Christmas

We’ve had a lovely low-stress Christmas Day here in Sydney. It started off well – we all slept in until 8am. (It’s probably the last time we’ll sleep in on Christmas morning for some time!) We had a lovely day largely with Stephen and Delwyn at their place hanging out and eating. I’ll leave you with a few photos.
Rose with her new trike:

Trying to kiss the cat:

At the Christmas table:

Christmas Eve

We’ve had a busy Christmas Eve so far. This morning we had a visit with Tess’s pediatrician. All’s well. The mark on her leg? Birth mark. Snuffly nose, gooey eye, and differently coloured eyes? All normal. He was pleased that she had put on so much weight and was looking healthy. He wasn’t really interested in my breastfeeding sagas, in fact it was really nice to meet with a health professional without a breastfeeding agenda. I got the feeling that as long as Tess was putting on weight, he was happy.

Chris and I have been using Rose’s nap time to wrap the last few Christmas presents. Next we go on to Tara and Joe’s for a play date, then dinner, then we’re off to a Christmas carols mass. Finally we’ll all tumble into bed. I’m pretty sure that Rose has no idea that Santa is coming tomorrow, but I’m sure she’ll be excited when she sees her little red tricycle in the living room in the morning. And lastly, I leave you with a picture of our gorgeous darling Tess. Merry Christmas everyone!

Clean hands

Rose has discovered a new fun activity: hand washing. She enjoys washing her hands so much that we’ve had to set limits on how many times per day she can wash her hands and for how long. The other day I suddenly wondered where she was. There she was in the bathroom with the lights out, standing on her little folding step, pretending to wash her hands (she can’t reach the lights or the tap/faucet).

Wondering what she’s wearing on her back? That would be the Care Bear back pack that used to be Cleo’s when she was little.

Boobs better, but need more sleep

Those antibiotics have really helped the mastitis. I can’t say I’m over it 100%, though. I still have sore stabbing pains in the one boob. Mind you, one of the recommendations for getting over mastitis is getting lots of rest. I’m not quite sure where I’m supposed to fit the resting in when Tess wakes up every two hours!

Thought I would share this video of our tiny dancer:

Dancing machine

Start making sense

Chris and I sat down and wrote a list of all the words that Rose knows:

Mama, Daddy, bubba (baby), apple, na-na (Banana), balloon, ball, more, no, doggie, out there, go, up, down, uh-oh, bye (and buh-bye!), hello, yum, something that sounds a lot like “what’s that?” and is used whenever she wants to know what something is, and ga-ga (which she uses for coffee) (although this word is in dispute, I don’t think it should be on the list)

She’s learned about half these words in the last two weeks, but there’s a stable relationship between the sound and the referent (Chris told me to say this. I say pfffff to his literary education).

Interestingly, she can’t say her own name.

Just to top everything off

I got mastitis. (If you don’t know what it is, it’s a breast infection. Those two words should never been in close proximity to each other.)

I first noticed the painful lumps last night. I didn’t sleep well and felt like crap this morning. Then I got a fever and chills about lunch time and realised I had to get to the doctor – pronto. Unfortunately Chris was at work with the car, so I had to get Rose into the stroller and Tess into the sling and walk up to the doctor, about 30 minutes walk away. At the doctors I had a temperature of 38.7 and she prescribed antibiotics. Honestly, I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus.

Waking up

Tess has been acting more like a normal newborn lately. By that I mean she’s awake for longer, has had some cranky patches of unexplained crying not related to being hungry or needing a nappy changed, and last night she even refused to go to sleep for more than an hour! (I know, I know. We have the easiest baby ever.)

The funny thing is that this (slightly) bad stuff is good. I’d be a lot more worried about her if she continued to be sleepy and zonked out. When Rose started throwing tantrums I remember being relieved – it’s good to have your kid going through normal developmental stuff!

Tess’s fussy patches are also right on track with coinciding with the evening. She’s been wanting to feed every couple of hours, which is  exhausting.  But she’s also looking deliciously chubby, so that makes up for it.

Parents Group Christmas Party

We went to our Parents Group Christmas Party yesterday. We were late because 1) we all slept in until 8.45am, even Rose and 2) Have you tried to get out of the house with a toddler and newborn lately? It’s a nightmare! You have to plan for all sorts of contingencies so you end up taking as much baggage as if you were going on holiday for four weeks.

Anyway, Rose is turning into quite the present opener. Check our our online photo album for some more photos.

Pick ‘n’ mix parenting

For the last five weeks I’ve been parenting Tess according the rules. The rules have been set by our pediatrician, the midwives at the hospital, the early childhood nurse that’s been looking after us since we came home, and the private lactation consultant that I saw on Monday. But it’s all about to change.

Basically, I’m getting fed up with the rules because the rules are different depending on who you talk to. Health professionals have variously told me to stop using bottles of expressed milk, and that it’s fine to use bottles. I was also told to bring the baby to breast when breastfeeding, and yet another said to position the baby and move the breast into their mouth. I’ve also been told that positioning is incredibly important and to keep taking Tess off if she doesn’t get it perfectly right, and by another midwife that they’re just guidelines and not to take her off too often if she’s getting frustrated. I’ve also been told that I’m putting Tess too high on the pillow, and by another that she’s not high enough. I really dislike it when one health professional tells you that something HAS to be done a certain way, and the implication is that they’re strict instructions and something would go wrong if you didn’t. I asked the early childhood nurse about breastfeeding from one side only and she said that it should never be done. But the lactation consultant said of course it was possible. The worst thing has been listening to the various professionals disparaging each other’s opinions (“She told you what? Where is she getting her information?!” and “Those people in the hospital have no idea.”) I’m leaving room for the fact that maybe I forgot or misinterpreted some of the information I’ve been told, but even after that concession there’s only one conclusion to be made: they’re all opinions.

I have been trying to follow all these instructions to the letter because of Tess being premature and having lost so much weight at the beginning. I’ve desperately been trying to do the right thing. Of course I’ve wanted to follow directions if my daughter’s health depends on it. But trying to follow all of these conflicting instructions is starting to run me ragged. On Wednesday morning at 4am I spent 40 minutes trying to breastfeed Tess according one set of instructions, and it still didn’t work. I got into a panic because I’d been told not to give her breast milk in a bottle, and she was hungry. We were both utterly frustrated and exhausted (and crying!) by the end of it.

But all of that is over. Now she’s thriving and putting on good steady weight I’m going to assume that my instincts are RIGHT, and everyone else’s opinion should be balanced against my own fair judgment. It means making decisions based on my own estimation of what I can and can’t do, what’s best for Tess, and what works for our family. And if a few health professionals think I’m crazy, so be it. (Some others will cheer me on!)

Three things

Three awesome things happened today:

1. Rose learned two more words: Mine! and Go! (Yes, both were exclamatory.)
2. Tess got weighed today and she’s put on 400 grams in 10 days. (Some perspective: 150 grams in 7 days is what you aim for in a baby of Tess’s age.) Finding out that she’s doing well and gaining such good weight is a huge relief.
3. Tara just dropped off another dinner for us. I can’t tell you how awesome it is having our parents group. They’ve been so supportive. We’ve had a regular flow of free dinners since Tess was born, and so many offers of help. Did I mention that Petra and Paul cancelled their holiday away when Tess was born, even though they’d paid for it? I’m humbled, humbled, humbled.