2 Months Postpartum - Little Mr Chatterbox and Little Miss Cheeky

Crying... Early starts... Dirty nappies... Constant feeding... These are the things that everyone mother with a newborn should expect. Parenthood is the best and hardest thing that I have ever had to do. Sometimes I find myself trying to remember what it was like in the household without my two beautiful kids but then as soon as Sienna is on holidays at Grandmas, the house feels so empty without her and it just doesn't feel right. Sienna and Ollie are such huge pieces of our lives now, nothing would be right without them.

Ollie is growing like a charm. He is now 4.5kg which is just under the 15% percentile. He is doing really well putting on weight, considering that he was really underweight for a while there. He is consistently gaining an average of 200g a week, so I'm really happy about that. He is 57.5cm long, putting him the at about the 25th percentile. He has grown a massive 8.5cm since he was born :-( He is growing way too fast.

 He still loves to be cuddled, and would much rather fall asleep wrapped up in someones arms rather than in the rocker. Although, over the last few nights I have been testing out the putting him down drowsy but not asleep in his bassinet and letting him put himself to sleep. It hasn't been going too badly (touch wood), but he does tend to make a lot of noise as he is going to sleep, not crying noise, just baby gurgle.
The constant need for cuddles, love and attention is definitely something that I find draining. Especially as I have two kids now and I can't always be cuddling with Ollie when I need to be watching what Sienna is up to and I need to be giving her some one on one time also.

 

We had our 6 week shots the other week, and I am so glad that Josh had that day off because he was a lot braver than me and held Ollie down while he was being given the shot. I was nervous because Ollie is such a loud crier, I didn't want to imagine how loud he would be getting his shot, but he did really well. I mean REALLY well. I think he did better than Sienna did when she had her first shot. I think it could very well have to do with how calm Josh was when he was holding him as opposed to Sienna's first ones where mum and I were nervous wrecks. Sienna also had her 18 month shots on the same day and Josh held her down too. She also did really well. There were hardly any tears then she was distracted with the awesome stickers given to her from the nurses.
Ollie also had his 2 month appointment a few days ago and the nurses at the clinic said that he was doing very well. Not only was he putting on a good amount of weight, but he had very good neck and head control for his age. Which we already knew because he has been lifting his head pretty much since birth. He is just gaining better control of it now. We were told to do tummy time with him every day, so he can continue to build those muscles in his neck. We were also told that he was very vocal for is age, and the fact that he was copying our sounds and mouth movements already was very advanced for his age bracket.

I am slowly getting better at juggling the two of them and have had quite a few days at home with just the three of us while Josh is at work. It still stresses me out a little bit, I'll admit, but not nearly as much as it did at the beginning. Sienna being at daycare too has been a big help and a catch up day for me also. We are about to start her on two days a week there, so that should be a good help for me. But Sienna is getting really good at helping me. She will get nappies for me when I'm changing him (mind you sometime I need to remind her that we only need one, when she bring over about six of them), and she is always the first one to tell Ollie that it's ok when he starts crying. The love that they have for each other is incredible. His eyes will follow her around and watch what she is doing all the time and she is always up for cuddles and kisses with him. It's crazy to think that in a years time they will both be running around and playing together.

In the past month I have noticed that Sienna has become a lot more affectionate. She was never really a cuddly baby. But recently she is always giving me cuddles around the legs and won't really hesitate or fight if I ask for a cuddle or a kiss. She is also getting so good with her words. We can literally have conversations with her now, which is amazing! She understands us and we can understand her, most of the time. She is picking up so many new words, so fast. She will just come out with the most random sentences and she just leaves us in awe.
She has been a little whingy and restless recently and we are putting it down to the fact that we have seen some molars coming through, so they might be giving her a bit of grief. We have also hit a bit of a speed bump with her eating. She has got really picky with food recently and I don't know if that's to do with teeth also, or if that's just her being a turd. But even with all the whinging and whining there have been plenty of beautiful smiles and cheeky ones too. She is the cheekiest little girl and I love it. He sense of humour is fantastic and I just love hearing her laugh.

I love my little family. Even though there are times when I feel like I could rip my hair out, when Sienna is running wild and Ollie won't settle... the good times definitely outweigh the bad and I wouldn't have it any other way.

1 Month Postpartum - Getting Used To Life With 2 Kids!!

It is crazy to think that little Ollie has been with us for a month already!! Where did that time go?? I know that technically one month was on Monday, when he was four weeks. But it's now the 27th so I'm counting this as a month since he was born :-)

We have a very cuddly baby here with us... he loves being held and cuddled. When he is in someone's arms, he is the most content and will happily fall asleep, as soon as he is put in a bassinet or a bouncer he gets unsettled and wakes up. That has been a real challenge. He is slowly getting better though. (I am not complaining at all, I do love cuddling him. Especially now that it is getting cooler because he is like a mini heater.) He has the strongest neck muscles, when he is burping over the shoulder, he is constantly lifting his head and looking around at everything and he also uses his little legs to push up and almost crawl up my body. He is completely the opposite to his sister in this aspect because she was the most chilled out and quiet baby, but Ollie wriggles everywhere! He is always moving, which makes it hard to hold and burp him sometimes. And he is loud! He is a lot more vocal than Sienna was, he makes these cute little noises all the time especially before he sneezes and he even when he is asleep he makes a lot of noise and when he cries.... he cries!!
Oliver has grown 4cm since he was born, so I'm thinking he's going to be pretty tall. He has long arms, fingers, legs and toes and has the most adorable little face that pulls the funniest expressions. We haven't done a whole lot of tummy time with him yet, but it is something I will be doing more of over the next few weeks.

The hardest thing this time around, I feel, is finding the balance between looking after Ollie and still being able to spend time with Sienna. Ollie feeds an awful lot and the prevents me from being able to play with and have a lot of one on one time with Sienna. I feel that this increased when we had the early childhood nurse come to our house to make sure everything was going alright with Ollie and she told us that he was quite underweight so I had to increase his feeds (when I already felt like I was feeding him all day long). But it came down to the fact that I started using a shield to feed him because he was having trouble latching on and it was getting quite painful. The shield was leaking quite a bit of liquid as Ollie's hands like to come up and interfere with feeding and he kept knocking the it away, so he wasn't getting as much as he could have been. Since then I have ditched the shield and he is feeding a lot better and is getting more out of the feeds, so he is more settled when he is not feeding and he can take those longer stretches between feeds (giving me a bit of a break too). Since loosing the shield Ollie has increase his weight and is back on track too, which is really good.

Sienna loves Oliver! She is always looking in on him and wanting to cuddle and kiss him and pick him up. She even wants to help by giving him his dummy (sometimes when he is asleep and doesn't really need it). She can say his name, which is really nice, and always shows concern when he is crying. She has adapted really well to this huge change in her life. There was a bit at the beginning, where she tested her boundaries quite a bit. But because Josh and I stuck to our guns with discipline, she got over it quickly and is being a really good girl.

I have been really lucky so far, because I have had a lot of help and support in Josh and I am in all honesty, really nervous about juggling the two of them as he has gone back to work this week. I don't think I could have made it this far without him. We have got into such a good routine with the two of us over the past month and now I am going to have to get used to a whole new routine with just me and them both. But I have talked to a lot of my mum friends, who have more than one child and have learned that I just have to take one day at a time and it will get easier. Sienna started day care today. She will be there one day a week and I know that I am lucky enough to have my sister nearby who can come and help when she's not working and I also have my mum who is willing to come visit and help me out a few days a week, so I won't be alone with both of them too often, but it is still a daunting and overwhelming thought.
To all of those people who have reached out and tried to organise times to meet up and see Ollie... I am just still getting my bearings and once I am in a routine without Josh, I will definitely get back to you.

As for me... I had second degree tearing when he was born so I have been healing up from that which took a while. But now I am back to my old self I am even back to my pre pregnancy weight! So that feels amazing! I seem to be loosing a lot of hair. My hair has always been thick but during my pregnancy when I brushed it, there didn't seem to be a lot coming out in the brush, but now I can fill a whole brush each day! The same thing happened with Sienna though, so I am not too worried about going bald or anything ha ha.
As I said before, I had some issues with feeding at the beginning and I was really worried about getting mastitis, but I seem to have avoided that one for the time being luckily. Because of all the feeding sessions I am having with Ollie, my back is having some problems but I'm sure its nothing that a good massage couldn't cure (hint hint ha ha), I think its just tight muscles.
Not having the bump in the way has been soooo good!! I can now pick Sienna up without any issues and I can rough and tumble with her again and chase after her easily. I can bend over her cot to reach her again and can lay on my back again without feeling breathless after a few minutes!!
Most importantly though, I can eat everything again!!!!! My love for cooking has returned, because now I can cook whatever I want and eat it too!! I will have to go back into the hospital in a few weeks to check that the diabetes is definitely gone, but in the hospital my sugar levels were back to normal, and Ollie had no signs of high or low sugar levels either. Hooray!!!

And that's really everything... If you have anything you'd like to know about Ollie or anything else, just leave me a comment anywhere and I'll get back to you or answer it in another blog. I might not be doing updates on us weekly anymore because not a lot is changing week by week but I am going to still try and put up blogs on other things as often as I possibly can, and I will put up a monthly update at least.

39 Weeks Pregnancy Update - Last Update :-O

For those of you that follow me on other social media sites, you would know that I had my little boy this week already. I got home to find this blog sitting in my computer, ready to go, so i thought i would post it anyway :-) Enjoy. Baby blogs to come.....

Oh my goodness! How scary is it to think that this will most probably be my last update before my little man arrives!!! They are not going to let me go over my due date and this time next week is my due date so..... this could quite possibly be it!! My next one will be an arrival update!!!! Ahhhhhh!!! Its bizarre to think that because we are following the date from my first dating scan, my due date is the 1st of April, but if we were to go by the date from my two last scans, the due date would be closer to the 24th of March, which was yesterday!! So technically he could come at any time now and still be on time.

This week my app says blueberry is the size of a watermelon. He probably won't get much bigger before he is born, as that could be at any time now. He knows the familiar voices around him now from all the time he has been listening in there. So he will most likely be able to recognise mine and Josh's voices, as they are the ones he would hear the most. I have to keep a close eye on his movement over the next few days because that could also be the key to understanding when he wants to come out, he should be moving at a steady rate up until birth, so if I notice less movement I have to call the hospital right away. Sometimes though that is hard to tell because I don't know if he's just having a rest sometimes or if its classed as less movement. It's basically telling me to just be prepared as hes arrival could be any day.

I went to visit my Diabetes Nurse again this week and she was pretty happy with everything. The only thing that worried her was that my sugar levels in the morning were too low, and that I was in danger of having an overnight hypo. So to rectify that she has lowered the dosage of insulin that I am giving myself before I go to bed. In other words my body is already slowly starting to balance itself out. Hooray! The end is in sight!!!
My doctor is actually on holidays this week and I really want him to be available for the birth so I have been crossing my legs until he gets back. I want a doctor around that knows what I have been through with my previous birth and that knows my blood sugar level history this time too. I'm sure the other doctor they have on is fine but I'm really hoping that baby can hold off on coming until next Monday at least.

There have been so many times this week that I have thought labour was starting. My parents have been a godsend this week and took Sienna for holidays at their house from Monday night till Thursday, so we could get some things done here, and so that I could rest when I needed it (which I did a lot of and I think it has really helped my mindset). Although I missed her like crazy, as this has been the longest I have been away from her in forever, it was something that was really needed.
I went for big walks every day to help me with my sugar levels and to try to naturally lower the baby, so I can breathe a little better. But all that seemed to do was cause a lot of pain in the afternoons and the evenings. It has been really bizarre these last few days, because I have been fine during the day (I mean, there have been a lot of tightening and movement and things like that still, but nothing that knocks me off of my feet). But as soon as afternoon hits, my back seizes up and I get some wicked lightening crotch, and he moves so much I can barely breathe. Especially Thursday night, I was getting the painful lightening crotch feeling every time I stood up to move, and they would stay as a painful ache instead of a painful jolt, and it would literally stop me in my tracks and take my breath away. Poor Josh is very much on edge and every noise I make he is really to jump up and help me. Then when I head to bed there is so much movement and uncomfortableness and those sharp pains are still there, then by morning it's all gone and I can move fine again. It's really frustrating because a part of me just wants it to happen already so I can have myself back again.

I finally got my hospital bag together this weeks too. I thought it was close enough to get it done ha ha, I've actually been meaning to do it forever but just haven't found the motivation. It's basically just a few nappies and wipes and some clothing bits and pieces for Blueberry when he arrives and a huge amount of clothes and things for me. Since I will most probably be staying at my parents place for a majority of next week, I am using it as a kind of travel bag also, hence the huge amount of clothes. I will probably head out there on Monday because I really need the help with Sienna during the day and it's a closer distance to the hospital if anything does happen. We did the same thing when Sienna was born. When labour starts I have my sister and lots of friends living out here that can bring Josh in and he will stay out here until we go home with our new addition. As I have said before, I am so lucky and thankful that I have my family so close by to help us out so much at this time because it could have really been a struggle and a stress but thanks to them it has really been pretty breezy so far (touch wood).
We got a whole heap of Blueberries clothes all packed away in drawers this week also. Which has made me super excited for his arrival because they are all so tiny and adorable. It's just hard to believe that there is going to be something so small in our household again. I can't wait to see how Sienna reacts to him. I really hope that they get along.

And here is my last belly shot!!! It's kind of bittersweet, because I know that as much as I want it out now, as soon as it is out I'll see other mummies bellies and I'll miss it and wish I had it back. But I am looking forward to getting back in shape after this one comes out. But unfortunately, I didn't end up getting this shot before everything was set in motion :-(

38 Week Pregnancy Update - No More Midwife Appointments!!!

Two weeks till full term! This is absolutely crazy! This week I am feeling a little overwhelmed... I don't think there is a reason for it, I think its just the fact that this baby is coming up so fast and it's all really hitting home now. It's not that I'm overly nervous or anything like that, it's just all a little overwhelming as a whole. My body is hurting, my brain is tired and I am just altogether exhausted. But I am 38 weeks pregnant, so I guess they are the type of things you have to expect.

This week my App says that Blueberry is the size of a Spaghetti Squash?? I don't really know what that is, all I know is that to me, it feels like a baby that wants to come out. Basically, at this point now I am no longer waiting to see what pregnancy symptoms I feel, but instead what signs of labour I am experiencing instead. He could be roughly 3.2kg now and anywhere up to 49.5cm! Crazy!  They say that boy babies are generally born larger than girl babies and because I have Gestational Diabetes it could again be measuring larger than the average baby. But again these are just estimates, Blueberry could be a little baby for all I know (I am hoping he isn't too big, so my labour is a little easier).

So, this week hasn't been quite as intense as the previous week. Thank goodness! Before I left the hospital last week, I had a meeting with my diabetes nurse. She instructed me on how to use the needles that were being sent home with me. I have for the past week, I have needed to give myself a small shot of insulin right before I eat dinner, and a larger shot at 10pm each night. I will admit, I struggle with it. I hate needles, as I have mentioned before. Even now, I have a mini freak out before the initial piercing of the skin, even though I know it doesn't hurt too much. I think its more in my mind than anything.
I had a midwife appointment this week also. I have been getting a lot of mixed messages about the induction.... I am now being told that there is no reason to induce me early, because my blood pressure is fine, my body is taking the insulin fine and my sugar levels are back down to where they should be, I have put on 1.5kg in the past fortnight and baby is moving just fine. They will not let me go over the 40 week mark, but will not be inducing me early. She also said that because there were no problems or worries, I didn't need to come in again for a fortnight (inside I am slightly freaking out because that means my next appointment is 3 days before Blueberries due date!!!), and I will not be seeing the midwives any more but having appointments with my Doctor so that he can have an active role in my labour plans, as they will have to watch my sugar levels and things like that more carefully. My midwife was also under the impression that I may not even make it until that appointment because Blueberry was head down and engaged when she felt. But it is possible, especially for a second time labour for the bub to come in and out of the pelvis and not properly engage until hours or minutes before the birth.
I went to see the Diabetes nurse on that day too, so she could check that I wasn't having any problems and everything was going alright with my injections. She informed me that my sugar levels were perfect and that the timing of my blood testing were pretty much on point. So she was impressed. Which made me feel really good. I have become really serious about my meals and snacks recently, because after being informed about how to help myself if my sugar levels get too low and I go into a hypo, it has really freaked me out, so I am making sure that I am definitely eating enough to keep my sugar levels up (especially at dinner and super times when I am injecting myself), and that I am not leaving my meal and snack times too far apart. It has really helped me put myself in a routine which has been kind of helpful (even if it has meant that Sienna has a later bedtime for the next few weeks).

This week there have been lots of moments that have me thinking "Is this is? Is it starting now?". I have been experiencing so much lower pressure and sharp pains, especially at night. One night in particular I was feeling these pains and thought my contractions were starting and almost woke Josh up. Luckily I didn't though, as it turned out to be just pains.
I have been having achy but sharp pains in my lower back all this week as well, which my mum swears is a sign of labour. Last night I was having the lower sharp pains that spread through to my back also, which I remember having during contractions with Sienna, but these were nowhere near as painful. So maybe it is possible that these are baby/practice contractions, and my body is getting prepared for what is coming?
I have still been experiencing super tightenings of the stomach area and a real downwards pull of the stomach skin, especially across the top it feels like it's stretching downwards. And I am finding it now impossible to do everyday things like putting on shoes and sock because I just can't reach over the huge beachball called my belly, which is getting in the way of everything these days.
There have been days when I wake up and every single muscle in my body just aches and I can barely move, even just sitting takes it out of me sometimes, and the only thing that can ease my muscle pain is multiple showers throughout the day. These days have been tough, especially with Josh being at work and me being alone and having to entertain Sienna. I have been really lucky and have had my mum out with me 2 days this week and have been able to call on my sister to help outside of her work hours.

Here is a belly shot of how huge I feel.....

Beware!!! If the thought of seeing an actually pregnant belly grosses you out (and I know there are some people out there that it does) then don't look any further down, because I am about to share a skin belly shot so you can see how stretchy my skin feels and take note of my great insulin injecting (as there is not much bruising on my spare tyre area).

The Scoop on Sienna - 16 Month Update

Josh and I were discussing yesterday, if we remembered what it was like before we had that extra little person wandering around the house. And to be honest, I vaguely remember it, but I really wouldn't have it any other way than how it is now. I love the fact that there is another little person in our household. That she has such a personality, which make no day boring or the same. A smile that just lights up any room. A laugh that makes you want to laugh along with her, even though most of the time you don't even know what it is she's laughing at. That little voice talking away, 60% gibberish, but you can put together what she is trying to get across most of the time. She is just such a good little girl and I am so thankful for her and blessed by her.

 

 

I'm not quite sure how tall Sienna is, as I can't get her to stay still long enough to measure her, but when she is next to her friends, I would say she is an average height. She weighs 11kg roughly, depending on the day. I noticed the other day that I am building up mummy muscles in my biceps from carrying her, which I am pretty proud of ha ha.

Our schedule is pretty much the same as it has always been. We wake up at roughly 8.30am each morning and play and have breakfast. Then by 10.00am she starts getting tired so goes down for her 1st nap of the day. Then we go and get done what needs to be done out of the house and get back for her afternoon nap at about 3.30pm. Our nighttime routine starts usually around 6.00pm and she is in bed by about 7.30pm . She sleeps most nights right through, although in saying that, there have been a few restless nights lately, where she has woken up a few times but just wants to be comforted and goes back down. But she is usually pretty good. I think shortly we will start to transition her to only one nap a day (which she does sometimes already).

As I mentioned in my Pregnancy Update blog (35 Week Pregnancy Update ) Sienna is up and walking now. It did take her a bit longer than it took some of her friends, but in saying that every baby is different and crawls or walks in their own time. Those first few steps left me feeling so proud as a mother. Watching my little girl taking that next step (literally) in her learning makes you feel amazing. Then being able to watch her move herself along the wall or along furniture and across short distances to get from one place to another, sort of built up a feeling of dread but happiness at the same time, because you now knew that nothing in your house is safe any more. And now she is picking herself up from the seated position, without any assistance. She is so independent. She doesn't need to hold mummy or daddys hand when she walks anymore and she can walk in whichever direction she likes. It opens up a whole new world of games to play with her and things to do in general with her. The park becomes so much more fun when she can get herself around and climb up on things without our help. Daddy chasing her around the living room becomes so much more lively (and its adorable to watch).

She is saying a lot of words. She has been talking since before she turned one. Saying things like "mum" "dad" "puppy" "more" "please" "no" and things like that. But now she will try to copy anything you say to her. She knows a few numbers and will happily count along with you. She can sing the Teletubbies theme some (which she does constantly). She knows all the actions to a lot of Wiggles songs (they are like a drug for toddlers, its amazing!) eg. Rockabye Your Bear, Do The Monkey, Hot Potato and Rock 'n' Roll Preschool. Judging by her reactions to what we say to her she understands what we are saying, but sometimes can have selective hearing. A lot of the time she will ignore her name being called if she knows it will stop her from doing something she wants to do but knows she isn't allowed to do.

Cuddles and Kisses will be given to pretty much any toy you give her. She is becoming really affectionate. She was never really a snuggly baby so it has been really nice seeing this affection from her, she never has liked holding hands or sitting and snuggling, but has always been quite independent. She loves pretending to give her stuffed toys tea and biscuits from a tea set she got for Christmas. She loves to sit down and read with us. She owns so many books (which I think is great being a bit of a bookworm myself) and will grab one off the shelf and sit on the lounge waiting for you to come and read it to her. She loves to be rough with daddy, too. They will wrestle and roll and play and all you can hear are giggles and play screams from Sienna constantly. I think Josh has been looking forward to this age because he can do this sort of thing with her now and she responds.

All in all, I am really happy with what she has learnt so far and am looking forward to the next steps in her progress, and seeing how she gets on with her new baby brother coming very shortly.