Just a quick one

I just wanted to say thanks everyone for your loving concern, thoughts and prayers over the last little while. We're getting there... gradually my energy levels are increasing and I'm feeling more normal. Also on Friday we had good news after Alastair's dad's appointment with his specialist: he's been given the all-clear, the pathology results were fine! Apparently this specialist has never seen anything like what Peter had and said he's a very lucky man. It's clear that it was a load on Peter's shoulders, as he's much more chirpy now, which is good to see. :)

Alastair shared this article by Tim Challies with me earlier, and I thought it was really insightful. I look forward to the day when I can demonstrate what I consider to be "real" hospitality (the kind I would be able to show if I had my own house, with more than two rooms in it!)... but it's been a good thing to think about even in our granny flat situation. :)

http://www.challies.com/christian-living/inconvenienced-by-inconvenience?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

And lastly I just want to share a couple of Puritan prayers I came across the other day:

Unmask to me sin's deformity,
   that I may hate it, abhor it, flee from it...
Let me never forget that the heinousness of sin
   lies not so much in the nature of the sin committed, 
      as in the greatness of the person sinned against.

Grant me never to lose sight of
   the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
   the exceeding righteousness of salvation
   the exceeding glory of Christ,
   the exceeding beauty of holiness,
   the exceeding wonder of grace. 

In a fog

Not sure exactly what I want to write here... it's been a strange few weeks...

I guess I'll just give you the short version.

August:

• Thursday 23rd to Sunday 26th we went out to Gilgandra and spent the weekend helping Alastair's brother and sister-in-law get their house cleaned up and ready to put on the market. It was a massive weekend, I came home exhausted and aching in all sorts of places I never knew I had.
• Monday 27th I did a pregnancy test and got a positive result - I was 5 weeks pregnant, and we were so excited! Baby due 30th April 2013.
• Tuesday 28th - rang the hospital to book in to the Wollongong Hospital Midwives Group Program. If you don't get in early you miss out.
• Wednesday 29th went to the Dr and had all the routine blood tests you get done when you find out you're pregnant... but then that afternoon started bleeding.
• Thursday 30th - Anthea's 1st birthday. Went to ladies bible study in the morning and asked them to pray for me and the new baby because I was worried I was having a miscarriage.
• Friday 31st - had to drop Alastair in town early, then dropped Annie off at my mother's group before going to pick Alastair's dad up from a Dr's appointment (he had been in hospital with a gall bladder attack the week before)... turns out he'd had some bad news: there was a tumour on the gall bladder which has attached itself to his liver (which is 3.4cm - having grown from 3mm a couple of months ago), as well as a cyst in one of his kidneys, so he's waiting for a specialist appointment now. Then I got back to mother's group 10 mins before it ended and fell to pieces, thankfully in a place where the people know me well. Alastair came home at lunchtime to look after me and Annie, as we were pretty sure it was a miscarriage.
• Saturday 1st/Sunday 2nd - a quiet weekend thankfully, with Father's Day as well. My parents and sister came down for lunch, so that was really nice.

Most of September has been a bit of a blur, (my birthday included), miscarriage confirmed, Anthea's 12 month immunisations... all sorts of stuff. Such a strange time, with such a lot of mixed feelings and emotions. It feels like a fog.... a surreal sort of feeling. I wanted to talk about it, but didn't want to hear any more of the trite "your baby was not meant for this world" or "perhaps it was deformed/handicapped" comments which people seem to think are comforting. I do have a few lovely friends who actually just listened when I needed to talk though, so that is a blessing. And now life goes on...

So soon?

Have decided to do a little catch-up post. It doesn't feel like long since I last was here, but it's actually been 10 days since the photo post, and 14 since I did that newsy one.

There's not been that much going on really, we've just been "doing life"... getting through teething and colds and all that kind of thing. Speaking of colds... and poor little runny crusty noses... :(

I mentioned the group project baby quilt I was co-ordinating at church, and how it was getting all big and complicated - well the top is finally all stitched up and finished, and one of the ladies is doing the quilting now. Am so pleased to have that over with! It didn't turn out too badly, though I liked it better before the outside border went on.

Alastair is well, and busy at work... then he comes home and does whatever needs to be done around here without complaining, so I am very blessed. He went up to the Collingwood game (which the Swans lost, so he wasn't a very happy boy when he got home), but now we're on top of the ladder, so he's happy again. :)

On Friday last, I left Annie for the longest time since the day she was born when they whisked me away to theatre. It was stocktake day at the pharmacy I used to work at, and they offered me a few hours of work. Mum came and looked after Anthea for me from 9am-1.30pm, and by all accounts they had a lovely time together and my daughter behaved herself beautifully. :)

We stayed with mum and dad on Saturday night for the first time in ages. It was nice, and would have been even nicer if Annie had made an effort to sleep for more than 1-1.5 hours at a time during the whole time. But she's teething, and we had colds, so what can you expect really I suppose. Friends were having their 10 week old gorgeous Isabel baptised the next day, so it was a good excuse to go back to my old church and catch up with people. In the afternoon, I got to have a little sleep (!) and Mum took Anthea for a walk in the pram she bought when I was born... it's doing well for nearly 30 years old, don't you think? :)

 

We are going out to Gilgandra again this weekend with Alastair's dad and his brother Ashley, to help Joel (another of Alastair's brothers) and his wife Katherine get their house ready to put on the market - kind of a little family working bee... should be fun. I'm planning to take a big chocolate cake... :)

Sometimes, towards the end of the day, when the bubba is getting tired and cross and everything is getting too much just before Daddy gets home from work, we take a little trip up to Jim's end of the house and chat to him for a while. It's so lovely having this grandfather-figure just at the end of the hall, who is never too busy to stop what he's doing to talk to us, or to bounce Annie on his knee, or to let her have a "play" on his piano...

Only other thing to add, is that Aunty Meaghan took a very cute photo of Annie on the weekend, where she looks like she's breakdancing - I hope she posts it so you can see. :)

Photos!

 It was the end of June last time I posted photos, so I think it's high time for the next installment!

 

Left: Aunty Meaghan is going to kill me for posting this photo, but I think early morning snuggles are so cute!

Right: "Look Mummy, I ripped up the Kmart catalogue... that's what you said to do, isn't it?"

Our beautiful girl - June 2012

 Annie has taken off - she's walking all around the furniture and walls, so up went the safety gates we found on eBay!

Cuddles with our dear friend Mrs. Woollard

 Left: Bathtime is Annie's favourite time of the day... and since this photo she's been learning to stay sitting down whilst in the bath. :) We just put the baby bath in the bottom of the shower recess - she loves it!

Right: Daddy and his baby watching TV. :)

 Cute ladybird dress from Nanna Glen!

 

Left: Asleep in the pram during one of our walks at the beach

Right: "Hey Mum, look at this cool new walking frame I found!"

 

Getting dry with Daddy after a bath

 

Discovering the board books 

 

New drink bottle with a straw from Eli's mummy, Jade.

Hmm... how does 

it work? 

 

Left: If I cross my eyes and concentrate really reeeeeally hard... 

Right: Yay! It worked!

 

The rag doll I've just finished for Anthea's 1st birthday - generally pleased with how it turned out. (She does have a nose - it's just a little stitch, which didn't come out in the photo!)

I think the way the hair is done is my favourite part of this pattern!

And with that, you're basically up to date! Hope you enjoyed these pics. xo

Post titles are so hard to think of...

Meaghan reminded me today that I hadn't posted for a while... but I didn't realise that it's been nearly a month already!

So...

Anthea's vomiting bug is over and well and truly in the past. Hurrah! :) Now if we could just get these top teeth cut through! The bottom two came through no worries, but it seems that the top ones are causing her a bit of grief. One is through, and the other is bulging...  has been for about two weeks... but other than that, she's well and happy.

Oh! Stop Press!!! Amazing, brilliant, wonderful, exciting news! About a week ago, she began to open her mouth when I was trying to feed her! I have to go back a bit with this story... if you're not interested, skip to the next paragraph. :) It was around the beginning of July and I was at a loss as to what to do with Annie's solids/eating/etc, so after speaking on the phone with a Tresillian nurse, I'd cut her feeds down from 7/8 a day to 4/5... but it wasn't helping. Then I went to our local Family Care Cottage, and had a very encouraging visit with a lovely Mothercraft nurse. Turns out, that was the day that Annie came down with the vomiting bug, so it wasn't until probably 10 days later that I was able to actually put into practice the advice that she'd given me. And that advice was that I needed to cut her down to 2 feeds a day - morning and night (plus a 10pm dream feed if I wanted, for my own comfort). Whoa. It was just enormous, trying to implement that advice, and for two weeks Annie still refused food - even though she was going 12 hours between feeds. Until last week, when all of a sudden she decided to give up and just opened her mouth. I was almost at breaking point - it was doing my head in. So praise the Lord, I was able to hold out just those extra few days, otherwise I'd have probably gone back to 4/5 feeds a day and we still wouldn't have got anywhere! Now she's eating lunch and dinner every day, will open her mouth for mashed potato, pumpkin, peas, bolognaise sauce, chicken stirfry with rice, and yoghurt. We're still working on breakfast... it's a battle. Hmm... wondering if this is a foretaste of what's to come, as far as the battle of the wills... we'll definitely be praying for wisdom in channeling it in the right direction!

I can hardly believe that she'll be turning one on the 30th! It's so exciting - I feel like in these last couple of weeks she's really started to change from a baby into a toddler... she's so cute! But I won't go on and on. Photos next time!

Last week we hosted our home group's bible study, which was great, because it meant I was able to join in. Usually Alastair just goes. But everyone came to our house, and we had the most people we've ever had in our little lounge room - 13! It was a bit squishy, but we managed - thanks to the kindness and good humour of everyone involved. Oh, and I think that the copious quantities of caramel slice helped to make everyone happy. :)

I've had a lot of trouble with my back recently too... which always makes life as a mummy that bit more interesting. It's funny to look back and think about what may have landed me in bed for a day or two a year or so ago - whether it be a flu or a back problem - and then fast forward to the present... I've really learned to "suck it up" as they say! Which is a good thing I think... I was a bit of a light-weight before.

At our ladies bible study, we are going through a book called "Lies Women Believe" by Nancy DeMoss. We are only a couple of chapters in, but it seems good so far. Well, mostly. I guess it's one of those books where you take the helpful bits and leave the rest. Like, for example, the author starts each chapter with what she imagines an excerpt from Eve's diary would look like... which I don't really go for and don't think is necessary. But she has made some good points in the chapters we've studied, which has provoked some interesting discussion.

Today I changed my schedule around. Recently I've been stuck in a bit of a rut, where I write myself a list of things to do, but then I lose interest, procrastinate and get almost nothing done. So today I divided my day up into time slots of Annie's awake/asleep times, and set myself one or two jobs to do in each period. It worked, and my to-do list was so much more achievable! :) Over and above doing the usual washing, dishes and cooking tea, I managed to plant the strawberries out, wash the towels, clean the kitchen sink, get my ironing done, and go for a walk with Annie along the beach path, from Woonona to Bulli and back, which was a great idea on such a lovely sunny day!

There's a lot more I could write... like about helping our Iranian friends set up their budget to keep track of their finances... like about the group project baby quilt I'm co-ordinating with the church ladies which has turned out bigger than Ben Hur (through no fault of my own - grrr)... or about how I cleaned my house last week and ohmygoodness it needs to be done again already.... or the lovely cross stitch I got inspired to start...

But it's getting late, and this post is already too long... and if I don't post this now, it'll get saved as yet another draft....

By the way, I've been wondering... what do YOU, my readers, want to hear about when I post? Are my long posts hard to read and sometimes you don't even bother? Honest answers please. :)

A poor sick baby and a wonderful sister

Within hours of posting last time, my little poppet came down with a vomiting bug. :( It might sound silly, but being the first time, I found it quite scary. I'm so over being vomited on and scrubbing vomit out of carpet. One of the evenings I went through three sets of pyjamas. Last night it was through my hair and everything. This morning we were just having a snuggle when all of a sudden I had a bubbling vomit fountain in my arms. It's just awful watching a helpless little one heaving her guts up. :(

I took her to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon, but he said she was doing okay and that it was probably a viral infection which had to run its course, and I came home feeling like a hypochondriac mother. But I have had so many worries and concerns over the last few days.... What if she dehydrates? When should I start to worry? Will I know when she's dehydrated? She's still alert and happy and her mouth isn't dry... but why has it been so long since she's had a wet nappy? Does her skin feel warmer or cooler than normal? Why does she just start to cry when I sit her on the floor? How should I tackle this latest vomit episode we're both covered in? What if I take her to the hospital now because I think she needs medical attention and they ask me how long it's been going on and I say three days... are they going to ask why I wasn't there two days ago and think I'm a neglectful mother and call DOCS and take my daughter away from me? :(

This morning at 8am was the last time she vomited, so I'm hoping she's turned a corner and is actually on the mend. My beautiful sister Meaghan has been an absolute gem. Yesterday it was dreary and rainy, and she came down to be with me... and knowing that there had been a lot of free-flowing vomit in our house, she went past Dusk on her way, and got an odour-eating candle, vacuum beads, and a beautiful rose and tangerine room spray - just as a gift. She went past my favourite bakery too, and bought me a delicious Neenish Tart to cheer me up. She cuddled Annie while I cleaned upstairs and got it smelling nice... then helped me with washing and dishes and everything. And she came back today to help me again. :)

But it was a glorious day, so instead of sitting inside and doing sensible things, we bundled the baby (plus multiple changes of clothes for us all in case we had to deal with a vomit episode!) into the car, and went down to Kiama for the afternoon. It was so lovely to get out... and I wouldn't have been brave enough to go out by myself with Anthea unwell. But I think it did her good to get a bit of fresh sea air... and it probably did me some good too.

I am so blessed to have a sister like Meaghan, and to have her just 45 minutes up the road.

Love you, Meaghan. xo

Normal Life

Not much happening around here really... just fairly normal stuff.

Alastair's well. He's done a bit of overtime recently, which will -oh joy- pay for the two fillings he needs. (Man, isn't dental work expensive!) :P The Tour de France is on at the moment, so he's been staying up too late watching that. Oh, and he weeded our vegie garden, and washed and vacuumed the car on the weekend. :)

Anthea's started blowing raspberries. :) Of course, she's just been being her cute self, cruising around the furniture and playing with her toys. She has been having a tiny weeny bit of food each day, which is more than she was having so I'm calling it progress. We have also cut down from 7-8 feeds a day to 4-5, and it seems to be working okay. The poor darling was quite out of sorts and slept a lot today, but perhaps that has something to do with the third tooth I can see under her top gum, trying to push its way through.

And me. Oh well... I just spend my time doing washing washing washing and dishes really. And I try to get Annie to eat, and I change her nappies. :P Today Mum came down to help me with some cleaning jobs, and we got a few done, but mostly we had cups of tea and chatted - which was nice, but not enormously productive. :)

That's all. I'm tired.

I got a laugh, so thought you might too...

 

I think I may have left over Baby Brain.... this is what I feel like when I'm down at woolworths 

trying to add up how much the bread and milk are going to cost me...

 

 

 

Five Things

Rachael tagged me for this meme - list 5 or more things you're looking forward to, or things that are just exciting at the moment... so here I go:


1. Just exciting: Anthea's developmental milestones. She's such a cute little sweetie, and it's a wonderful joy and privilege to watch her clap hands, wave, push herself around in her little walking frame, play happily in the bath for as long as she's allowed to, and cruise around the furniture.


2. I'm looking forward to: School holidays start next week! It will (hopefully!) mean that Aunty Meaghan can come to visit more and we can have some sleep-overs and girly pyjama days! :)


3. Just exciting: I've been reading a lot of stuff (particularly on the Stay at Home Mum website) about cutting costs and saving money whilst raising a family... so I'm all inspired to see which bits I can implement next payday!


4. I'm looking forward to: Anthea's first birthday. We had decided not to do a 1st birthday party, but as it gets closer, I'm feeling more like I do want to do something to mark the occasion! Maybe even just morning tea at the park with her little friends...


5. Just exciting: Call me weird, but I love tax time (and not just because of all the sales)! I love getting organised and sorted, and seeing how my book-keeping skills have served us through the year. And this year it's just a little bit more exciting because of the Family Tax Benefits we'll be eligible for.


I won't tag anyone, but would love to see others' Five Things memes!

Photo update

I know it's been ages... apparently time flies when you're having fun. :) We're better from our colds, and Anthea is sleeping much better. We went out to Gilgandra for the long weekend and learned about long car trips with a baby older than 6 weeks. :P We've had a lot of rain, which means a lot of mud in the house. And Anthea has started walking around furniture. I'll save the rest of my wordiness for next time... but for now, some photos...

So, this first pic was taken on Mother's Day 2012 - four generations of women.

My grandmother with her daughter, four granddaughters, and great-granddaughter.

And here is a family photo taken the same day - of the family that were present.

 

Watching Grandpa hang out the washing...

 

Anthea's first Sydney Swans match - May 2012 - she even got a cuddle with Cyggy!

 

 

Helping Mummy weed the garden

 

Visit to Western Plains Zoo - June Long Weekend

Bath time at Nanna and Grandpa's is Anthea's favourite!

Just because it's cute:

Oh, and in case you thought she was happy all the time:

(This last one totally cracks me up - mean, aren't I?)

I must go to bed... it's late! But before I forget - for some photos of the 1920's party I mentioned in my last post, visit my friend Bethany's blog here.

* I have my sister Meaghan to thank for more than half of these photos. :)