Author: Veronica

My doctor put me back on the pill today. So when Mum asked if I had taken my bitch pills today, she was right. I had. (I *may* have been picking on my little brother. He *may* have deserved it. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.)

So, let us enter the time when people in the supermarket will piss me off.

My head might get to exploding point with people I don’t know and I may just feel the need to swear a little louder in your general direction.

ESPECIALLY if my daughter decides that she is feeling sick and is in pain and proceeds to cry and scream through the entire shopping centre.

Do not comment in my hearing about tantrums. I have a sneaking suspicion that this may be a tummy bug or an ear infection and both cause projectile vomiting. I can and will use this to my advantage. She is SICK, not grumpy.

If you are the pharmacist I am trying to buy Nurofen from do NOT ask us 100 questions before you sell us the medication.

Yes, she has had it before. She is 18mths old and I know how to administer it. Yes, she is definitely in pain, NO she is not having a tantrum. See above for tantrum comments.

Do NOT suggest that we may want to give her some now. Do we look stupid enough to HAVE painkillers and NOT USE THEM for my obviously in pain daughter?

Okay, are we all together now?

Amy settled down and was her normal self about half an hour after the Nurofen was given. She has had 3 diarrhoea nappies (yes, don’t you love how I share these things?) and has been gagging, but not vomiting.

I hope it is only a 12hr thing.

So yes the pill.

I am back on it to stop the bleeding and also to maybe help us with the TTC. We spoke about it and because I fell pregnant within a fortnight of coming off this exact same pill before, we figure it can’t hurt to try it again.

I am sure I will have further things to blog about regarding the pill (can we say depression? Libido loss? Extreme Bitch-Face-from-Hell syndrome? Tears at the drop of a hat?) but I am hoping that I don’t have any major side effects from it this time around.

Also, a big shout out to Lou, who has written a post about us moving over at Lotus’s blog.

We did our final inspection today and there were a lot of things that didn’t get noticed when the house had furniture. However, all of the things are very fixable. We shall just call the house a renovators delight and we shall delight in renovating it.

We will be collecting our keys about midday Friday (tomorrow for me, as it is 8.30 Thursday right now) and we will be heading up to bleach disinfect make sanitary clean the place tomorrow.

We move Saturday.

And I am on the pill.

But hey! Hopefully I won’t be bleeding!

Tomorrow is a big day.

To begin with I have a doctors appointment to get the strange bleeding looked at. I headed off to the after hours doctor on Saturday to get checked for pregnancy (negative. blech). The doctor there diagnosed me with a bladder infection, even though I have NO symptoms of infection whatsoever. (Pain? Burning? Nope, nothing)

So, off to the regular doctor to ask for a blood test and an ultrasound. Today is CD 19 and I have spent 17 of those days bleeding. Good times.

The packing is almost under control. We have our final inspection of the house tomorrow and hopefully everything will be fixed and cleaned.

We will be moving from 8am Saturday morning onwards, so wish us luck! Both sets of parents are helping us move (thanks guys!) and we should have everything sorted by bedtime Saturday. I hope.

If not, I have 3/4 of a bottle of tequila in a box somewhere, we can always get drunk together.

Thats all. It has been a big few days and the blog has been sorely neglected.

However, I have remembered to charge the camera batteries so that I can photograph as we move. You know, so you can all laugh at me.

The Toddler is back, bigger and louder then before.

However, it is all in a good way lately.

Mummy wants a hug? The Toddler has them in abundance. Daddy needs a snuggle? Yay! Lets snuggle with Daddy for ages.

She walks around the house singing ‘Dad-deee! Mum-mee!’ all day.

I have been packing boxes and pushing them into the sunroom to await our moving day. (Saturday for anyone that is counting) The Toddler? HAS to help me push them. Very very cute when she stands between my arms and waits for me to move the box so she can push with me.

Packing is the Toddlers ideal game. Mummy packs the box, Toddler unpacks it. Mummy packs it? Toddler unpacks it. Luckily I can pack faster than she can unpack. Once we are moved in I am going to let her go for her life with the whole unpacking business. What? She likes being helpful.

The Toddler is full of great ideas. Like lately? She has been wearing a bucket on her head. Unfortunately the bucket comes down to her tummy and she runs around completely unable to see anything except her feet. And oh wait! How did I end up laying down? Did I maybe hit the edge of the table with my taller-than-I-am bucket-hat? Whoops! But hey! it was fun and Mummy and Daddy are laughing. Let’s do it again!

Or the dancing. Man, have I talked about the dancing? She will dance to ANYTHING. Even Nathan and I singing. And trust me, we sing ALOT. Badly, but alot.

The Toddler will also talk constantly. She has a huge vocabulary and loves using it all the time. She gets excited when she can tell me what things are. Most of the time we read her books simply so she can point out the animals.

She loves being outside so that she can show us everything. Watching her discover her environment is magical. Her favourite thing lately are the planes that fly overhead. She gets so excited and cries ‘plane! plane!’ while cricking her neck at the sky and pointing.

The Toddler finds things in the cupboard and brings them to me stating ‘Yum Num!’ and then drags me to the kitchen to prepare whatever she has found. Generally it’s 2 minute noodles because they are the only thing I keep down low in the cupboard! However, we have had a few cases of her bringing me bottles of vinegar and asking to taste them.

The Toddler seizes every opportunity for a hug. If Nathan or I are sitting on the floor or crouched down, she will run over and throw her arms around us. I spent ages today with Amy hugging my back like a koala while I packed boxes.

She laughs and makes me kiss her feet goodnight before she will go to sleep. However, even then she is playing with me because she has been falling asleep much better for Nathan.

She is wonderful and exhausting and funny.

I wouldn’t give it up for the world.

And how they feed my baby. Lotus is going to do a breastfeeding story carnival at some point and because I have nothing better to talk about tonight, I thought I’d share my story and link to it later.

My Mum breastfed me until I was 3 and then did exactly the same thing with my brother. He was born when I was 5 1/2, so I remember him being fed.

Actually, until I was a teenager, I don’t think I had ever had anything to do with bottlefed babies. Mum’s friends were all breastfeeders and that is what I accepted as the norm.

So when I was pregnant there was no doubt in my mind that I would breastfeed.

I consider myself so lucky because I had no issues with it, at all.

After Amy was born, she latched on and had a few sucks while we were still in delivery, I could feel her sucking, but there was no pain or discomfort.

That night after Nathan had gone home (Amy was around 3 hours old), she got a little fussy so I got my boob out. You can imagine how proud I was when she latched on amazingly and fed like her life depended on it. (Hey! At 3 hours old, my boobs were all she had!)

I felt a little strange, like maybe I should have asked the midwives for help? Then I told myself I was being silly, she was my daughter and I could do this, by myself!

So I did.

The midwife came in about 9pm to check our temperatures and was amazed to see me feeding my daughter (again). Her look of shock was priceless as she asked ‘You’re feeding her?’

‘Yes’

‘But, you didn’t ask for assistance!’

‘I didn’t need it’

‘But everyone needs help. Wait, does it hurt?’

‘Nope, I can feel her sucking, but there is no pain’

‘Oh. Well, that is great then.’

Amy wasn’t a sleepy newborn and she spent the night alternately sleeping on my breast or feeding. I couldn’t get her to latch on on my right side, so we fed on the left all night.

The next morning I asked the midwife on duty for help attaching Amy to my right boob. After some crying and some twisty turny boob groping she was attached.

The midwife did the rapidly-becoming-annoying spiel.

‘Does it hurt?’

‘No, I can feel the sucking, but no pain.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, I’m sure!’

‘No pulling or pinching?’

‘No’

‘Oh, well I’ll leave you to it then.’

‘Thankyou for the help’

‘That’s okay’

My milk came in less than 24 hours after Amy was born. I spent most of the time I was in hospital feeding her.

Everytime the midwife came in they would see me feeding and ask about it.

‘You’re feeding her again?’

‘Yes, she wants to feed.’

‘You know newborn babies don’t actually NEED that much milk?’

‘Yes, I KNOW they don’t NEED it, but she WANTS it, and I don’t want to listen to her cry because she WANTS to suck.’

‘Oh. Okay then.’

Half the time Amy was actually asleep on my bare breast, but I liked seeing the midwives discomforted by us. Yes, I’m a bitch sometimes.

We wet home and Amy spent 90% of the day feeding. When she wasn’t feeding she was screaming because she wanted to feed, so I fed her. Path of least resistance and all that jazz.

She grew bigger and got more attached to my boobs. She spent (and still spends) every opportunity with her hands down my top.

I swore I wanted to feed until ‘at least 12mths’. At my 6 week check, I was told I would have to take extra care of myself because ‘there isn’t much of you’.

So I did.

12 months came and went and somehow I didn’t feel like weaning. Amy was a boobie addict and refused to give them up. We eventually stopped night feeds completely after Amy minced my nipple with her newly cut teeth.

(Note to Amy? Yeah, teeth are bad. Love Mummy)

So, here we are, 9 days off 18mths and she seems more boob addicted than ever. I am trying to cut her feeds down to 1 or 2 a day, but she is having none of that.

She can get into my boobs herself now and every day I am so glad we made it this far. I am taking it a day at a time, as she feeds and twists and turns while still holding my nipple in her mouth. Lately she has taken to trying to wiggle backwards out of the chair, while still feeding. Not my most favourite move.

So I have a few bits of advice for anyone wanting to breastfeed.

-Wet some newborn nappies and freeze them. Wrap them around your boobs to help with the heat and swelling of engorgement.

-For engorged boobs, heat will help the milk flow, so use a heat pack and massage before and during a feed and use ice compresses afterwards.

-Buy a good barrier cream and use it for any grazes, cuts or blisters. I didn’t need one at first, but after the teeth came through, Amy minced my nipples regularly.

-I used my hands to help Amy attach. I used to squeeze my nipple and areola into a flattened biscuit type shape. This meant that she got a good mouthful of boob even when she didn’t open her mouth wide enough. I needed to do this until she was around 6 mths old.

-If what you are doing isn’t working, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Ask your friend, a nurse, a midwife or your buddy on the internet what they did that made it easier for them.

-If you are badly sore, rest and express until you heal. Don’t be afraid to say that it hurts. Even when I KNEW Amy had a good latch and we knew what we were doing, some feeds were excruciating, no matter what we did.

-Loose tops that lift up are more discreet than button down shirts if you are nursing in public.

Feel free to leave any advice of your own in the comments. Also, if you have any questions, please don’t be afraid to ask. Another great person to plague with questions (I do it all the time and she still loves me) is Tara. She is actually a Peer Lactation Counsellor and she is lovely.

You can see more (breast)feeding stories here. 

So this week has been hectic, what with the packing and the bleeding and such, so again, I only have a few photos for you. Yes, I know, I will try and be better next week and keep my camera charged for the move.

We should have our keys on Friday 29th Feb.

Our plan at the moment is to do a final inspection on Thursday, sign all the forms and receive the keys Friday and move on Saturday/Sunday.

Saturday night should see us sleeping in our new place for the first time!

The house needs a good clean before we can move anything in, because they have been smoking inside and honestly who knows what is hiding in the carpet? So Friday afternoon we will be getting our hands dirty in order to make the new house clean.

Not to mention the kitchen! How am I supposed to make delicious food like this when the kitchen has had goodness knows what in it?

Click on the photos to get the recipes.

So yes, packing, cleaning, moving, unpacking, cleaning is the order of the coming week. Exciting times, my friends, very exciting.

Even more exciting than that? (stop rolling your eyes, this is exciting. honest)

We can get a puppy in the new place!

Yay puppy!

Toddler entertainer in one (not so) tidy little package. I am looking forward to it. You should too.

Because we have been busy this week, this is how Amy has spent all her time.

Standing at my legs, clinging to me and asking to be picked up. She doesn’t want to cuddle, she just wants to travel around the house on my hip thanks.

Mummy-transport! No need to fear the Mummy-unions (do we have unions? I want a union membership plskthnx) because Mummy-transporters can always be paid in kisses. Or chocolate. Or sleep.

All the cool babies get Mummy-transporters. Unfortunately Amy seems to think her Mummy-transporter needs constant attention (in the form of a toddler-ball-and-chain attached to my leg) or else I will magically run away and disappear. (Like to the toilet! *GASP*)

Life is hard for the Toddlers of the world I am sure.

See more Weekly Winners (with less words) here