Babies born~ January 1st-15th 2011 #2

[DisGirl]

Hi ladies!

Jen, are you in your new house? I can't remember the exact date, but I know it was this week. Hope you're enjoying it and David is settling in. Have you put up those famous curtains yet?

Kel, it's kinda good that Liam and Jared were such terrible sleepers. Well, not really, but at least now we feel like we have perfect little babies because they sleep at least SOME of the time. Looking back now I realise just how bad Jared was! He didn't sleep, fed CONSTANTLY and was such a clingy, clingy baby. Josh is SO different! Feeds only every 3-4 hours, doesn't mind being on his own on the floor occassionally, sleeps in chunks night AND day and is just so much less demanding. Honestly, I don't know how I'd be coping if I had another Jadda!
How's the sleep been for you guys the past couple of nights?

Crumpet, sounds like you have a few big weeks ahead of you. I'm so jealous of the barossa. I can't wait until Josh is old enough for me to have a few drinks - I really miss my wine. Not to get tanked, but I love a glass of wine with dinner. Mind you, I probably WILL get tanked on just a glass right now
With swimming, we were lucky that the school closest to us don't dunk them under or make us dunk them under. DS1 is almost four and just now they're kinda making him go under, but he's old enough to understand and get over it so we don't mind. We don't take the babies to lessons anymore, it's just too hard, but we often swim at the in-laws. I haven't taken Josh in yet, but the other two love it. I think it's so important for kids in this country to learn how to swim ASAP.

AFU: We didn't have the best start to the day. DS1 got up not long after 6:30 and woke up DS2, who was really exhausted after no nap yesterday. Of course they then go into the lounge room and start fighting and crying because they are both too tired. Of course all this happened on the first day in a couple of days that Josh slept later than 6:30! NOT happy! Luckily it's DS1's long day at school though so I get a bit of a break from him. It also wears him out completely so he'll go to bed early and easily tonight - well, in theory anyway.

We've got a flat out weekend this weekend. Open Day at pre-school which I have to help co-ordinate, swimming lessons and then a picnic all on Saturday and then my parent's 40th wedding anniversary on Sunday. I know I'm going to be buggered, so I can only imagine what the boys are going to be like!

[Jen10]

Disgirl - we move tomorrow The curtain rods are up and the curtains will follow tomorrow sometime

Great to hear your little munchkins are being so easygoing! Maybe it's an in-built thing for 3rd and 4th babies, since they probably wouldn't get as much attention anyway!

There's quite a few updates on fb - is anyone not already added to our babies group on there?

[crumpet]

chookens!!

just popping in to say hi while i have 5 mins...

took miss s for her first swim today and she LOVED it!!
found her some cute as bathers and her dad took her for a dip!

was good to know she is ok with the water ready for when we start lessons!

other than that not much else happening, other than a growth spurt so madam is drinking about 150ml extra per day atm!

[glenny_c]

Hi girls,

Katherine is sleeping in her pram after going for a walk with Mummy so I thought I'd pop in and say hi!!

We started swimming lessons 2 weeks ago and they're going really well except for the fact that they're at 10am which is right in the middle of nap time so we get a bit cranky about halfway through. She does pass out in the car in the way home though and usually gives me a couple of hours then.

I am sick of looking like I'm still pregnant so have joined weight watchers online, my Dh has joined as well and it makes such a difference having the support of him doing it as well. Trying to get in more exercise as well hence the walk. We would like to start trying for number 2 in about 2/3 months so I want to get as healthy as possible. I'd love to fall naturally!

I'm sorry for no persies, I have been trying to read whenever I can and have loved all the pics on facebook! Your babies are all so gorgeous!! (Although I know you must be jealous when you see pics of Katherine!)

Chat soon, I'm off to clean the bathrooms while bub is still sleeping!

(Crumpet- can you believe our babies are three months old????)

[crumpet]

We started swimming lessons 2 weeks ago and they're going really well except for the fact that they're at 10am which is right in the middle of nap time so we get a bit cranky about halfway through. She does pass out in the car in the way home though and usually gives me a couple of hours then.

I am sick of looking like I'm still pregnant so have joined weight watchers online, my Dh has joined as well and it makes such a difference having the support of him doing it as well. Trying to get in more exercise as well hence the walk. We would like to start trying for number 2 in about 2/3 months so I want to get as healthy as possible. I'd love to fall naturally!

(Crumpet- can you believe our babies are three months old????)

oohhhh we are starting swimming next term! cant wait! she loved the pool yesterday so fingers crossed it lasts!

i loved weight watchers when i did it, i lost 10kg....
im going to go back to it eventually but im doing ok with my meal sizes and stuff atm.
i have been walking 2-3 times a week for a hr minimum and i love it, i feel so relaxed after it.

i know!!! where has that 3 months gone?!?!?!?!

[~*familyof3*~]

hey girls. wow has it been a long time! Phoebe is and has been growing so fast! She has also started to roll over now too.....which im not sure if i like shes my baby i want her to stay that way lol . How have you all bee, hope your all well. What did you do for easter? We went away to Kalbarri...it was soooo lovely.

[Tegam]

I didnt know you all still talked in here....sorry i must live under a rock!

[MrsFabuloso]

Hi girls,

Well, I thought I might reply to all of your wonderful responses on FB here. I'd like to kinda debrief a little too I think, so doing it here is easier than writing an epic reply on FB! Mind you this could be an epic post Here goes......

Where to start then? I guess I will say that I am feeling a bit better today. I have been struggling for a few weeks. I can tell because my house ends up like a bomb has hit it. And when people say don't worry, just leave it, well...there is a point you have to worry. The is a stage in time when the dishes in the sink are unhygenic, when DD has no undies and DS needs clean pants to wear. I need space on my kitchen bench to prepare food, pots to cook in.....yada yada! So it's fair enough to say don't worry and for me not to worry, but eventually, someone has to worry about it, and being the SAHM it's usually me. While DH is a great help when he can, he works. But he also doesn't see the mess like I do. He doesn't care so much (which is great in one way, and torture in others!) He will do what I ask, but often with a sigh like he's thinking 'why should I do it, and not you who stays at home all day?' And he's a 'gunna', he's always 'gunna' do stuff. He's just had 2 days off (today being the 2nd) and this break he was gunna clean out the atrocious spare room, do a bit of gardening and mow the lawns. He's done nothing and what's the bet that at the end of the day, I have mown the lawns (plus everything else I will do) and nothing else has been done that he said. He will help with the kids and maybe do some other things like hang a load of washing, but not what he ways he wants to do, which I also would love to get done too! But other than DH, we have noone out here. I have no family and not really any friends I can really rely on. The other day when I posted was a particularly atrocious day and if I had a friend or family I could have called I would have, but I had noone, not even DH that day, he was a 2hr drive away.

We can't afford any more help than the kids going to childcare one day a week. I wish we could get a cleaner! And a gardener for that matter!! S/he could do all those crappy jobs I hate, like ironing, I don't iron unless there's a special occaision! Though I love ironed clothes...oh the conundrum! Or cleaning the shower cubicles. Plus our yard is huge! Having come from Sydney in a 2 bedroom apartment, to the outback in a huge 5 bedroom house, on over half an acre of land....well, I love to garden, but it's a little too much to handle at the moment! Part of the issue with my depression is that I am a bit of a clean freak. But I won't do stuff unless I can do it properly. I won't do a job if it's half arsed, so because I don't get enough time to do things how I really want them done, alot of the time I don't do it! Silly because a job half done is better than a job not done at all, but hey... I really am trying to see it that way!

As for Caelan having reflux, I have started him on gavascon after feeds. Only been doing it for 2 days though, so no real noticable change at all yet. Not sure if it will do anything anyway. I really took notice of what he does on Wednesday (when the big kids are at day care and I can breathe a little!) and he was throwing up, just little bits though, and it's watery, not really milky looking vomit at all. It's also a fair while after a feed. Adn through the night he also pulls his legs up and yelps out like he's in pain. I don't know if that's pain from reflux or wind. He's still very windy and farts alot. He also bury's his head into my boobs when he feeds sometimes. I always think he's going to suffocate himself, lol! And pulls on and off a bit, I have to force his head on sometimes so he's nt on and off and hurting me. Last night I didn't feed him every time he woke (2hrly) like I usually do, I just stuck his dummy in and patted him a little, which worked! I fed him every second time he woke. Maybe it will encourage him to not wake so frequently if he's not getting feeds so often?? Who knows! I also inclined his snuggle bed on a pillow, I don't know if it will help or not...had cut out dairy, and chocolate as well as spicey foods and caffinated tea and coffee (as well as having too much tea and coffee, only one each pe...r day now!) from my diet, though the last few weeks I have been eating it all again because of pressure from (well-meaning) friends, and just comfort eating too. Maybe that's the issue for Caelan now, why he's gotten worse, that I'm having dairy, coffee and chocolate again. I will cut it all out again and see how we go.

Yes, I am only one person, but people do this all the time. And some alone, or in terrible circumstances. I am lucky. I am healthy, with a healthy family. A home, food, clothes, money to spare (if only a little!). We have enough, and more. Rationally I know all of that,and it makes me feel even more guilty that I am so lucky, but feel so ****ty. People would kill to have my lifestyle, to have health, wealth, home, clothes, family. But the horrible thing about depression is that it magnifies the tough times. It makes the hard bits of life seem so huge and insurmountable. The sleep deprivation is what really triggers my depression. When I'm not sleeping because of the kids, then I find it hard to sleep at all. Caelan wakes 2 hourly, sometimes, I haven't gone back to sleep in that time because my mind is racing, or I don't see the point, especially at 5am and the other kids will wake at 6. Why bother trying to get comfy and sleep....But then I feel terrible in myself, tired, irritable, just the ***** from hell. My brain no longer works, literally. I get lost for words, I can't think straight, I don't remember what I was doing two minutes ago, what I was thinking I need to write down so I don't forget it. And it all just goes to s#@t. I find it so hard not to dwell on the fact I have been living on 5 hours (if that!) broken sleep for months. If I got sleep, I could handle the rest of it. I am a person who needs sleep. Really, not just saying it! I just can't cope without about 7-8hours good sleep a night. I have always been the same. And here I am blessed with three of the most gorgeous non sleeping children a mother could have.

I think alot of my issues also stem from not having adult company except for DH most of the time. Literally. Some weeks he's the only adult I will see for days on end, and if I do see others, it's the shop attendant, or the doctor, not a friend who I can actually have a conversation with. I don't have friends who just drop by. I don't go out anywhere like the club or even just for coffee to catch up I don't have hobbies or anything I do for me, besides the odd bath alone... I try sometimes plan to have coffee and morning tea dates with kids and all, but there's only one SAHM here and she has school aged kids as well, which she does stuff for like canteen duty and reading and things like that, the others work too, so it can be hard to organise. I should go to play group and reading time at the library. I always think I will, then in the morning I forget it's on until after the fact. I need to find a better way to remind myself than writing it on the fridge white board.

I went and had a haircut yesterday and come home, so much more like my old self. I could laugh again. I was playing. God I feel so sad and teary now thinking that, realising that. I just don't have fun. I laugh with the kids, I see that they're fun and funny. I make myself play with them, I make myself laugh with DH. But really I can't remember when I last really had fun. Unthinking unadulterated fun. In one way I just can't wait til Caelan finishes breast feeding so I can leave him for a day or two and go and have fun with friends and DH. But then I also don't want him to because he's our last, he will be the last one I breastfeed, the last one to snuggle with me and feed at night and sigh with satisfaction when he's done, with that tiny milky grin on his sleepy little face. Where will I be then?? Gosh, I will be lost. Not mummy to babies anymore. Who will I be then? I have no idea who I am now, let alone then!

Urgh! It's all too hard. I can't think of that right now. My brain is going a million miles an hour. Thanks for reading if you got this far. Thanks for all of your kind wordsand advice. I do appreciate it all. xxoo

[DisGirl]

Ah Kel, where to start....

Firstly, there is a reason they use sleep deprivation as a form of torture. It affects you psychologically, physically and emotionally. I've been there. I know what it's like to feel like you're in a bad dream day in, day out. Living in a fog. Will C take EBM? I think you need at least one night where Damien can get up to all three kids and you can get a good nights' sleep.

Use your phone as an alarm for the baby sessions at the library and play groups. Set the alarm in your phone so it goes off and then displays WHY it's going off. Set it for half an hour before you want to leave - or maybe an hour so you have time to get the munchkins out the door.

Are there any kind of groups you can join for you? Netball? Yoga? A book club? A knitting club? Anything? Even if it's something new or even something you're not really interested in, it will get you out of the house and around other adults. I honestly know what you mean about Damien being the only other adult you see or talk to for weeks at a time. That was me last year until Ben started school. And I don't have the excuse of living the country. I then joined a netball team. I'm also doing the Couch to 5K running program, and although it's a solo thing, I feel SO good after having that half hour to myself. And it's free

As for the housework, I do the bare minimum here at the moment. I would much rather spend time playing with the boys, so the house looks like a bomb's hit it all the time. I do one load of washing and the washing up each and every day. Get Lil and Li to 'help' you with the washing up. Sure it might take twice as long, but it will get done AND keep them occupied for a little while. Ben loves it.

Same goes for gardening. Well, I do nothing in the garden except water my plants because I really hate it, but if you enjoy it, get the two older kids out there pulling out weeds for you. My two older ones really enjoy that too. The fresh air will perk you up and the kids can burn off some energy. Put C into the HAB if you have to and become the supervisor, telling the kids what to do. Of course, it won't help mow the lawn, but it will help with the littler things.

Okay, that's all I've got for now and I've gotta pick up Ben anyway. Hang in there Kel!

[Tegam]

Mel has some great ideas, LOL i set my phone all the time. The other day my alarm was going off. I go over to it thinking 'what the hell is that going off for'?? It was for the hair dressers appointment id only made 2hrs before! only had 15mins to get there cuase i thought that there was no way i could forget...idiot LOL

[Tegam]

copied from the other thread!


Ok Kell you know i harp on about it but ill say it again, You need some exercise in your life. If the house is already a mess and C likes his cuddles then strap on that HAB and get outside! Leave the mess and your troubles behind. I know my mental healthy improves extremely when i get some exercise. Also yes you should cut all that stuff out of your diet again, if it helps C then its worth it but also you know that none of that is good for your mental health or calming down when it comes to rest time. i am a huge believer in 'if you arent getting your energy from sleep then you need to get it from food' But you need to pick the right foods, like high protein and complex carbs! chocolate wont help your mind racing at 2am!

Walk away from the guilt, it does none of us any good! be proud of what you do do! Look at how beautiful your children are, you made them and your created their personality, if you were lacking then so would they be!

You are doing a great job and you know that this stage will pass. One day when they are all teenages and we are freaking out cause they arent home yet, we will want to swap anything to go back to these days!

Molly wants me! BBL