The Newborn Fog

Such excitement and anticipation lead up to the birth of your child. What will it look like? Will it be a girl or a boy? I hope it's a calm, happy baby!... Will it sleep? (no)
The reality can only be experienced.

Our birth adventure began in the wee hours of the morning. We had booked in to have a C-Section. To cut a long story short, I fancied my odds of a calm, controlled birth via Caesarian rather than the many possibilities of a vaginal birth. I wanted that peaceful, well-ordered beginning for my bub's life. So, that morning, we packed the suitcase, hopped in the car and drove to the hospital. We booked in much as you would to a fancy hotel. Then the reality of hospital gown and slippers - luckily we were 'in' with the midwives and Lowey got a cool surgeons cap rather than the puffy shower cap. The team were AMAZING.

My birth experience was so warm and joyful. My obstetrician was even joking with me as he picked Summer up for the first time. She came crying 16 minutes after I entered the room, and then settled peacefully on my chest. I like to think she knew me and realised that this was a nice place to be.

After some Daddy cuddles and her first feed in recovery, 20 minutes later we were in our room and left alone with this new bub! And the staring began :)

Overcome with excitement, wonder and joy, we spent that day is a haze of happiness - she has 10 fingers and 10 toes!



The night began, and more breastfeeding success was keeping our high going... then the wee hours of the morning came, I was sleepy from the days adventures and this little baby wanted another feed. Only an hour after she'd had one! For a millisecond my brain tried to pass the buck. Surely it's Lowey's turn.... can't the midwives sort her out for a while? Then the reality hit. This little human, my little daughter was relying on me to care for her, protect her, and sit up in the middle of the night when I was dog tired and cuddle her. The moment of panic passed surprisingly quickly, leaving behind an amazing feeling that gave me the energy to stay awake for many hours for many nights after that one.

Luckily I haven't had any Post natal symptoms, as I'm sure not all mothers get away with avoiding the panic so easily. But I have yet to regret getting up in the middle of the night to my baby girl. It really is a small price to pay for being honoured with the position of Mum to a brand new human.
The passage of time changed. There was day and night, and I watched it from my camping spot on the couch where I was feeding every 2-3 hours for an hour. Visitors came, quiet days were had. I remember chatting and laughing with friends and family, but can I recall any of those events? Not so much... Luckily, my constant photograph taking has filled me in on the parts that I missed. Oh so many photos... It helped to break up the staring though!

 

I required my iPhone app to record when i fed her, on which side and for how long, which was helpful... when I could remember where I left my phone...

My baby who came out smiling like a pirate...

Needless to say, the fog has finally lifted, Summer now sleep for more than 2-3 hours at a time, but those forst precious weeks of meeting and getting to know her will always be amazingly special yet horrifically foggy in my memories.

Sunday Breakfasts

After a year hiatus from Sunday Breakfasts, we have started again. Sitting down after a hectic morning I needed to reflect on exactly why we began this event.

Living in Townsville and living in Brisbane are two very different experiences. You'd think that in a smaller town there'd be less friends and less opportuities for catching up socially, but we found the opposite was true. Whether it is due to the feeling of isolation that prompted people to gravitate together, or due to the sheer ease of driving or walking only a few minutes to see people, we found ourselves socialising often and with many different people. And not the usual stuff either. We would have the standard drinks out in the city or local riverside tavern, we'd do lunch or coffee in the mall and have parties at our respective houses. But we'd also go walking/yoga classes together often, or do early morning trips to the river or beach. We'd go to football games together every chance we got and often just hang out after school/work because we could! So moving back to Brisbane to our considerably larger group of friends was a shock.

Brisbane social gathering are much more formal. They are more likely to be written on a calendar or have a facebook event made for them. To make dates with our friends involved planning 1,2, even 3 months in advance! We found ourselves very sad and lonely back home, and craving social contact. We spent most of our 'dates' quickly catching up and ending with the 'we must do this more often'...

So we discussed what strategies we were going to use to mend this problem in our lives. We just happened to be tripping around Europe at the time. We enjoyed many parts of our trip, but especially the act of sharing breakfast. A long, slow, social, and cheap part of the day. Chatting over a cup of tea or coffee and munching on some local bread or pastries got us thinking we needed to bring this back with us to Australia. So, Sunday Breakfast was initiated.

Tea and Coffee are always available, and we even tried to replicate our favourite hot breakfast drink 'Cola Cao'. We began with just croissants and brioche and conserves, but Loweys enjoyment of cooking led us to hot breakfasts, pancakes and muffins.

We really enjoy seeing our friends and family on a weekly basis, and whether you come regularly (Emma...) or every so often (everyone else.. lol) it's an act of sharing something simple and social that's pleasureable.

Highlights: Sitting in the sun on a cold winters morning, Loweys scrambled eggs, hot fresh bread and now seeing Summer share time with her extended family.

We'll only be doing it every month now I think, it was a shock to us how much work we do for it, but it really is an invaluable part of our Sunday mornings now. :)

Growing Summer

So Summer was thought about many many times before she was an actual growing baby in my belly. After years of planning and getting financially and emotionally ready to have a baby, we began 'trying'. Lowe (lol) and behold, it happened almost instantly! Now where's the fun in that... thus began my icky and unpleasant journey of pregnancy.

My first official day of pregnancy was shared with Kate. We met at the doctors office and both lied to each other about our reasons for being there. After an awkward bumping into each other at the loo with our jars, we found out we were pregnant from our respective doctors. Meeting again afterwards, we had a cuppa and DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING. Luckily, our darling husbands were the first to hear the news. A few weeks later we both spilled and thankfully had each other to talk to for the next 9 months.

Teaching while pregnant wasn't a huge amount of fun, especially when the morning sickness kicked in. Urgh... imagine food poisoning every day, all day and all night. And if you are lucky enough to vomit, it eases for a good hour. Favourite foods - Pizza Capers spaghetti bolognaise, vegemite sandwishes, vegemite crackers, vegemite on toast... you get the picture. Least favourite foods - 2-minute noodles, pink milk. <<Shudders>> My secret was out the morning I HAD TO eat 2 bacon and egg muffins while saying good morning to the children with my teaching partner Mark. Being a dad himself, he was onto my not-so-subtle signs and even covered for me when I needed a little lie down behind my desk... Trying to teach over my 'kill me now' groans was a challenge.

So two terms were tackled and the kids in my class were very excited, and even forgave me for eating all day while they were learning and doing tests. We had lots of fun teaching the baby multiplication and spelling.

As the pregnancy progressed, I have to say it didn't get much better. The horror of nausea ended and brought on the horror of PSD. Basically, I couldnt do anything, involving using only one leg, without pain. So walking, going up stairs, getting in and out of cars, driving, putting on underpants, shoes, socks, etc... The end of the journey was a very quiet and still one with lots of couch sitting and DVD watching. Helping me to gain those fabulous kgs I'm sure.

But the highlights are still very vivid. Having a wonderful belly, a real, touchable and often animated piece of evidence, was wonderful and reminded me the point of it all. She was a very active bub and liked to kick and roll and hiccup often. So special, and it never got boring.

So, as horrible as it was, I would do it again, cause as everyone says 'it was worth it'. And I havent figured out how to just buy one that looks like us yet...

Starting a blog

Well, after 5 months of getting used to having a baby in the house, I've starting realising that I'm already forgetting all the cool little things that have happened in our lives that I'd like to share and be grateful for. So, I'm going to try to keep track of as many little events in our lives that I can. I don't think I'll share it with the world yet... maybe in time...