Some happy

I was about to post about how much I hate H's nasal stents and how they are the bane of my existence for now. Instead here is a countdown till the buggers come out for good. Can't wait!

Secondly, here is a little piece of happy that has become a part of our evening routine.  We love Giggle and Hoot around these parts. H even lets me know when she wants me to sing it in her own special way.

Giggle & Hoot Lullaby for ABC Kids from zspace on Vimeo.

Six of the fastest months ever

Here we are. A gorgeous yummy big girl who is looking very tired in this shot taken not long before nap time today.

What can I tell you about her?

She loves being around children and gets a thrill every morning when we go to school. While there, she can spot a staff member who is close to our family from over 15 meters away and will follow her with her eyes.

She is already waving and trying to clap.

She twice has crawled off the bed, once crawling down between us to the end, then off the side. She now sleeps in a cot.

She is highly driven. As we feared, she pulls her nasal stents out all the time and we are now waiting on a second replacement set to arrive from the hospital. Apparently most babies are ok with wearing them, but now and again they get a Houdini who thinks they are optional.

She has the most threatening "you've got to be kidding" look I have ever seen on someone so young. On a day when we have been driving more than usual, I put her in her seat only to receive that look.

She loves cuddles and snuggles right in.

I have a little song that I made up for her and she shakes her shoulders as if to dance when I sing it to her.

She is our world.

An unusual milestone

Because I got the news of H's cleft lip and palate the day before her birth, I began expressing  immediately making today a special milestone for me. Six months of exclusively expressing for my sweet little girl

By my accounts that is around

• 170 litres of breastmilk I have produced
•  540 hours attached to my pump
• Countless more hours washing pump parts and bottles

I have the most fantastic pump on the market which is backed by a rep here in Queensland who has been very helpful each of the times I have needed help. Without my Medela Freestyle, the backup of both the rep and Mothers Direct where we bought it, there is no way I would have made it this far. I can hold the breastpump in the palm of my hands and it has a rechargeable battery, meaning I can take it pretty much anywhere with me. This makes commitments like hospital appointments and trips to the emergency dept easier knowing that I have everything I need right there.

I am not the only one who does this by a long shot and there are fantastic support groups out there. In fact, in the early days when I was waking during the night to pump I would read the emails submitted to yahoo groups as I was pumping, reminding me that I am far from alone. 

 

H has a very big interest in foods that everyone else eats and has had a few little tastes this week of fruit. A little piece of apple, banana or watermelon here and there. This is the beginning of her weaning, though I expect she will be drinking my milk for a long time to come. 

Cupcake dream

At the ripe old age of four, B has nightmares sorted. Yesterday she told me that when she has scary dreams that she whispers "change to the cupcake dream please". She says it works every time, but you have to say please.

So what happens in the cupcake dream? "Well there's fairies on them and sprinkles. They are on a plate and everyone gets to eat them."

Love it.

4 days to go... reflecting

Our darling is five months old today.

Pure love.

Waking up from nap time

 

 She's just too yummy for words. I am trying to take as many photos as I can pre op. I will miss this gorgeous face. It is already dramatically different to the way she was born because of her plate and taping, but being a gradual change it was easy to cope with.

Ten days time brings a big change and a new beginning.  Knowing her, she will take the challenge of recovery beautifully while exercising her rights to pull off her arm splints and nasal stents while she is at it.

Another year, another new home

Here we go, moving again. In her four years sweet B is now up to six homes in three different cities across two different continents. My husband and I had the very opposite in our upbringings. His Mum only eighteen months ago sold after fifty years and my Dad still lives in my childhood home. My hope for the next 5 years is for us to not move as often and for all three girls to have the opportunity to stay at the one (fantastic) primary school .

There is so much to do, but tomorrow I would love to take a little time alone with my yarn to become reacquainted after all this time.

Another milestone today. Darling H is four months old. I can't even put into words how full of love I am for our little poppet. I can't think about her without breaking into a smile. She is not feeling so jolly today as she has her first ear infection. Poor little sweety. I am optimistic that she will be better in no time powered by mother's milk.

Oh and she has started solids. Early? very. Guided by me? NO! She has been eating the steri strips that hold her orthodontic plate in place. The whiskers from my last post. I was beside myself watching her pull them off just as quickly as I put them on. The above image was one of my failed attempts to foil her- train tracks that took me longer to put on than her to take off.  Thankfully one of the orthodontists at the RCH came up with the great suggestion to put some of the duoderm base tape over the top of the steri strips. No more surprises at nappy change time. She can still take her plate out, but that is a whole different ball game. Before we know it, this will be a thing of the past. Time really does fly.

Smile

We have been getting the most beautiful smiles for the last few weeks but this is the only photo I have managed to snap. Laughter and more little baby conversations are creeping in every day too.

So utterly blessed

Six months on...

Talk about a journey and life changing six months. We have all grown so much during my bloggy hiatus.

In the days after my last post we got the news that we would be leaving Dubai. in a bit of a hurry Not quite Maria and Captain Von Trapp style but at the time it felt a little like it.

We returned to my birthplace for a lovely Queensland winter. I never thought I would live here again, but I have a feeling we will be here or nearby for quite some time to come.

So what else has been going on?

Not long after we returned, husband got a new job. Not quite as challenging as the last but in my opinion there is nothing wrong with that, for a little while at least.

Around the same time our G became a preppie at a gorgeous little school a bit of a drive from our place. She has truly blossomed there and will be very sad to say goodbye to her teacher at the end of the year. I love the school run and having a goss with the Mums each day.

E is growing up so quickly too. She still loves to sing and dance. She will break into song and put on an impromptu show often. Both girls started dance class at the local youth club a little while back and took to them like a storm.

As for my bump....

In mid September at 42 weeks + 1 day gestation I gave birth to a precious girl. We had the most beautiful birth with the most amazing midwife present. I had been 5cm and having contractions that were going nowhere for weeks so consented to ARM. Two hours later our darling was in our arms no need for any further intervention and my birth plan was followed almost to a T. She has the most amazing blonde hair in a mohawk (of course) and sparkling blue eyes.

The day before her birth I was having an ultrasound because I was post dates, just to ensure that baby and I were still going well when it was discovered that our darling has a cleft lip. At the time they suspected bilateral but after her birth it was confirmed that she has a complete unilateral cleft lip and palate. Her palate's cleft is quite significant (the women folk in our family don't tend to do things in halves!)

I can't say enough about the hospital I birthed at and how I felt completely safe and nurtured by all the midwives and nurses in the maternity ward, the speech therapist and gorgeous social worker. A couple of the ultrasound technicians who I had met even came up to check in to see how we were going.

I will devote a whole post to our darling and the journey we have had over the last seven weeks since her birth. I am so stoked to have another little girl and am so in love with her and her huge smile.

On the knitting front, since my return here I made quite a few new baby things as well as some little gifts for G's teacher who is expecting her first child early next year. I also took part in a fantastic swap with some great women on Ravelry. There were 12 or so of us participating and we made an 8x8 inch square for each member so we could all make a blanket. I still have not put mine together, but am really looking forward to it as the blanket will come in handy come January when the first of H's operations is anticipated.

It feels so good to be dusting the blog off. I hope I can be back often.

Cutbacks

This week my husband and I have been talking about our financial goals and the way the cost of living in Dubai is way higher than we had anticipated despite our research before moving over here. Just as an example, our rent, which must be paid in advance annually works out to be approx $1100 per week for a 3 bedroom townhouse. The books and real estate websites we looked at before moving here suggested at least half that. We soon learned that real estate websites were at the time not kept up to date. It was during the boom and villas were being snapped up at a very fast rate.

We have decided to make some serious cutbacks in order to actually move forward and hopefully return to Australia next year. Our financial situation and the current world economic climate has me thinking about the way previous generations got on during the tough times.

The blanket pictured above is a beautiful example of stretching something and making use of every last scrap. The image is not as clear as I would have hoped, but this knitted baby blanket was passed on to me when my paternal Grandmother died 22 years ago. It measures about 50x30cm as must have over 100 knots from where the small lengths of cotton were joined. I treasure this blanket for the love and beauty that went onto such a frugal piece that has lasted over time.

A BOY

Well my nephew, born in the wee small hours of this morning, USA central time is. Congratulations to my gorgeous sister, her husband and daughter. It was very exciting to be receiving updates from my mother and youngest sister on my blackberry from the time she reached transition until Peter was blissfully enjoying his first drink of breastmilk.

Our darling's secret is safe for another few months, but I really miss knitting longies so I have decided to make several different pair of whatever takes my fancy. I can either gift or sell those that we decide we will not need.

I love the colourway, but am not happy with the pooling both on the body and leg of the longies. I recently made a hat from the same wool that came out in beautiful stripes.

The ruffled cuff is from my Field Guide To Knitting stitch dictionary.

Happy Birthday to my darling Charlotte back in Australia, and in the USA my sweet little nephew Peter and Happy Birthing Day to my wish come true, Rhianon.

Long overdue update

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I have posted. This is a combination of several things including an obsession with Twitter, illness earlier in the month and I have been knitting up a storm.

My bump is growing beautifully and our wriggly little one is 18 weeks. It is such a relief to be past the nausea and other early pregnancy complaints. It is nice to enjoy all the foods I love again and even had a little of my Beloved's curry when we ordered Thai a few nights ago.

Speaking of the fella, we celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary this week. Time sure does fly!

On to my knitting. Last year while I was in Australia I became involved in knitting scarves that went along with swags for homeless people. I have decided to make a head start this year and have joined the Yahoo group Knitting for Brisbane's Needy. Here are a few things I have made so far that will be making the trip back to Au with us in two months time.

For my family I have made some doll hats and clothes, a soaker and a sweet little tunic for our bubba. The WIP is a kimino top that I need some motivation to finish.

Some friends in Australia will be having babies soon. Here are some little gifts I made and sent off.

The girls and I have been dyeing wool with Kool-Aid. It is unbelievably fun and easy to do. Here is our first attempt. (Katanya, it is the Merino I bought from you. I hope you are not offended that I used Kool Aid on it instead of a more professional dye!)

Further details about the knitting I have done this month can be found on my projects page at Ravelry.

So that has been our month. The girls are going very well. G can tell the time now and wears her watch everywhere. B is heavily into counting, adding and subtracting. She is also very insistent that our baby is a girl... we'll see.

Update

It has been a little while, so I feel I need to give a proper update as to what has been happening.

Baby
is growing beautifully and my hormones are doing all the delightful first trimester things.

FOs and WIPs

We have a simple but very useful pin cushion come knitting notions holder, the placenta WIP and a cardi for our little one from Debbie Bliss Special Knits. I still have not washed or blocked the cardi and will be sure to post a photo when it is done.

Shopping

Our lovely delivery man has dropped some lovelies on my doorstep in the last week or so. From the Knit Picks sale some gorgeous hand dyed Peruvian Highland Wool, some thin circs to enhance my needle collection and one as a birthday gift for a friend who is celebrating her special day next week. I also finally invested in a ball winder that G is giving a test ride here with some of the yarn from her own little stash.

Finally, I received some lovely BFL from a UK family business, World of Wool. I feel so unAustralian, but I must confess that BFL is my favourite wool to work with. It is so lovely and soft. This particular delivery actually still smells like sheep and seems to have a lot of natural lanolin left in. Yum.

Australia Day

So sue me. I am late talking about our Australia Day and what we got up to; baking lamington cupcakes. I don't have the patience to make proper lamingtons so instead we made vanilla cupcakes that the girls iced with chocolate icing and sprinkled with dessicated coconut. Add the Australia flag and they are just as good as a proper lamington. Our friends enjoyed them too. Oh and I watched a McLeod's Daughters season 8 marathon. Hours and hours of Hot Matt. sigh

Life in Australia has taken such a tragic twist in the last week and I urge everyone who has the means to visit the Red Cross to donate to the bushfire and flood appeal.

Her beauty and her terror-
The wide brown land for me!

Dorothea MacKellar OBE