Baby has arrived!

Our beautiful son entered the world on Thursday 22nd July. Conveniently commencing his arrival only a couple of hours after we had tied up all the lose ends and signed all the papers with builder and bank for our house-building project. He ended up being 3 days early - which is perfect: I was dreading having to continue waiting if he was overdue..

The birth definately was not delightful, though 'on paper' it appears to have been a very good birth, according to the obstetrician's report... In the end, it did not go at all as I had anticipated - though I was unaware of my expectations, thinking I was keeping an 'open mind' to all possibilities... I was prepared to just 'go with the flow' and take things as they occurred. But really, I did NOT expect to end up delivering my baby in the bath and without the aide of any drugs at all! The desire to give birth in the bath has never appealed to me, and to be honest, the idea of a woman giving birth without any drugs has always sounded insane! But that's what I did - and it was bloody hard! Best forgotten really!

I actually went into a bit of shock after the birth - and it felt a lot different to be holding a new baby and looking at him in wonderment when you can well feel all the trauma that your body has just endured - with my daughter I was fortunate enough to be feeling absolutely no pain at all (thanks to an epidural) at that crucial moment of holding her for the first time!

But of course, the wonderment and love of a new baby wins through - and all the gory details are readily pushed aside. Just the love of our new family member is foremost, and the thought that 'thank-god the birth is all over with now!'

Caring for a new baby is very easy at this stage - he just feeds and sleeps a lot. Nappy changing has a few new challenges, as we are not used to getting showered at any given moment - so I have a lot of clothes washing needing to be done! I keep trying to convince my mum NOT to waste time ironing all of his little clothes, as he tends to pee on them before they are even worn!

The two year old daughter is the biggest handful! A few extra tantrums and odd behaviours as she reacted to her routines being quite out of whack, and Mummy not being around for a few days... But things seem to be settling down quite well now.

Trying to take a nice 'family' picture has proven to be difficult - as T decides she doesn't want to sit still and smile at the camera... unless she has a bag over her head! (see below)

I am enjoying having my husband at home to help out... and am a bit scared of how I will go when on my own... I think any outings will have to be rather limited and very simple... We all went to the library yesterday for story-time and that was hard enough with two adults and two children... I am about to get both children in the car on my own soon for a mini outing to gran and pops... Yep, baby steps! Before long I will be a pro no doubt! (scarily my husband has already started talking about the possibility of a third child in the future: aaahhhh!)

Waiting...

It shouldn't be long now... due date is 4 days away... Today is the day that I picked to be the day I would like bubs to be born. Definately feeling some early indication signs.. It will be soon, next day or so I reckon.. hope so!

Picture Book: "A new Baby will soon arrive!"

Yay! Finally I have finished my picture story book for my daughter - explaining what to expect with a new baby about to be born!

It was a bit of a rush job, but I am proud of myself - and hope it helps her to understand! So far she seems to enjoy looking at the book. She likes the picture that has Kally the dog in it most, and the one of the baby screaming!

Waiting for Christmas... and Murphy's Law...

Less than 2 weeks until the due date of my baby.....

I HATE waiting and not knowing exactly when things might happen!!!!!!

We all know Christmas comes on the 25th December - and of course there is so much 'Christmas' stuff to do before, on and just after that date... Imagine if as you got to the last month you realised that 'Christmas Day' could actually occur at any moment whatsoever!! In fact it was unlikely to fall exactly on the 25th.. it could be a week early.. 2 days early, 10 days early, 5 days late... any darn time at all! - That's what I feel like. I am just mentally frustrated knowing that I can't know until it happens! Paranoia is starting to set in - with every different feeling and movement of my body... is something starting??

Fortunately I am going very, very well with everything at the moment.. I really cannot complain at all - but of course every 8 and a half month pregnant woman surely would like to have a bit of a moan and groan about the weight they are carrying around, how uncomfortable it is lying down, sitting down, too tiring on feet for too long, unable to sleep properly, tired through the day, going to the toilet every half-hour almost!, unable to put shoes on properly (let alone your young toddlers shoes too!).... But apart from all the usual stuff - I really can't complain at all!!!

Though I am definately a bit scared about AFTER the baby is born!! I know how hard it was the first time... I know (somewhat) what I am in store for.. and now I will have a toddler and a baby! (Not to mention the house that we are building....)

I also am imagining another couple of things that could possibly occur... I do tend to be a bit of a believer in 'Murphy's Law' - whereas if something can go worng... it often will - especially to me!

One little child who my daughter goes to childcare with has recently come down with Chicken Pox... yay great. Turns out that the worst possible time for a pregnant woman to get chicken pox would be about now!! Incubation time is a couple of weeks - my daughter could come down with it in about a week and a half - and of course, I could catch it off her because I have never had it and am currently not immune... Not good news.

Secondly, I heard today that the hospital I am due to give birth at is unprecedently quiet at the moment!! There has been pretty much one patient in there over the past two weeks... Good news if I go into labour now, or yesterday... But knowing my luck... All the women who haven't been giving birth over the last couple of weeks will all go into labour at the same time as me - and the hospital will be over-full (happened last-time when my daughter was born!! - They put me in the birthing suite, then moved me out again!)

Yay. Please don't get me Murphy's Law!! Please, please, please!

Parenting Workshop #4

Had the final of the four Parenting Workshops by Dr Bob Jacobs today - it was great as usual, and I guess I'm sorry that they have ended - but at least I will now have more time on a Tuesday morning.. hopefully for a week or so before my second child arrives...

I can't believe how much I have enjoyed the workshops... just being able to put my 'intellectual' and 'thinking' hats on again has been quite a refreshing change.

Happy that I quite agreed with everything that was discussed today.. Discussion focussed on the importance to develop children with healthy self-esteem - and this can be achieved by giving children a positive message of love for being just who they are, regardless of what they do. Therefore being careful not to send an opposite message if a child is misbehaving or doing something 'displeasing'. I realise that sometimes these messages of 'love' and 'praise' and generally how a child develops their 'self-worth' can be very subtle - and it can be easy for a child to internalise a 'wrong' message!

Our society seems to be very 'achievement' based and 'product' based. Often parents and the structure of school reinforces this - and it is not perhaps the healthiest thing! My husband and I often have a problem with this in our 30's - not able to just be ourselves, unsatisfied if we aren't 'achieving' something significant...

I grew up to have quite a 'perfectionist' problem - due simply to the fact that I was a very intelligent and capable young child - and my parents praised me, and I was recognised as a 'high-achiever' at school... All great things, but amazing how trying to live up to 'perfect' expectations that one creates in their own mind can prove to create tremendous difficulties!

I think that is why so many parents can struggle with their new role: Because they are trying to live up to the ideal expectations that they have inside their own heads... If baby is crying, mum and dad think they must be doing something wrong! What new mum doesn't want to be the 'prefect mum' for their children!??? But as Dr Bob Jacobs says: "accept that what is, is perfect".

We spoke about CONTROL - and how often parents think they need to 'assert control'. Whereas, perhaps 'control' could look quite different from what we imagine it to be... Perhaps as parents we choose to exercise control of any given situation by choosing to show our love to our children, and not getting angry or losing our temper... Remember: no-one else defines your behaviour but you! - and even though we would like to have 'control' over our children, it is really impossible to control their behaviour...

This is something that I definately struggled with as a teacher. I had quite a fear of being a teacher who didn't have 'control' over her classroom and students - and hence would look 'bad' to my other professional peers! I also wanted to somehow 'control' the situation so that every child was always producing their best possible work for themselves!! - Quite an impossible task I realise!!! - Especially with 25 teenagers in a class...

DISCIPLINE. Yep - all the stuff I know about there: essentially 'discipline' is just a form of education, and try to avoid having too many rules just for the sake of it. Use collaboration in the decision of what rules to have - involve the children in making them, and understanding them and have them apply to everyone in the family!

EDUCATION. Urgghhh. My bug-bear topic of discussion! One interesting comment made by Dr Bob was that often the only time children resist learning is when they are in school!!! I totally agree! I think our education system often has a heck of a lot to answer for... As a teacher myself, I have found the system to be verrry restrictive and almost impossible to really fulfil the needs of the students... I am an idealistic teacher, and for now I am happy to not be a part of a school system.. as it can make my blood boil!
There are fabulous teachers and schools out there - I hope I can find the right ones for my children when they are of school age.. And I always have my fingers crossed that more positive changes will be made to improve education in general. Halving class sizes, doubling the amount of teachers - and lightening up a bit of the 'red-tape' pressures and demands that are constantly put on them would be a great step in the right direction!

That's all for now... I just feel happy that I am a parent to my wonderful daughter, and that I have great skills and resources to try and be the best parent that I can be!

Strawberry Fields

Aaah, strawberry picking last Sunday! A beautiful Winter's day in Qld and strawberry season has just commenced - yay!

We enjoyed a great family activity, and indulged in many yummy strawberries! - All gone now, sadly...

Usually I am a stickler for following the 'rules' wherever I go... But despite the sign saying not to eat any in the fields, I figured that if the cost of picking your own was more than buying the ones already picked in the shop, that generally they expected you to! So I allowed T and Daddy to tuck in a bit... perhaps T went a bit far as her three large pooey nappies the next day seemed to indicate!