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...

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!

Seattle revisited

Rosie didnt ever sleep 'til 7am again, but for the most part she wakes up around 5-530am which allows me plenty of great sleep! I still 'wear' her all day, but today I managed to lay her on the bed for a 3 hour nap, allowing me time to do a bunch of things!

Loving life today!!!

In the airport - We lost count of the number of times Henry yelled 'airplane' at the toop of his voice!

We left 80F, blue skies and sunshine for this!?

Childrens museum got us out of the cold

Bath time is so much easier now that they bathe together!

Someone please pinch me!

I nursed Rosie at 9pm last night. She seemed a little uncomfortable so I put some vicks on her blanket and got her down in her bed by 1o pm. She woke up during the night but never made a peep. She started making a fuss at 7am. Let me remind you that she is 6 weeks old and she just slept all night long! Let's see what tonight brings...

Spontaneity is not my thing!

Right now...

I know my posts are few and far between, but its pretty time consuming having two kids and I can't seem to get decent pictures and I don't want to post without photos for you.

Danny came home for lunch Monday, or maybe it was Tuesday, and asked me if I wanted to go to Seattle - Friday! I really dont deal well with spontaneous suggestions but there is no point of having the freedom of a stay at home mum and not taking advantage of the perks of a job that means you hardly ever get to see your husband and are a single parent more than you are a family. So yes, we are in Seattle; air miles, Marriott points and a little bit of spending money. Unfortunately we left the best weather you can imagine (80F, glorious sunshine) for snow, wind, rain and upper 30sF, but we spent the weekend together! Danny is working now and we are in the hotel room taking naps; ahhhhhh peace and quiet!

As usual I am behind on photos, Seattle fun photos to come, but below are some of the kids from last week (I dont get many of Rosie because she lives her life attached to me right now - thank goodness for baby-wearing!).

Jogging on the bike path. Got 20lbs to lose! Me, not Henry!

Henry just discovered these gloves - it was 80F+ out!

Henry thinks he needs to play with Rosie whenever she uses the jungle gym. She is awake more and more each day and she is such a happy little person.

Yes, he is wearing his beany in 80F weather.

Look, there are some battles that are just not worth fighting!

Thank you Nanny

My mum, whose alias is Nanny, left this afternoon. She was a fantastic help; who knows how I will cope with two kids on my own tomorrow! Let's see if I make it out the house in the morning!

Thanks Mum.

The journey home from the airport was the scariest drive ever. I drove through an incredible storm, with two kids in the back seat. Thankfully Rosie was asleep and Henry was a good boy because I really had to focus. I was so scared I got a tension headache. I saw two accidents. I even cried as they carried a man from his over turned car. Henry repeated 'Nanny' incessantly.

Going to work on getting Rosie on a schedule...

11 days ago

Thanks for the rocking chairs Nanny!

Rosie's birth photos

How many newborns have you seen within minutes of their birth???

Rosie's birth story

Before I delve into Rosie's birth story, I should recap on Henry's a little, just 19 months ago...

July 2010, I didn't feel great all day Sunday; we sat around and played cards. Late afternoon Danny went to get my folks from the airport, I cooked dinner. We started timing the contractions around 10pm. We went to the hospital at 1am, when contractions were 2 minutes apart and had been for 1.5 hours. They sent us home the next day at 2pm. I cried in the bath. I laboured alone all day Tuesday, with contractions still 2 minutes apart. We went to the doctors office at 5pm because I refused to go back to the hospital, he confirmed 5 cm dilation and we walked across to the hospital. Waters broke as I was pushing. We had Henry just before 9pm, after the doctor threatened me with a c-section.

Roughly 48 hours of labouring.

So I was in it for the long haul this time also. Or so I thought.

I had been having contractions on and off for extended periods of time for the past two weeks, particularly around 2 am. So when I woke up with mild cramps Thursday morning, I thought nothing of it. The only thing different from the past two weeks was that I had to pee after every cramp, I would guess at every 10 minutes, but I wasnt timing them at all. I was looking for a bloody show like last time and there was nothing. They started to hurt around 6am and I had to groan through them, though Danny didnt wake up until 630am and asked how I was. I told him we were probably having a baby in the next day or two. He got pretty excited!

I got up to pee around 7am, walked back to the bed, stood over it for a contraction and there was a pop and my shorts filled up with fluid. "Er, Danny, something just happened". "What do you mean, something just happened? What happened?" "I think my waters just broke, Im going in the shower". "Oh". It wasn't a lot of fluid, but enough to notice; the baby was pretty low. Danny wanted to call the midwives, but I said there was no need. He played with Henry and felt compelled to set up the birthing tub. I laboured on the toilet, on my own. He decided, against my wishes, that it was time to call the midwives; thank goodness! When Missy arrived (about 1030am) and heard the noises I was making, she ran straight into the bathroom and insisted she check me. I of course cried that I didn't want to hear it if I was only 2 cm (because of the mean nurses last time) and sort of refused to get checked! She was going to check me whether I liked it or not and it would be easier on the bed so I had to move. It took several contractions to make it to the bedroom, but we got there; 6-7 cm! yeay. I balanced myself on the birthing ball (so comfy!) and poor Missy ran between comforting me between contractions (1-2 minutes) and trying to change the bed, set up the oxygen, yada yada yada!

Our friend Lana came to pick up Henry about the same time Missy arrived and Danny continued to fiddle with the birthing tub. He had filled it up without the sterile lining, drained it and was furiously boiling water to fill it back up with the sterile liner, since he had used all of the hot water!

Jamie and Martina arrived about 1050am and now every one was in the bedroom, getting things ready. Suddenly I announced that I could feel the babys head and they told me I had to move to the bed. Indignant that they thought I could move in that much pain, I told them they were crazy. They informed me that I could not give birth sitting on the ball so I had to move. ugh. I made it onto the bed on all fours, holding Dannys hips and burying my face in his belly. It only took a few pushes and the head came out a little but they told me I couldnt wait for a contraction to push more because the head was stuck at the eyes, so I had to push with no urge to push, and that was a feat against nature! With the head out, the shoulders were stuck as they announced that it was a large baby. Someone tried to wiggle the shoulders out (I later found out that was Missy) but then someone else took over (Martina) and the agony ensued as I was jiggled up and down by someone else's shoulders! All of a sudden the baby was released (I was trying to crawl away from the pain across the bed!) and I realised how much my throat hurt from screaming. 20 minutes after our main midwife arrived, our beautiful little girl was born. I couldnt see her and was distraught because she wasnt crying. I could just see this little blue foot. I asked several times why she wasnt crying and people just went about their business. Turns out it was less than a minute, but it seemed like an eternity. I managed to turn myself around and she started to make some noise, though Im not sure if she really ever cried, as such. She scored an 8 and then a 9 on the 1 and 5 minute Apgar tests.

We didnt use the birthing tub!

Henry saw Rosie when she was just 30 minutes old!

Danny made the comment that evening, as we sat at our kitchen table, alone, to eat our dinner in a surreal state of shock, that it was a good thing that we planned to home birth as he was pretty sure that I would have refused to go to the hospital and that it would have been an ambulance crew delivering our baby, and he is probably right. I had no intention of leaving this house!

Its silly that we were taken by surprise because I was pregnant for 40 weeks and 1 day! But I certainly didnt expect a 4 or 5 hour labour, thats for sure! Though I am super glad it was so fast!!!

Immediately post-natal photos to follow as I have to go get Henry up from his nap...

A lot has changed since my last post!

Well let's see...

Happy Birthday Rosie!!!

Thursday February 9th, 1110am, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.

Rosemary Anne Klimetz was born 9 lbs 6 oz, 21 inches long and very healthy.

Her birth story is a totally different one from Henry's, but I shall save that for another time as I still need to do the dishes and sweep the floor, oh and fold laundry and wash diapers before I can go to bed tonight. And anyone that remembers what its like having a newborn, knows that I will be up at 2am feeding my sweet girl, and she is a bit of a cluster feeder so Ill probably feed her again at 3am, get her to bed by 4am and sleep a little more before Henry wakes up at 7am. So Im just going to upload the pictures from my phone over the past few days and hope that keeps you satisfied until further notice. Danny has some photos immediately following her birth and we took some staged newborn pictures of her the other day, oh and to make you laugh, we took some 40 weeks pregnant photos Wednesday night to compare bellies from when I was pregnant with Henry, so I can show you those also!

All in all I gained around 50 lbs with Rosie; I was amused when I realised that I started out at 115 lbs, so almost gained 50 % of my body weight! After 24 hours I had lost 15 lbs. After another 24 hours I had lost 5 more pounds. Seven days from her birth and I have lost another 5 lbs. Craziness! And yes, I am eating like a horse, but so is my little girl! From when she wakes in the morning she generally nurses every hour until lunchtime, then we both sleep when Henry sleeps, around 2-4pm and she nurses every hour from about 5-8pm. I wake her to nurse around 10pm, then she wakes up once during the night. She is a really great baby!

Henry has taken to having a little sister really well, which was such a pleasant surprise for us, as he was always a little mommas boy, so we assumed he would be possessive. He shares his toys with her, even his comfort blanket. He asks to hold her, occasionally kisses her and checks where she is regularly. Other important milestones in Henry's world is that he LOVES his potty and uses it most evenings and mornings. Oh and we went out today and bought a mattress for his big boy bed. We havent put it together yet but we moved everything into his bedroom tonight and he was insanely excited! He is also undergoing Tabasco treatment for his finger sucking which actually seems to be working.

Early in the morning we all play in bed for a while...

Henry actually asked to hold Rosie...

Proud Papa just hours after she was born...

Dentist said finger sucking must have ceased by 2 years old or it will not only ruin teeth but his palate also...

My sleeping beauties...

Skyping the grandparents.

Henry devouring a Valentines cupcake given to him by Lana.

Henry holding Rosie, he gets rather annoyed if you dont let him take full responsibility, which of course, you cant!

Ah yes, he likes to point out her facial features to us regularly, not sure she likes it!