normal little girl. I understand why you worry though. There was a thing on the tv the other night..on today tonight or one of those shows...about strong signs that your child has autism..it was comparing two 18month olds and it showed things like the child with autism doesn't respond to his name, won't look in the direction of the person talking to him, doesn't role play (such as make cup of tea etc). Obviously these are only some things but was interesting and sounds like Ari is doing all of the right things.

We have had 2 good days today with Grace thank goodness. Fingers crossed it lasts for a bit longer....feeling really horrid today. Enjoy your weekend.

Karina and Rachel - our girls NEED to have a meet up! They can compare their shoe collections :-) Ari's shoes out number mine she has at least 5 pairs that she currently fits into and yes she selects the colour shoes she wants with each outfit (and they match - thank GOD unlike her brother who needs a badge that says "I dressed myself today") it's so cute, but I don't know who she inherited this love of shoes from, it certainly wasn't me.

Thanks for the reassurances - yes Ari isn't showing any of the traditional signs of autism and is chalk and cheese to her brother at the same age but also girls with autism don't show the classic features (the clinical definition of autism was based on a purely male survey - originally thought to only effect males so the traditional indicators don't really stack up.) Her language is fantastic, eye contact, asks and tell us what she wants and engages in her environment but I do think she has some sensory processing issues but honestly with our family history of autism it isn't unreasonable to expect her to carry a few traits - I think everyone has some autistic traits regardless. it's just these tanties remind me so much of Xanders breakdowns but perhaps I'm only comparing as I never had the terrible twos with DS so i have nothing to compare it with IYKWIM.

In other news - Ari is starting to talk in broken sentences! The other day she said "ohho daddy at work. Daddy car no daddy at work." She talks to herself like this all day, it's so delightful.

better run, talk soon

Oh Sarah WOW that Ari is starting to talk in broken sentences. Claire gets one word out at a time, although DH reckons she said "where did it go" the other week when she was looking for something. Mostly she just points at something she wants and either grunts or says "mine", "more" or sometimes "peas" (please). Ari sounds like she is really good at interacting with you. That sounds great. I also just wnated to say that I agree with you re lots of people showing Autistic traits but not necessarily having Autism.

I sometimes let Claire choose her clothes and she makes some wierd colour choices sometimes! I'm not too fussed what she wears as long as its going to be easy for her to run around in at FDC though. But she has this thing with having on two different pairs of socks. It sort of frustrates me though because then we end up losing half the socks and they dont pair up. She started insisted on choosing her own nappy though. She never likes the one I have chosen for her, and goes into her room to choose the one she wants.

One thing she LOVES at the moment is that little song that goes 'round and round the garden like a teddy bear...' you know the one where you make a circle wwith your fingers on her palm? She's OBSESSED. She'll grab my hand and do it on me, and then put her hand out and granb my hand and start making my hand do it on her. I have no idea what the go is, but she's totally obsessed with it and laughs hysterically every time we do it.

Oh Ari does that too wth round and round the garden - took me ages to figure out what she was doing! She loves incy wincy and twinkle twinkle - they do a lot of singing at daycare and we are a bit of a singing family (although all horribly out of key - I think Ari is the most in tune out of all of us)

Ari hates nappies at the moment! ( I think due to the fact that my mum changed her a million times a day while she was visiting) oh and anyone elses little girl EXTREMELY interested in their nether regions!!! OMG if there is no nappy on she can't keep her hands away -seriously going to be a very sensual women :-)

LOL Sarah! When Claire is in the bath or has no nappy on she just HAS to grab her privates! I think she's just discovering all the parts of her body that she hadnt realised were there. She's gone into the bathroom when DH was in the shower and she looks at his privates with these wide eyes as if to say 'whats that?'... i think she's a bit confused that daddy is different to mummy and her. LOL.