The Great Gro-Egg

With the weather cooling down I have started to worry about the house and more specifically Stellas room being too cold. The ideal room temperature for a baby is 16- 20 degrees celcius, more towards the 20 for winter. As you may have experienced, babies don't sleep as well when they are too hot or too cold, but its near impossible to judge the temperature of a room.

Step up Gro-egg! The gro-egg by Bambini glows a certain colour to let you know the room temperature so you can make adjustments, with the added bonus of doubling as a nightlight.
This one is on my 'need, want, get it now list'.

Sleeping Beauty.

There is nothing more relaxing, calming and wonderous than watching a baby sleep. They may have been in a grizzly wizzly mood all day, might have thrown a few tantrams but at the end of the day, they still sleep so peacefully.

Faces still and perfect. Breathing steady, deep and loud. Cheeks warm and rosy.

I love to take photos of Stella when she is asleep, I want to capture that moment of peace and calm. I will creep in quietly before I go to bed myself, make sure she is tucked in, take a sneaky little shot and kiss her warm forehead. I love breathing in her sweet baby smell. Here are some of my favourites of my sleeping beauty.

Airing it out.

Doubt, uncertainty, restlessness. It plagues us all at times. I find that it hits me when my 'to-do' list is cleared and things are in order. I thrive better on a small amount of stress. Such trivial, meaningless worries considering the devastation our world had experienced lately. But worries all the same. I find writing them down helps put them in perspective and clear the air in my head (as opposed to the brain that should be in it's place!)

...Is Stella getting everything she needs to be happy and healthy? Enough play? Enough good nutrition? Enough stimulation? Is she learning enough? Should she be in care? Do I spoil her too much? Let her get her own way too much? Do I spend enough quality time with her?

Should I be studying? Should I be working more? Should I be doing less housework? Should I be resting more? Resting less?

I should eat better, I should exercise more, I should read more, I should Facebook less.

Should I be spending more time with my friends? Am I a good friend? Should I be socialising more? Socialising less and mothering more?...

What kind of trivial worries creep into your day when you have too much time to think? Are they anything like this?

 

The ride.

Sweet, Sweet Stella,

I wish I could prepare you for all. For the rollercoaster that is life. The incredible potential ups, the inevitable sometimes devasting downs and the straight and unknown inbetween. You will experience the ride for yourself, no matter how well I prepare you, how tightly I hold you and how long I stall you. But, know that during this ride I will be right there beside you.

At 3, You will cry when angry, get angry when frustrated, get frustrated when you can't do. You will play happily, learning quickly and eventually be able to do anything.

At 5, You wont want to go to sleep, you'll do everything possible to avoid it. You will fall asleep eventually dreaming sweetly and resting peacefully. Trust me, you will.

At 7, You will be picked on. You will be singled out by your differences, whatever they may be. It will hurt. But you will keep going, you will make friends and laugh. You will be loved by others whilst you are disliked by some.

At 9, you will want to fit in. In any way possible. You don't need to. You are unique and so are they, they just like to pretend they are not.

At 11, You will question the world and its secrets. You will question me and my secrets. You will second guess me, After all...I start to look more human. You will see my mistakes and take note of them.

At 13, You will be overwhelmed. School is hard or boring. You will have fights. With everyone. You will cry out of frustration, I will cry out of frustraion.

At 15, boys. tears. love. You will heal and learn real love from play love. Stick with play love for now, trust me.

At 17, You will dream. Write them down often and chase them hard. Don't let them fade into the pile of 'one-day'.

At 19, You are the age that I was when I became pregnant with you. Whatever you are doing, do it because you want to. Do it because you love it. Don't be told 'no' or 'you should' or 'you cant'. Just do it. (However, do consult me first!)

Sometime before you are 40,  (or not, society is ever changing) You will have children. You will experience everything I am now. The wonder, the fright, the unknown, the satisfaction, the sadness, the joy. And still I will be by your side, each and every step of the way.

I love you Stella,
Buckle up baby, we are in for a ride!

Carnival Red

Stella wears Headband by Felix and Lily handmade wearables, pants by Sooki Baby, t-shirt by Pumpkin Patch.

Sooki Baby

I thought I would share with you some of my favourite pieces from Sooki Baby. These are from the SookiBaby, SookiBaby toddler and SoSooki lookbooks. I want them all! And a little boy to wear handsome outfits! I love the red colours (I've never been huge on pink), ruffle bottom pants, geeky gear for boys and the use of stripes and prints.

The Birth of Eva

Hi, my name is Richard and my lovely girlfriend, Sophie (Where there is love, there is Eva) volunteered me to write my version of our birth story for Nats guest posts this week. I wasn’t sure how successful I would be at recapping our story but here it is and I hope you enjoy it!

On the morning of July 13th 2010, around 4am, Sophie repeatedly getting up to go to the toilet as this had been happening the past few months. I didn’t think any of it. After the second or third time of getting up she told me she thought her water may have broken. Though we had been to parenting classes, I was still expecting something similar to Niagara Falls, though this wasn’t the case.

After a quick call to the midwives at the hospital, they told us to come in and see what was going on. The journey was not as smooth as the well prepared bags waiting in the boot of your car, it was more ‘oh shit we haven’t finished packing.’ Even though Soph was only 3 days shy of her due date. So after running around like a headless chicken trying to think of what we needed we had our bags packed and on the way to the hospital. On the way Sophie was still not sure if she was actually in labour because she only had pains coming every now and they weren’t that painful. I really was expecting me to be driving like a race car driver, running of red lights and speeding on the way but to my disappointment, it wasn’t quite like that.

After arriving, we were told Sophie’s water, had infact, broken. She was then admitted and we told our parents to make their way over, as we were not going anywhere and it was BABY TIME. From then on, Sophie’s contractions got more intense and she really did not like anyone talking. If you were to talk, whisper infact, you were shot a death stare. When our obstetrician arrived, Sophie asked how far along she was and when she was allowed to have an epidural and was told ‘2cm’ and "Whenever you want, as long as your contractions are strong and regular”. It turned out, Soph was more than happy to talk to him and requested an epidural. Luckily the anaesthesiologist arrived shortly afterwards and Soph was back to her normal state.

Things were fairly uneventful from then and till tea time. Sophie had a slight temperature and her blood pressure was a little low but they just kept monitoring her. Around the same time, Eva’s heart rate was up around 200 bpm which scared the crap out of everyone. Ten minutes past and her heart rate dropped back to normal. Sophie’s sister was kind enough to get me some dinner (noodle box to be precise) whilst using the toilet as seat as our room had too many people, not enough chairs. At this time our obstetrician came into the room to check Sophie. He told us she was 10cm and was ready to push. So the noodle box had to wait but don’t worry, it was just as good when I had it as left overs! The machine that was attached to Sophie’s heart rate, starting beeping as Sophie’s heart rate was now the one that was high as she was probably feeling scared, excited and nervous.

I felt mainly excited but nervous about how much pain Sophie was going to endure. Everyone was asked to leave the room other than Sophie’s mum and I, we had the cameras ready for all of the excitement. Sophie started pushing while Sophie’s mum and I took in turns of hold her hand, encouraging her and also taking some happy snaps. The labour was going to plan but I could see Sophie was tired after a long day, but the encouragement from both of us and the obstetrician allowed Sophie to just push that little bit harder. It is the scariest thing I have ever witnessed someone you love and care so much about being put through so much pain for something that will bring us so much love. I think that Sophie knew the harder she pushed the sooner the Eva was going to come.

With the final “push Sophie” from all three of us it came to the business end of the deal, the obstetrician had to use the suction cup at the very end because the exhaustion had brought Sophie to tears. Finally our beautiful Eva had come into the world weighing 8 pounds 7oz, my initial thoughts when she was laying on Sophie’s chest were different to what I expected. I didn’t cry but I knew how perfect she was and how much more fulfilling our lives will be from here.