struggles and joys

There have been some wonderful joys with our little munchkin over the last few months which bring smiles to our faces and love to our hearts but there have also been a few struggles which have left me wondering what the heck to do!!! Maybe I can call on my beautiful friends for wisdom??

Firstly the joys:

1. Being a big boy 'A' took a little longer than average to do the whole rolling thing! He can still only roll from front to back and he really doesn't care to do it very often! He still can't reach his feet to grab them to roll from back to front! He did his first roll with Nanny in England (Nanny was very very chuffed (pleased) - Mummy was in bed!) but just for Mummy he did another one when she woke up!

2. 'A' has just started to clap his hands and even more recently wave! Such cuteness and of course very advanced!

3. When Daddy gets home from work 'A' gets super excited and smiles and kicks his legs and flaps his arms - I hope he doesn't take off doing that! It is so cute to see him respond to his Daddy like this and his Daddy is pretty chuffed too.

Struggles:

1. Apparently solid food just isn't for 'A'. I tried him with some rice cereal when I was in England when he was about to turn 6 months - the first day he was a bit interested but thereafter he has not really given much time or thought to eating solids.. I have tried him with apple, pear, butternut pumpkin and banana but the kid is JUST NOT INTERESTED! It is starting to become a real area of frustration for me and I am not sure what to do. He is still at the top of the scale for weight, weighing in at just over (9kgs) 20lbs - so he isn't going to waste away any time soon. I know you shouldn't compare and it's dangerous business, but all my friends kids who are the same age as 'A' have taken to solid food and are going great guns. I have always had such a lot of milk - from day one (even the nurses mentioned how much I had!), 'A' has always had very big weight gains and I still seem to have so much milk - still leaking and still needing to wear those annoying nursing pads (hope that's not TMI but just wanting to fill you in on where I am up to)!!!!!! I have had a few successful mornings of shoveling some pear or rice cereal in - but he still hasn't been all that into it and I just don't think he is ready - he isn't opening his mouth like a little birdie greatly anticipating each mouthful. You hear all different advice, people saying if he doesn't start now he will miss the boat, but then other friends saying how many adults do you know who still only eat breast-milk - he will figure it out (so so true my friend!) So I don' know whether to keep on keeping on and trying him each morning or to wait a while until he shows more interest? Please let me know if you have any similar stories or any top tips! I was really looking forward to this time of steaming up veggies, trying different foods, nursing a little less, having someone else feed him for a change but it isn't all going as expected. I thought 'A' would totally love food as he is such a chunky monkey but I guess he is lovin his Mamma's milk too much!
I am going to try and drop the 3am feed I am still doing to see if that makes the munchkin hungrier for food!

2. Also at 'A's 6 month check (I took him today so I was a bit late as he is almost 7 months) they noticed that his fontanelle is pretty much closed - this is quite early (normal is 9 months to 2 years) so they want to check it again in a month. I stupidly looked up what this can mean on google and it's not very good - but as long as his head circumference continues to grow normally and he reaches his developmental milestones it will hopefully not be anything to worry about. It can mean surgery to allow the brain to grow but this is worse case scenario! Please pray it would all be fine!

Anyhoo - that's all for now folks. I am sure I have more joys and struggles to add but I will maybe blog again about them laters..

some pics of england 09

please pray

I have totally been meaning to write for so long but I have been a busy lil Mamma! And now I am almost off to England!! The good news is we managed to get upgraded to Business class for our Sydney to Dubai flight (16 hours!!!!), so that should make it more comfortable with 'A'. SP also got upgraded for the same flight when he comes in 2 and a bit weeks!! All thanks to Mum and Jules' air miles!!

I leave in just over 4 hours and I am feeling a little nervous so thought I would ask you to pray specifically about these few things:

* That 'A's ears would be ok on take off and landing!!!

* That he would be settled on the plane.

* That we would arrive safely.

* That I would be relaxed and not anxious!

* I am starting to get emotional about having to leave SP - please pray that the time might go quickly and we might not to be too sad!

* That 'A' would stay healthy (no swine flu please!), that he might get some good sleeps and that it might be a smooth ride. Turbulence means you have to get the babies out of the bassinet ;(

* Pray for SP also, as he will miss us and we will miss him for just over 2 weeks until he flies out to meet us. Pray also for a safe flight for him.

* Please please please also pray for the adjustment for when we get the other end with 'A', his sleep and the time difference.

I will be in touch hopefully once I get to England!!! Which will be Tuesday night Aussie time and lunchtime UK time!

Adios - hopefully I will write more soon!

happy mothers day to all you mum's...

...from a new Mum on Mother's day ;)

the ergo baby carrier

I ordered and received my new baby carrier this week. It's a 'Ergo Baby Carrier' - I wish I had known about these before I brought the Baby Bjorn. Anyway I didn't so suck it up Nixter!

As 'A' is such a big boy - like over 8kgs already at just 4 and a half months old - he is getting far to heavy to carry in the BB, even SP finds him heavy after he has carried him for a while.

So I did a bit of research and found out about the "Ergo Carrier' - you can carry your baby on your front, back and side and they can be in it until they are 3-4 years (up to 25kg) - not that you want to be carrying a 3 year old in it all the time but you can! You have to buy a baby insert if you want to carry a newborn in it.

Well I watched the 'instructional DVD' which came with - yes people you have to watch a DVD to figure out how to use this thing. I also made SP watch it with me again - he loved it but when I asked him if he wanted to watch it again he declined!

So far so good, it isn't as bulky as I thought it would be and while at first being a little worried that 'A' was almost doing the splits in it with his legs wrapped around me - I love it and I think he does too! Apparently it is much better for their posture as they are not hanging from their crotch (did I just say that?) like they do in the BB. And it is much better for me as all the weight is carried on the hips, so my back and shoulders don't hurt anywhere near as much.

'A' seems to love it and the few times I have had him in it he has gone to sleep within about 5-10 mins. I can't wait til he is a little bigger and I can wear him on my back! It also has a little hood to project from wind, sun and rain - no more carrying extra wraps around to cover him up!

I also think it is going to be really great for when I am traveling on the plane and around London when I am home. All in all I am happy with our new purchase I think I shall sell the BB and then when we have another little one buy a pouch or insert for the Ergo!

I highly recommend it - if you have or having a baby of course ;)

private blog

I am thinking of making my blog private!

Not totally decided yet but if you want to keep reading leave me a comment and I will send a link for you (somehow)!

romans 6 anyone?

Several years ago when I was in Colorado, my friend and I decided that it would be a great idea to memorise Romans 6: 1-14:

¹What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. ⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

I had most of it down back then and when I was skimming though Romans the other day it jumped out at me again, I could only remember a few verses but I thought what a great passage, and as I am doing this whole memorise scripture thing I thought it might be cool to go back and memorise it again.

Anyone want to do it with me?