School holiday swimming camp

Lara has swimming at 9.30 every morning this week. I didn't take Sam into consideration when I booked it and worried it would be a rush in the morning. Luckily Sam started to sleep through and his morning feed has been around 6-7am so we had plenty of time to get ready.

Lara cried after the first swimming class because she didn't want to leave! This happened last year too. At least it means she enjoys the class so that is always a good thing.

Weekend activities

Sat 18/September - Lunch at a local park. Lara enjoyed the short play, we enjoyed the nice walk and Sam hopefully enjoyed a little sunshine.





Sun 19/September - Bobbin Head national park with Grandparents. Lara liked the huge playground(there are 3 slides with varying lengths), especially the monkey bar. Lunch of burger and chips was nice. Simon and Lara followed a group of ducks, Grandma had a good cuddle with Sam and Grand-dad played games with Lara.



Sat 25/September - Milo's birthday. A very exciting event with petting zoo, pony rides, face painting, animal ballons and yummy food. Lara loved the cute train set birthday cake and very impressed with the pony rides. Sarah and Mitch obviously spent a great deal of efforts on this birthday party. Lara told me that night "I want to go to Milo's 4 year old birthday party tomorrow!" (anything in the future is still 'tomorrow'). Auntie Sarah will faint if she has to organise another party 'tomorrow'!

[6 weeks] Smile and sleep through the night

Sam had his 6-week check up last Wednesday. There were a few minor things like small umbilical hernia, bilateral tear duct obstruction and a small hemangiome, but Dr Hardwick was generally very pleased with Sam's progress so far.

On 15/September:
Weight:4900g (50-75%)
Length:56.9cm (50-75%)
Head circumference:38.3cm (25-50%)

Sam starts to make cooing sounds and baby talk. We have also seen some lovely smiles. He loves bath but dislikes tummy time. Sam pooed and weed on us on several occasions so we are now very careful when changing his nappy.

Sam slept from 10pm last night to 5am this morning. This is the first night since his birth that I have uninterrupted sleep, until 5am anyway. The sun is extra shiny, the sky feels bluer and life feels so good when one has a better night sleep. I guess this might have happened ealier if I didn't have to wake Sam up at 3 or 4am on some mornings because my breasts were bursting and felt very uncomfortable. The thought of getting up less at night (or not at all) is a very comforting one.

Pictures of Lara and Sam

Lara feeding her baby (bear).


I took Lara to her daycare disco on Sunday. I almost regreted going becase Lara refused to participate in the first 15 minutes. Luckily she soon warmed up. When the MC asked who wanted to sing, Lara put her hand up. She didn't know the Hi-5 song, but she liked standing in front of the microphone. Lara must have enjoyed the disco as she asked repeatedly 'Mama I want to go to disco again!'


Colourful hair. Lara's dress-up skirts are now her hair pieces. Kids have great imagination.


Sam at one month old. He likes to sit looking around in his chair. There's always a lot going on!


Lara and Sam. Lara wants me to show all of her friends "her baby" when I do daycare pickups.

First month

Sam turned one month old on Father's day over the weekend. It was a beautiful sunny day and the in-laws came over for lunch. Simon cleaned the house and cooked most of the meal. We opened a bottle of 'Joseph Pirrier' champagne to celebrate. The first month has gone resonably well thanks to Mum and in-laws's help.

Looking after a new-born is tiring and emotionally taxing. The night feeds, especially the frequency of it in the first two weeks was very exhausting. Being told Sam was not gaining weight, trying to clear lumps in breasts every other day and the worry about getting mastitis again added more anxiety. Luckily my recovery is much better this time and we are more relaxed as parents. It helps too when Sam is a good, relaxing baby. He sucks well and sleeps well (as well as a new-born would be!). Feeding is getting better and shorter (from 8-10 feeds a day, each lasted 1-1.5 hours to 6-7 feeds now, each 45-60 minutes long) Yes I sit at my feeding couch a lot, it's my full-time job!

Lara is not too impressed with my new job. She loves her little brother and wants to help but she suddenly fell over a lot, cried for the smallest reasons, couldn't do things that she used to do before, called me to "see" things frequently and needed a lot of "help". It made things worse when she got a bad cold last week. Antibiotics seemed to help but the attention-seeking behaviours stayed. I feel sad and sorry that I couldn't give Lara more attention but reminded myself this is one of the reasons we had another baby so she could 'share'. Lara did 'share' her cold with me and now I think Sam's got it...

I concentrate on completing one or two chores a day when I am more rested. Some days though, I don't go out at all and live in my pajamas whole day! Hopefully we will have more good days and less bad days from here on and the second month is better than the first.

Clothes line

Clothes line was moved in preparation for garden renovations.