What to do with crazy hair...

Put on a headband of course!!! Catherine is 9 weeks today... and her hair is showing no signs yet of falling out... in fact, I think it's getting longer and becoming a tad more crazy and unruly! Popped out to Chermside this morning to do a spot of shopping with Catherine in tow as Elizabeth was at kindy and I picked up this cute little headband on sale for less than $3 at Pumpkin Patch... I think she rocks this headband... LOL... :)

Well Chu Phi has come and been... We had a fun time while he was visiting... Elizabeth loved playing with him.... but now we have a quiet house (well as quiet as you can get with 2 kids) for a week and then Bac Bao Anh and Uncle Ty are visiting... YAAAAAY! Sooooo looking forward to it!

A couple of updates on Catherine's progress...

- We had our 2 month immunization shots on Tuesday afternoon... Catherine was a brave little thing... only a short little cry from each needle and then she was fine... she's had a bit of diarrhoea since then which is a side effect from the rotavirus vaccine, but other than that, a very mild fever the day following her shots (so mild I didn't even give her panadol) and that was it.

- Sleepwise, we're slowly making some inroads... we've had some success in putting her down in her cot and getting her to sleep in it from periods of 20 minutes - 2 hours... We've been able to get at least an hour and sometimes 2 hours in the evenings from 8:30pm - 10:30pm for the last few nights. And the last couple of days, I've managed to get 40 minutes and this morning I got almost an an hour nap from her at about 8am, which was good 'cos that's when I get Beth ready/dressed for kindy and got her lunch ready and had a shower. This afternoon she's managed a 30 minute nap and a 1 hour nap (with 30 minutes of resettling inbetween!) in the cot... (actually, she's sleeping as I write this, and I'm going to need her to wake up soon so I can go pick up Elizabeth!) So we're making progress... I'm just planning to keep persevering with the daytime naps in the cot before I start tacking nighttime sleeps in the cot... at the moment she's still sleeping in bed with me and waking for 2 feeds in the night... Generally one at 12am/1am and another at 4am/5am...

A Fun Day... But Now I'm Pooped...

Today...

- Elizabeth woke up at 6am and wanted to play with Phi Phi... (I made her go back to bed since it was waaaay too early and Chu Phi was still asleep and I jumped into bed with and lay there for 1.5 hours... I tried to sleep while Elizabeth lay next to me and played with her soft toys, poked me in the face, talked to me... and generally was a little bit annoying!

- We went and celebrated Amy's 1st birthday! (Happy Birthday Amy!) We celebrated at a lovely little spot where there was a playground, bbq and the opportunity to fish. Vicky's family has a boat and were planning on going out fishing... Elizabeth overheard the talk of the boat and kept saying to us "I don't want to go on the boat..." (Bad memories of whale watching) and we kept reassuring her that she didn't have to go on the boat if she didn't want to... Claire, her uncle, mum and cousin went for a small boat ride and we walked down to the pontoon to see them and once Elizabeth saw Claire in the boat she decided she wanted to go for a ride on the boat too (What the?!)... She was really brave and I was amazed that she did it! The other thing she did that was a total surprise was that she patted Hudson the beagle, who belongs to Claire's uncle... Elizabeth is normally really scared of dogs... she's gotten better... she used to leap into my arms at the sight of a dog, but doesn't get paralysed with fear anymore, but hasn't wanted to get close to one... but today, patted Hudson... *twice*... and was really happy about it! It was great seeing Elizabeth go a bit out of her comfort zone. Elizabeth and Claire had such a great time (you should have seen how excited Claire was when she saw Elizabeth... she squealed and ran back to her mum to tell her... it was hilarious!) and ran around and played together on the playground... We all had an awesome time... great food, great company and perfect weather! I'd forgotten my camera, so I don't have any photos, which is a bummer, because we had such great fun!

- In the afternoon, Elizabeth crashed in the car on the way home (early morning start + lots of running tired her out!)... snoozed in the car for an hour and then we headed out for afternoon tea with Vinnie and Koh at our favourite little French bakery...

- Lazy KFC for dinner... which I'm beginning to regret... grease overload!

- Really need to have an early night after that big day... especially since I had an early start and I didn't get a nap!

A Little Dressed Up

With no where to go... I dressed Catherine up today... for no particular reason other than "because I can"... She's growing oh so fast! I put this sweet little pink Ralph Lauren dress (which is a rather swish hand-me-down from Phan's cousin in the US) on her a couple of weeks ago and it was rather baggy, but now it fits perfectly!

Is it Catherine? Or is it Elizabeth?

Well, the rather dodgy photography gives it away... but yes, this is a photo of Elizabeth as a baby... (Refer to previous blog post for a photo of Catherine as a comparison) The resemblance between my two girls as babies is quite striking... which really isn't that surprising seeing as they are sisters... but still... We thought Elizabeth had a lot of hair as a baby... but in comparison to Catherine, she looks rather bald!

Sleeping...

It's rather ironic that I keep taking these photos of our peaceful girl sleeping, when in actual fact, she is not a great sleeper. Well, she sleeps okay if someone is holding her or if she is sleeping next to somebody... but put her down by herself and she gets lonely and needs to know somebody is nearby... In the off chance we do manage to put her down to sleep by herself, she at most manages about 40 minutes... (although the other night I got a freakish 1 hour occurence, but that was a one off) She usually only about 15 minutes... It's lucky she's so beautiful that I can handle it for the time being...

She's starting to stretch out the feeds a little from the 3 hourly feeds she was doing and going 3.5-4 hourly... The other night she went 6 hours between feeds... although 2 hours of that she spent awake, unsettled, full of wind and grumpy (and it felt like it was a looong 2 hours!), but once she finally got off to sleep she slept for 4 hours lying next to me, which I thought was pretty good!

How fast two weeks flies past...

Well, tomorrow Ba and Ba Co head home to Adelaide... I can't believe how fast 2 weeks has gone past... I am going to miss them *heaps*!!! They've done everything from cooking dinners, doing the laundry and of course playing and entertaining the girls... I'm really going to miss the sleep-ins I've been getting in the morning... Phan's mum has been looking after Catherine in the mornings and giving Elizabeth breakfast (which happens just after Phan leaves for work) so I've been getting an extra hour or so lie in until 8-8:30am and that has really made a world of difference with feeling not so sleep-deprived! They have been so wonderful to have around and have been so helpful and have really given me a good break... I am truly lucky to have such great family! Back to reality... well semi-reality... Phi Phi is coming up on Thursday, so Elizabeth will have a ball with him around... and while he won't be helping out in the same way as Ba and Ba Co, having him here will still be a great help... just to play with Elizabeth and amuse her nad to have that extra pair of hands... (Phi - you've been warned - get ready for some full-on playing with Elizabeth! And she's getting a bit bossy these days, so you'll be doing exactly what she says.. :p)

The Good... The Bad

What I'm loving:

Having family visiting. Phan's mum and grandma are staying with us for two weeks and we have been loving it... Elizabeth is loving playing with Ba, I'm enjoying having an extra couple of pairs of hands around to help out... normally, I'm pretty self-sufficient and have trouble letting go and having people help me, but I've learnt that it's not a bad thing to have help or to ask for help... Currently, enjoying the fact that I'm not having to worry about cooking dinner in the evenings and Elizabeth is having so much fun having Ba's full attention...

Uneventful appointments. Had my 6 week post-partum appointment last week and Catherine's 6 week check up at the paed's today... all straight-forward... everything is fine for both of us. Catherine weighed in at 4.36kg today... so she's doing really well... she's following the percentile charts ideally and is just below the 50th percentile for weight, height and head circumference.

Peanut shell sling. I have an ergo carrier, which is great for carrying Catherine around when we're out and about at the shops/playgroup/park/walk etc... But I also bought this peanut shell sling to use around the house... love, love this sling... leaves both hands free but makes it easier to do things (like prepare dinner) than with the ergo... it's also very small and compact so it can be rolled up and put in my handbag/nappy bag if think I might need it somewhere (like at swimming lessons, where I need 2 hands free to dress Elizabeth)

Weightloss. I put on 12kg with Catherine. I've already lost 10kg in 6 weeks. The breast-feeding, sleep deprivation + looking after 2 kids, obviously burns a lot of energy! Ideally though, would love to get back to pre-Elizabeth weight, which means I have 7kg to go... but I'm cautious of making sure I'm eating enough to provide decent breastmilk for Catherine.

Smiling. Catherine has started smiling with a bit more intention... she smiles a lot in her sleep but she has started to smile at things and at us a bit more...

My big girl. Elizabeth has just been so lovely and wonderful lately... helpful... no separation anxiety leaving her with the rellies (not that I thought she would, she's really outgrown her separation anxiety).

My hands on husband. Phan's been so wonderful, helpful and supportive... Sharing the night shifts looking after Catherine with me, so at least one of us gets a decent night's sleep. Doing the grocery shopping (even though he does come back with various impulse buys and large quantities of food... eg I list cauliflower and expect 1/2 a cauliflower, he comes back with the biggest whole cauliflower he could find! I list "frozen chips" he comes back with 3 bags! What the? I'm starting to list quantities on the shopping list now!) He does the bed and bath routine with Elizabeth (and she prefers Daddy to Mummy at the moment anyway!) and just all round, he has been fantastic!



What I'm not loving:

Wonder weeks/growth spurts. Grumpy baby in the middle of the night for several hours. Hysterical/Insolable crying that lasts 30-60 minutes. And it's not a cute newborn cry anymore. It's loud. And noisy. And distressing. Not fun. Phan and I have been taking it in turns dealing with what we call "the witching hour"...

Non-sleeping baby. Probably related to the former... but at the moment, Miss Catherine is quite opposed to sleeping in the basinette... she only lasts about 15 minutes at a time before needing to be resettled... which I've been trying to stick it out and do in the mornings, but by afternoon/evening, I'm over it and really can't be bothered patting her/shushing her back to sleep in the basinete repeatedly as it's really time consuming. Thus, why I've developed a love for the peanut shell sling... She lives in it in the afternoons. And at night we've been co-sleeping - she's just been sleeping on my arm (well, when she actually sleeps we co-sleep... there hasn't been a great deal of sleep going on at night!)... ... Hoping this is just a phase and we get through this... They say that 6-8 weeks is a fussy period for babies, so I'm just hoping this all passes really soon...

Dietary Restrictions. I thought I restricted my diet a lot when I was pregnant. Now I'm breastfeeding, I've cut out a heap more things... mostly to help with reflux issues... no dairy, no beef, no soft drink, no citrus, minimal garlic/onion/tomato... I think it's helping, which makes it all worth it...

Colds and Coughs. Phan, Elizabeth and I are all harbouring different types of colds at the moment. I've got a cough, Phan's got a headache and sore throat, Elizabeth has a runny nose. Don't know how we managed to split-up all these cold symptoms between us...

Immunizations. I'm going to have to organise the 2 month injections already!!!

Massive Vomit. We were at the park catching up with some friends this morning. Anyway, Elizabeth got offered a strawberry and was showing it to me and I raised my voice in alarm (due to the strawberry allergy she has). Elizabeth luckily hadn't eaten any, but she got upset that I had raised my voice at her and started crying... and cried so much, so did a massive vomit all over herself, me and Catherine! Talk about a full sweep! Vomit on Elizabeth's cardigan and jeans, vomit on my top and pants and down my bra. Vomit on Catherine's jumpsuit and all over the ergo carrier. She even got vomit on her new toy lion. Seriously... everywhere! Thank goodness for friends (I had 3 friends helping to clean us up) and nappy wipes!

Life is full of good and bad... you just gotta keep it all in perspective ...