babyblog

Tabitha - 3 months

Happy 3 months old little girl!

You've changed drastically over the last few weeks and are now no longer like a newborn baby (sob) but really big and strong! Your head control is amazing and you love to sit up and watch the world go by. You're very smiley with everyone now and have taken a big shine to your brother Harry lately, offering him non stop grins whenever you see him.

You're just moving into 3-6 month sized clothes and I'm really loving dressing you up in cute little outfits. Infact I am out of control buying cute little outfits and if I don't stop soon Daddy will probably divorce me. But you do look adorable in everything and a little girl needs pretty clothes!

You were sick last week with your first cold and very very miserable with it. I'm catching it now so I know how you were feeling, wretched. At one point you started to choke on your own phlegm and couldn't shift it which panicked Daddy and I so much that we then didn't put you down for 48 hours. You really love to be held and cuddled ... and when sick I think it helped you alot, not to mention gave us more peace of mind.

You are still feeding well and things seem to be fine on that front. You do still have this reflux problem though! Last week I had stopped giving you the medicine thinking you were over it, and you regressed back into being very uncomfortable and gassy and miserable. I won't do that again! Having said that, last night I actually forgot to give you your bedtime dose and sure enough at 1am you woke very uncomfortable again.

Sleep wise you have been doing much the same thing but lately we've had problems getting you back off to sleep when you wake in the night and Daddy has been taking you into the living room to sleep in the swing which is the only way we can get you back off. The swing is also the only place that you will nap during the day. If the routine changes slightly and you don't get that swing time you will not sleep and get extremely over-wrought. It's not ideal, but Daddy reminds me that Harry was the same way and that soon he grew out of it, as will you!

Another thing I'm loving about you is how incredibly aware of your surroundings you are. This is something that's very different to how your brothers were as babies. You're taking in every detail of who or what is around you at all times and if you don't like it you let us know! You won't take your eyes off me (which I love!) either, wanting to keep eye contact with your mummy at all times if possible. If I put you down to change you and walk off to get a nappy you follow me with your eyes to make sure I'm not going out of sight and if I do, this is very unacceptable! All of this while a little more difficult than I'm used to ;-) is so sweet and lovely, to be needed so much by this little tiny person.

I can't express this very well, but to have a little girl is proving to be so very special. I love the boys of course just as much but there is something so different about having a daughter to having sons..... it's more complex somehow. And I love it. Please remind me of this when you are 13.

Mummy xxxx

I haven't written for a while

Because

a) Tabitha is sick with a cold...... poor lamb has been very miserable and keeping me extremely busy.
b) I'm always wasting my time with Facebook
c) I'm busy running around like a blue arsed fly from A to B to C with the boys

All is well though - aside from the baby with the cold. She's really been feeling poorly and she also had a return of the dreaded reflux after my infinite wisdom led to me stopping giving her the medication then wondering why she was screaming incessantly for several days and nights without stopping. Div.

Harry is settling in to Montessori and loving it. He trots in quite happily every day and has a great time. We're adjusting to make sure he gets enough rest now because he's very tired after each day, but we haven't had a single problem with him going so far, he is very happy! We had an issue with the teacher on the first couple of days in that I thougth she was going to become a problem - she was quite rude and abrupt - but she warmed up and had a completely personality change so I feel very reassured now, thankfully!

Dylan is back in his routine and very manic it is too (how am I going to cope with 3 manic routines when they're all in school!). He has soccer twice a week after school, cubs once a week, and about to start after school science club once a week too. He is quite exhausted each day! He also now has 30 mins homework every night which can be hard to fit in with all these activities! It's all good for him though :) He is liking his new teacher for the most part. He got in some trouble for talking in class and got moved to another spot (away from his friend Aidan!) and is now doing very well at being quiet!

I spend my entire life in the car taking them to school, fetching them from school, taking them to after school activities and playdates. Tabitha HATES the car so this is very stressful each day.....I sincerely hope she gets over it soon because this family is in the car ALOT!

Yesterday we managed to go to the Puyallup Fair which is an annual event here. Despite Tabby's cold (we bundled her up and carried her close in the Baby Bjorn in which she slept) we had a great time....... the boys loved the rides, especially little un who thought it was birthday and christmas combined. He's so grateful for everything is Harry, he has such a good time with everything you give him, unlike his brother who is going through a phase of sulking if he doesn't get his own way and not really appreciating it when he does!

Anyway - I witter - and must sign off. Have to fetch Dylan, then dash to fetch Harry in less time than it actually takes to get there, then get home, then fetch G from work and go to some computer store to see about new laptops :)

If Summer is over

Re reading Harry Potter 7

Bitchy people.

Alarming

Dylan, looking at Google Earth, zooms in on London.

"Mom!! Mom!!, I was just looking at England and I saw the Eastenders River!!!"

Simple Pleasures

When you live in North America, you rarely walk anywhere. I mean anywhere. You even drive between shops in an outside mall area.

I like to walk with a stroller but walking from our house is very difficult because we live on an incredibly steep hill in all directions. It's doable (and still very very steep and exhausting) if you're not pushing something. If you are, there is no pleasure in the experience.

Because I've bought a double stroller now, and because I want to start walking, ast week I went for a walk along the riverbank in town which was lovely. We walked to the park and Harry played, then we walked back (a couple of miles in total).

Today I wanted to go to town. We live very close to town (probably no more than 3/4 mile) but again with the very steep hill. So what I did was drive to the bottom of the hill and walk from there.

Along the road to town there were maybe 6 pedestrian crossings with buttons to press. Harry, for the first time, got to press them and watch for the green man! How extraordinary and sad that he's 3 yrs old and has never done that? He thought all his Christmases had come at once! Really enjoyed it. I must do this more often (and attempt to do it without stopping at Starbucks for a coffee and scone!)

Girl Stuff

I think I'm getting Mastitis.

Yesterday was a tough day for Tabby, she fussed non stop all day and didn't sleep a wink ALL DAY. She was completely over-wrought and over tired and couldn't get herself to sleep no matter what I did. As I was out all day, there wasn't an awful lot that I could do in terms of keeping it quiet for her.

I'm finding she has a far more complex range of emotions (females!) than the boys ever did as babies. The boys were pretty much happy, or fed up for some specific reason which was generally easily remedied. She, on the other hand, has many in-between states of mind which are not easily explained. Nor so easily dealt with! I think she's so much more alert that she finds it harder to come to terms with her environment, if that makes sense? Less content, more aware, more confused by things surrounding her. She's very agitated if someone else holds her too, she likes it to be me! If she's not with me she's looking for me. If someone else picks her up she frowns and starts to panic.

Anyway - when we got home and got her bathed, she ate and fell asleep by 7.30pm. Then slept for an unheard of 9 hours in a row! She was so tired, poor thing.

The consequence (and point) of all this though, was that when she finally woke at 4am my boobs were completely engorged with milk and very painful. I fed her from the opposite side to her bedtime feed and when I lay down again in bed I couldn't even lie on the left because it hurt as it was so full. With hindsight I should have got up and used the pump but at 4am who wants to get up and do something like that?

At 7am when we got up I fed her on that left side. Again at 8.30 because she was hungry again, again on the left side. Got in the shower and realised it was still very painful and when I got out I used the pump to try to drain it and got 5oz more out (!). And STILL it hurts. So I figure I'm getting Mastits. Phoned the OB and got a prescription of antibiotics sent to the pharmacy because when this fever sets in I want to have them on hand... I won't use them if it doesn't.

Boy Stuff

While the TV was on in the background the other night, Dylan picked up on a piece talking about Gay marriage. He looked at me with complete astonishment "Men can marry MEN?" he said, incredulously. So we had to have a little talk about that..... (who is ever ready for these talks?!). I explained that some men love other men in the same way that some men love women, and that some women love other women. He seemed to accept this. Then, just incase, for the future, I said 'and when Daddy and I were young, if one of our friends were gay, they might've been scared to tell their parents, but these days there's no need to be scared as parents won't be cross at all'.

Meanwhile Harry said to me this morning, as I was getting dressed. "You got a willy Mum?" No, I replied. Girls don't have Willies. "Oh. You just got a big bum Mum".

Last day of Summer

School starts tomorrow. It'll be interesting getting back into a routine of getting up early, and a new routine with taking Harry to pre-school 5 afternoons per week!

It's been quite an eventful Summer to say the least. Within the week of school finishing we had my Dad, Sally & Steve here which was wonderful, then Tabitha was born (which was even more wonderful, no offence sis!) , then Gareth had a month off work and we enjoyed loads of day trips and went on holiday to the beach, and finally had a month of hanging out locally, taking the kids to exciting places, and having lots of help from my fabulous babysitter - taking all the stress out of having 3 of them on my hands during the hols!

Tabitha has grown and changed enormously in the 2 summer months as has Harry too. Harry has toilet trained, doubled his vocabulary, and become more and more independent. I can't wait to see how school suits him, I think it'll be wonderful.

The real start of the Summer has been Dylan, I have to say. On the day his sister was born he became extremely protective and concerned about me, bless him, refusing to leave the hospital on the first day so that he could be near me, and being extremely vigilant incase I was in pain from then onwards. Quite unecessarily alot of the time but no amount of telling him that I was fine would reassure him, he wanted to make sure for himself. He isn't a terribly fearful child, just wants to be sure people around him are OK and do his best to make them that way - very thoughtful and loving.

He has also taken an enormous shine to his baby sister, wanting to hold her alot and learning about her needs and wants.

And most helpfully, assuming a position of responsibility with his little brother. If I've been feeding the baby he's voluntarily taken Harry to the loo when needed or grabbed him a drink or food. He's also taken him down to the playroom out of the way when the baby is sleeping so that she's not been woken by her boistrous 3 yr old bro.

Also, yesterday I had the most ridiculous injury when I dropped a hairdryer on my toe and thought I'd broken it because it throbbed in agony all day and the nail started to turn black very quickly. G told me to go to the ER to get an XRay and Dylan insisted on coming 'because it wouldn't be very nice to have to be at the hospital on your own mom', then sat uncomplaining for 2 hours while we were seen and diagnosed. What a star!

So school tomorrow. Bags are ready to go. Snacks are bought and stored. Clothes are clean, shoes are new, and off they will go back into reality leaving me with at least a couple of hours peace every day ;-)