Rosie's 2 month checkup

Poor Rosie gets to share everything with H, who got to do it all alone, but perhaps having your big brother there with you isnt so bad.

Rosie woke up at 5am today and started talking to me at 530am, much earlier than usual, so I knew she would be off kilter all day. With a second pair of hands, it wouldn't have been so bad, but alone it was less than perfect for my little girly. She fell asleep in my arms at 615am, just as Henry came stomping in, telling me to get up and get his milk. I would say I was his servant, but I dont get paid, so I guess that makes me his slave. So poor little miss didn't get an early morning nap as she would have liked. She held up well while we took a shower (H and I - she sat in her chair next to the bath chirping). I eventually got her to sleep again around 730am and she had an hour in the Ergo carrier before we headed out.

Henry proceeded to destroy everything he could lay his hands on in the children's bookstore despite me directing him toward the toys that are there for kids to play with. Then as we were leaving, he suddenly decided he wanted to play with them. He thinks its super cool to totally ignore me lately, as you can tell. He has also decided he is not using silverware at meal times (making our spaghettio egg and spinach dinner interesting, not to mention the lasagne we had last night) and he has decided he is not going to pee in the potty but stand next to it, pee on the floor and laugh. Its all just a statement.

Anyway, back to Rosie, like I said, she was a little off her usual schedule so she seemed constantly tired but unable to sleep. When we got to the doctors office she eventually fell asleep in the waiting room as Henry rolled around on the floor eating grapes (from a cup, not off the floor, though Im sure he did that too actually). She dealt with being rudely awoken from her slumber and undressed, very well. Her stats are as follows at 8 weeks 5 days old:

Weight 11 lbs 13 oz 77 %

Height 23.5 inches 89 %

Head circumference 38.5 cm 45 %

One day Ill get round to asking them why one measurement is in Imperial units and the other Metric. These values are all completely opposite to Henry's during the early months, and even now. I should go back and look to be sure but Im sure his weight was around the 20s%, height 50s% and head 80s%.

The only question I had for the doctor was about her using sunscreen and he said to avoid it but obviously its better than her getting burnt, so if there is an unavoidable sun situation, then go with the sunscreen.

He actually told me that she was incredibly beautiful! Not that Im a proud mother or anything! It was an interesting visit. Since she was getting vaccinations I gave her some baby Tylenol and she instantly threw it, and her milk of 1.5 hours previous, back up again, all over me and the 'bed' in the doctors office. I had to go looking for the nurse holding a naked baby and trying to corale Henry, who was being terribly unruly, to ask for help cleaning up the sick. The medicine on her tummy must not have sat well, I havent bothered giving her anymore and she doesn't seem to be getting a temperature. All is well with her health. Doctor and nurse cannot believe she sleeps til 6am each day. The nurse even said that breastfed babies can't usually go that long. Funny thing is, even when she does wake up, she wakes up singing and smiling. She must just be a happy little girly. When the nurse came in with needles Henry sidled up to me to watch sheepishly. He started to get really worried and I asked him if he want to get up to see, and he said he did. So I lifted him on to the bed also. When Rosie started crying after the first injection, Henry started crying. I scooped Rosie up after the last one (there were three) and she stopped crying after about 5 seconds, way before Henry did. His poor little sister.

All was good, Rosie was asleep in the Ergo instantly, Henry was (sort of) in line and we were heading out the door. Things tend to get a bit crazy when we get home, and we were late for lunch so H was grumpy as heck, so I decided just to use the bathroom at the doctors office really quickly, so that I was on top of my game when we got home. I lifted up the seat and as I turned around to pull my trousers down, H decided he was shutting the lid, but left his fingers underneath it and there was instant hysteria. ugh. He screamed most of the way home. Poor Rosie, who probably felt like crap from her vaccinations, slept the whole way. I went into emergency situation mode and made Henry his lunch as quickly as possible, and things improved rapidly after he ate his bagel. Thank goodness.

We played with felt tip pens/markers and he looked like a rainbow. Following a story or two in Henry's bed, he went to sleep and I felt brave. I got Rosie to sleep in her bed and had over an hour of Ergo free time!

Speaking of... I had been carrying Rosie until I went to bed around 10 pm. Three nights ago I felt brave, having been mocked by my husband who said 'do you ever put that baby down?', so I swaddled her up, rocked her to sleep and put her in her bed. Miraculously she stayed asleep. I woke her up around 10 ish for her last feeding of the night and she slept the rest of the night. At first it was blissful - freedom! Now, I actually miss holding her. I miss having her head tucked under my chin and watching her beautiful, innocent, face as she sleeps. I can honestly see why some people don't want their kids to grow up. Fortunately I realise it would be for my benefit if I kept her in the Ergo, and that she probably gets better sleep in her bed, so that's where she is right now. I truly miss her though; no surprise really as I both cherish the one day a week that Henry goes to Mother's morning out and also consider not taking him every week because I miss him when he is gone. It will get interesting next month when I go back to work two days a week, and even more so in August when he goes to Mothers morning out four days a week. How will I cope!?

Poor Rosie really wasn't herself this evening. Her little eyes were red and she was just plain miserable; she squawked unhappily through dinner. While I was undressing her for her bath, Henry ripped one of the band aids/plasters from her leg in an instant and did she scream. Poor little thing. Thankfully, the bath cheered her up as usual and she played happily for 15 minutes. We really do have our night time routine down pat!

And tomorrow is another day...

Cut throat world

I have had my first experience of what parenting life has to come for me, and I hated it. This morning we went to the puppet show and Easter egg hunt and the public library. Puppet show was fun. I nursed Rosie and Henry sat quietly watching on my lap. Then came the 'fun'. Henry was in the under 3s age group and despite the librarians giving the parents a talking to before the puppet show about letting the kids have fun, the parents felt the need to go with the kids to look for eggs. Its not like it is in England, there was no hiding of eggs. There was a maybe 5 m square patch of grass with eggs spread out, so when the parents (often mum and dad) of about 50 children descended on this tiny patch of grass it was manic. Poor Henry wandered into this mess of adults and spun round in a circle as all the eggs disappeared. He looked horrified and thankfully someone put one in his basket and then so did some one else. Two of his eggs were filled with bubble gum, like Im going to let him eat that, and one was a Reeses egg, which he devoured. The librarian took a photo, so check out the Oxford Library Facebook page if you want to see. Why couldn't the parents let the kids just have fun? You aren't going to lose your kid in a tiny square area of open grass in front of the library, oh wait, unless there are tons of adults in there too. Disgusted, along with a few friends, we have organised our own Easter egg hunt Sunday that will actually be fun for the kids.

The fun is in finding the eggs and seeing whats inside, so when we got home I filled a few with some of Henry's favourite things and he had a great time. He got so excited to open the eggs. So I decided thats how we would eat lunch! If it was small, it went inside an egg for 'lunch'; blueberries, grapes, peanuts, pistachios, cheese cubes, crackers, blackberries, then on to the fun stuff; raisins and white chocolate chips. He had fun eating lunch that way!

He ran into my room at 610am this morning, rather a shock to the system. Rosie was unimpressed to be woken up so early (still asleep from 10pm feeding!). I was also unamused. I think something is up, preventing him from sleeping well, as he is currently screaming the house down instead of napping.

Yesterday was our day to go to the park, and go to the park we did, regardless of the rain! Then after nap time we splashed in the puddles...

Is three a crowd?

Jen and Lila came over for dinner last night and I convinced Jen to let the kids bathe together! This morning when we got in the shower, Henry said "Lila bath?" and seemed awfully sad when I told him that Lila was at home with her mummy. Lila didnt look overly impressed with the situation!

Washing machine is still broken, but the guy thinks he knows what the problem is (again!). He put it all back together though, so I am a laundry-fool at the moment! I count 8 loads before Im through! Hopefully he will have it fixed next week.

Rosie slept from 730pm until 650am last night (with a little top up at 1030pm). Awesome! Cant really complain that she only naps on me during the day if she sleeps like a trooper at night. I still seem to wake up between 3 and 4am because my chest is sore, so I pump real quick and go back to sleep!

Henry has a huge love of ham. He is choosing to ignore me rather a lot, so he gets dragged around when I tell him to do something and he ignores me, such as come to dinner, or lets get a clean diaper. Because its so warm out he generally runs around naked or in a shirt and just pees in the potty, making life a little easier, until there is a number 2 brewing...

We are loving life!