Magical Moments

Now that I feel more 'with it' in terms of this gorgeous little bundle who joined us in February, and have a bit more time to be organised, it has dawned on me that I am experiencing so many wonderful Magical Moments (possibly these could be called M & M's too!) and that I am trying hard to remember and take everything in!  I don't want to forget one second.  Not one!  

I can't believe how amazing things are right now.  

This.  Very.  Moment.  

It just makes me appreciate the fact that I can have this unbelievably amazing time off work to do what is really important in life.  To love and to live.

I love you Emily, you make my heart melt, sing and dance!

Everything AND the kitchen sink!

We recently went away for the first time with our little Angel!  Exciting!  It is the longest journey she has been on so far!  

My parents own a Bed and Breakfast in the beautiful Bay of Islands, Appledore Lodge and we stayed with them for 2 nights in the Suite.  Well, I was in a slight flap about what to take, how much to take and when to pack, given I needed to get into Emily's room to get her clothing etc and of course I couldn't do that if she was asleep!  This was taxing enough, planning for this weekend away, but I have friends who have recently been overseas with their babies, the same age and stage as Emily and I don't know how they have done it!  The amount of stuff we had to take was incredible.  Previously, it was throw a bag in the boot and hit the road - it took about 15mins to get ready and go.  

Now, however, I wrote a list and methodically checked everything off it - well, actually, I have to admit I would usually do that!!  But imagine arriving up North (4 hours' drive) without the porta-cot?!?!  Disaster!!   I began packing on the Friday morning, gathering all the items I could but there were a good many to pack on the Saturday morning as we took things like Emily's cot monitor etc, which we could only grab once she was up on Saturday.  But we got there in there end!  You could barely see out of the back window, but we got there!  We literally had the kitchen sink plus some!!  

I had visions of, after stopping to feed Emily on the way up, sitting in the back with her and keeping her awake so she didn't fall asleep after feeding, but there was literally no space for me to do that, so she had to hang in there by herself! 

She is also now in her car seat - big girl now - which was great.  It is well padded and secure, and for such a long trip we thought it was time to upgrade her from the wonderful capsule we have used until now, to the car seat.  The day before we trekked off, I got the car seat installed by Plunket - that link is to there special car seat division, and they are so thorough and only ask for a gold coin donation, amazing, and you can travel knowing it is installed correctly as it's not as easy to do as it looks!  It's in for the long haul now!

Emily did so well, sleeping on and off for both legs of the trip and being quietly awake playing with Gerry the Giraffe, and waking only once per night when we were up there.  She usually sleeps through the night at home (and has done so since being home again, yay!), so I was pretty impressed.  It's a lot of change for a little baby, and she did so well!

We clearly took way too much stuff, mainly Emily's clothing, as I unpacked most of it into her change table when we got home, unworn!  Oh well, you can never be too prepared with a baby!  Plus with having started solids, you just never know just how much mess there will be!  But the trip was really successful and has given us confidence for future get-aways :)

Enjoying my pumpkin (more goodies we had to take with us!)

Lunch time stop on the way home at Warkworth - beautiful sunny day!

Baby Essentials

My friend recently asked me what essentials are needed for a baby,  and what is really useful to receive as a present, to give to her soon-to-arrive nephew and it got me thinking, now that I have an idea of what is actually useful and what works, and I thought I would share that with you.  

The Baby Factory also has a suggested list, check it out here although I haven't focused on everything listed, more the sort of thing you could give a friend expecting.

Motherhood is a funny thing.  There is just SO much to learn, adapt to and take in, in such a short time, that it's hard to work out what things you are using, or what is useful, in amongst the hundreds of nappies that you are constantly changing (well, that's certainly how it seemed back in those early days!!), and the lack of sleep, together with this little bundle screaming for you, or looking at you and trying to communicate with you.  You kind of go onto auto-pilot, even though it's new territory!  No wonder we get mummy brain!

Before Emily arrived, I'd go through her things and get so excited about when I could use this or that, or dress her in this and see her in that, but in reality there are some things which are much more useful than others and some things I thought I'd use, but didn't.  

The most useful things we found are:

• Face cloths - for a morning 'mini-bath', these are fantastic and for the evening bath, but also for general spills
• Bibs - those with Velcro fasteners are best as the press-studs can be a bit fiddly, and I find if the fastener is on the side of the neck rather than the back of the neck, so much the better
• Disposable change table mats (who even knew these were an item?!) - lifesaving!
• Nappy rubbish bags - a good stash of supermarket bags would also do
• Nappies of course - LOTS!  We used disposables  in the early days, but now use the old fashioned cloth nappies
• Baby wipes - LOTS!  Those which don't have a fragrance are good
• Baby toiletries - we love the Johnson and Johnson baby bedtime items (the purple brand), with a lovely lavender smell which is meant to help baby sleep.  It certainly agrees with Emily and we include a little bedtime massage before her final feed of the night
• Onesies / baby-grows / all-in-ones - so easy to dress baby in, and get her out of too.  Essential for swift midnight nappy changes
• Bodysuit vests (long sleeved, short legs) - I find these have really come in handy to wear under baby-grows, and even with leggings and a short sleeved body suit over the top, so that the vest is seen on the arms.  A nice additional layer for baby
• Cloth nappies / burping cloths - really useful to throw over your shoulder as there are lots of spills with a little baby.  I also use them on Emily's playgym mat and on the floor when she has tummy time to save having the scrub everything, carpet included
• White noise CD - I didn't initially use this when Emily was tiny as she slept very well as a little baby, as little babies tend to, but at around 10 or so weeks her sleep changed and I thought I better try it.  I used to use my cell phone on radio static but had it up too loud and a friend reminded me she had actually given me a white noise CD for my baby shower!  So we use that instead.  It's hard to know if it actually does work, as there have been times I forgotten to switch it on, or put it on repeat and Emily still sleeps well without it.  I just use it to keep things consistent. This is the CD I have and I just pop it on repeat.

Things that look good but aren't all that practical:

• Any clothes with buttons / press-studs at the back of the neck - really awkward to do up, especially when baby is tiny and can't hold their heads up or is very upset or wriggly!
• Booties!  I hate to say it but they come off quite easily; you don't want to tie the ties too tight in case you squeeze baby's foot too much; and the little ribbons that you have to tie are really hard to do up when baby is kicking her feet and wriggling!  But they look so cute.... Maybe I will frame some as a piece of art?

I had also aimed to get dinners in the freezer but our oven broke right before Emily arrived, in fact on the day I went into labour the oven technician came round to look at it (!!), so unfortunately didn't get to doing that, but if I have pregnant friends in the future, I will give them a few frozen homemade dinners.  You are so tired, but hungry in those early weeks, this would really come in handy.

But aside from all the goodies and things, what you really need in those early days is time with your new baby and your husband to bond.  Don't worry about the housework, the washing or anything else.  Just let it be. These days and moments are far too precious to let that stuff interfere with your beautiful little bundle.

Time for Solids!

Wow, we have officially started solids for our little Baby Angel :) Between her 4 month Plunket check up and her 5 month Plunket check up, she only gained 50g despite eating very well and being a totally contented little baby, and so my Plunket nurse and both our moms suggested thinking about starting solids, or at least seeing if Emily is ready for solids, to help with her weight gain.

And so on Saturday we started with Watties Baby Rice Cereal, mixed with a little water after a full breastfeed at lunchtime.  And boy, did Emily dive into it!! It actually took us both by surprise as we didn't really think she was showing too many signs of being ready for solids, but apparently she was!  She just loved it, and so we have done the cereal at lunchtime (for the past 2 days we have mixed it with baby formula, which I haven't used before, but I think it gives the cereal a nicer taste than just water) for 3 days in a row, just to check she is ok with it and doesn't react to it, and then we want to try pumpkin. 

Apparently it's good to try veggies first so your baby doesn't get too used to the sweet taste of fruit, and then may not like veggies later.  SO I have steamed up some pumpkin and popped it into my cool little OXO Tot ice cube tray, especially for baby food, ready for when we do the pumpkin taste test.  Yum!  

I was really nervous to start with the rice cereal as we weren't really thinking about solids till Emily turned 6 months old, so we are about 4-6 weeks earlier than I had thought.  But it just went so well and she was so into it, my nerves quickly disappeared!  I am just so used to providing everything for her myself as I am exclusively breastfeeding, it is a change, but an interesting and fun one!

Yum yum!

First taste of baby rice cereal!  Yum!

Pureed pumpkin ready to freeze.

If the cloth fits...

So in an effort to save ourselves much needed cash at this stage, we have opted to use proper, old-fashioned cloth nappies!  Like the ones our parents may have used on us!  I know you can get the modern ones (and they are FAB!  Check out the link for more info and examples), but they were a bit more than we wanted to spend so we went for the old-fashioned ones!  

First day wearing cloth nappies - Emily was not happy for this particular photo shoot!

And can I say, they are awesome to use.  No more hassle than changing a disposable really, but of course you do need to soak and wash them but I honestly don't mind that part.  I am now happily in my 'nappy zone' where I have a bucket of nappy san ready to go each morning, to soak the day's nappies, and each morning I pop on a small washing load to wash the previous day's nappies.  It is working great actually and we put out SO much less rubbish each week, it's amazing.

We do use disposables if we are out for the day, and overnight (and often when my loving husband changes her as he feels he can't 'do' a cloth nappy as well as Mummy can!!) as that all could get a bit tricky, and the disposables keep Emily really dry overnight - I am not sure if the cloth nappies would do the same, although my Mom suggested using 2 cloth nappies at night as an option although we haven't tried that just yet.

We did use disposables when Emily was a little newborn.  We weren't in the 'nappy zone' back then, and we didn't even have the cloth nappies, and disposables are SO easy when you have to change 10 or so a day and often one right after the other!  It was amazing to see our household rubbish go from 1 bag to 3 bags a week though!  And so when we were less tired and discombobulated, we changed to cloth, around 10 weeks old or so.  We probably go through about 8 cloth nappies a day, plus 1 or 2 disposables overnight.

My Aunt in the UK managed to source all the goodies for us as we couldn't find the right thing in NZ.  We got everything from Mothercare UK which had just what we needed: waterproof pants in 4 different sizes, 10 of each size; terry cloth nappies, we got 35 nappies to keep us going, and initially I was using these nappy pins but I was terrified of stabbing Emily or myself accidentally and so I have bought 4 of these Snappi Nappy fasteners in NZ.  Fabulous little things and no worries about pricking or poking anyone!  We also use flushable nappy liners in the nappies and I feel using 2 per nappy works well and is more absorbent than just using 1.

We also haven't experienced much nappy rash, which is great!  I just change her nappy asap, and use zinc oxide nappy rash cream each night to avoid any rashes.  So far so good all round!  The only thing I find is that some of the little bodysuits Emily wears get a bit stretched where you fasten them, as they do need to stretch over the bulky cloth nappy.Oh well, more excuses to buy more clothing with the money we are saving on nappies!

Till next time!

Gettin' Crafty on the Cheap

I decided to recover our beloved feet seats since we have a make do and mend (where possible!) approach to life right now as I'm on maternity leave - and to be honest they are perfectly fine except for the actual seat parts as they are so well used so we didn't really  need to buy new ones.  

$15 later, and all fabric and batting from my trusty friends at Spotlight, and a borrowed staple gun from my in laws, and voila!  I am rather pleased with my efforts and the seats live to see another day (or pair of feet!).

It felt good to do something creative, now I must get onto my scrapbooking especially as it's on my maternity leave to do list and Emily is growing so fast - we have heaps of photos to put into an album :)

Before

After - awesome :)

Da-naaa!