A little bib obsessed

It seems silly now but when getting ready for Stickybeak's arrival bibs weren't on my radar. I was washing sheets, blankets, wraps, onsies and singlets by the dozen - and even plenty of hats and socks - but no bibs.

I didn't even think to buy any. Thankfully a clever mummy friend gave me a bag of hand me downs. You would think that given she thought that a whole bag of bibs would come in handy that it would register with me like the neon sign it was. But ... no. (I'm sharp like that.) So in all my wisdom I ignored the bibs and they stayed in a bag in the spare room for months. That is, until we brought Stickybeak home.

It turns out that it's common for babies to vomit, like, after every feed and whenever you lie them down. I'm sure I knew this BB (before baby) but somehow it skipped my mind post baby. Anyway, the term used is 'possetting' and it generally doesn't call for alarm, it is just wet and messy. Which we soon found out. On our first night home with Stickybeak we went through two outfit changes (which babies hate by the way) and a cot sheet change before it occurred to us that a bib would be really handy (yep, sharp as a tack!).

Since that night we became a little bib obsessed (ha!). That bag of hand me downs became our favourite thing and we started becoming attached to certain bibs, we even had nicknames for them. There was Panda, Big Rig and Bear - ok, they weren't especially clever names but in fairness we did have other things going on.

What, me vomit? - Stickybeak models one of our favourites.Panda was a cutie, it had a picture of a Panda face with the words 'Panda To Me' - and it says something about my mental state that it took me a few weeks before I recognised the play on words. But we particularly liked the randomness of Big Rig -- it was a large bib with a picture of an oil rig on it with the tag line "because future drillers need feeding". It was ridiculous, and it was perfect because you need a little bit of ridiculous in those first few weeks.

Maybe it was the sleep deprivation but we would be excited when our favourites came back from the wash. "Look who's back," we would say. "It's Panda!" I'm sure it seems silly, writing this five months down the track it seems silly to me now, but in those first few weeks when everything was a challenge it gave us a little something to smile to each other about at 3 o'clock in the morning.

Sadly, Panda and Big Rig have been retired. They certainly earned it and besides the vomiting isn't so much of an issue anymore. And now that Stickybeak has started solids we are in a whole new bib ballgame - I'm talking about bibs with sleeves! It turns out the wet and messy doesn't go away it just takes a different form.

So what's the moral of this story? For new parents: don't forget to wash the bibs. For the friends of new parents: whatever gift you buy you can't go wrong by throwing in a couple of bibs too. The more ridiculous the better.

Create: Rudolph the Reindeer

Each year I like to create something new to my existing box of Christmas decorations. Previous creations have been Christmas stockings and Gingerbread Men tree decorations, but this year I just had to share my unexpected Reindeer creation with you. Isn't he cute!

My new creation on show.

I love Chrissy decorations which have a clean stylish aesthetic and when I stumbled upon this wooden reindeer in a $2 shop and I just had to have it. It was a little pricey at $16.95 but as I had just earned $90 for market research yapping for 2 hours about nappies I decided it was a no brainer and so along with a few other items I took it home and stashed it away in my study until I had time to look at it away from prying eyes.

My wooden reinder from $2 shop.

Imagine my disappointment when I assembled the reindeer (it slots together in 3 spots) the designer had failed to consider the leg placement and the weight of the antlers. Therefore any sudden movement or bump means the decoration collapses onto itself. Making it essentially useless in my household with 2 kids and 2 cats.

Not to be discouraged I thought maybe if the legs had been cut on an angle this problem wouldn't occur, yes after all these years my design school training had not gone to waste.

To prove my theory I copied the reindeer onto an empty shoe box and got cutting. See pictures below.

Copying the reindeer onto shoebox

Originally I thought this would be a great idea to make as an alternative to a Christmas card. You could colour in one side and write a message on the other and pop into an envelope to your loved ones to assemble. A great activity for the kids when they are older.

Cardboard reindeer in action.

I still might make the cardboard cards, but I decided to take it a step further and create a version made from felt. And christened him Rudolph!

The Reindeer in pieces.

I used exactly the same pattern as the cardboard creation but did a few things differently. Firstly I ironed some thin facing onto the felt before cutting out the pieces. I then found some white wool in my box of treasures and started to blanket stitch the four pieces individually, stuffing it with polyester filling as I went. To secure the pieces and avoid it collapsing I decided the most practical solution would be to use a small pearl bead and loop to act like a 'hook and eye'. This would keep its clean look and still allow the reindeer to be stored flat when packed away with the Christmas decorations.

A closer look at the bead and loop.

If you would like the cardboard template you can get the scanned images of the reindeer here, Page 1 and Page 2. I'm now going to make it in a slightly smaller version by scaling the design to around 60%. I'll post any new creations in the next few days.

 What Christmas decorations are you making? Post a link to your creations.
-- Hannah

Parenting, it's all in the wrist

Having a baby is painful, we all know that. I pretty much spent most of my adult years dreading the inevitable pain of childbirth. In fact, strangely enough the only time I haven't been afraid of labour pain was during pregnancy (see my earlier post on baby brain).

So imagine my surprise when I realised that for me the most painful part of having a baby wasn't the actual having a baby part. Hard to believe isn't it? I remember a midwife in our parenting classes trying to reassure the scared mummies-to-be by saying that, yes, labour pains are bad but they only last for a day. Apparently that was meant to make us feel better. But for some reason we couldn't get past the day's worth of intense pain part!

Well, it turns out she had a point. In my case it was nearly two days but let's not quibble because the bottom line is correct. You'll see what I mean.

Here is a list of the pains that I experienced bringing a baby into the world. Some of them I expected, but most of them I didn't. Consider yourselves warned!

* Labour. Yes, it hurts. A lot. I did most of my labouring at home (not my intention!) which means I missed out on an epidural and pethadine. I did score some gas in the last couple of hours though, which was great. Even though it hurts like hell it's the knowledge that it isn't coming back that makes all the difference. Unless I decide to have baby number two of course (ha!).

* Delivery. A different kind of pain. When I think back on delivery what I remember most is what an effort it was pushing a baby out, not how painful it was. Funnily enough they are two different things. That said, I was lucky that my delivery was fairly short. If it had dragged on then I'm sure it wouldn't take long for the effort to be, well, too much of an effort.

But these pains I expected. Everyone expects labour and delivery to be painful. But here are the ones I didn't expect:

* Stitches. Surely after labour and delivery I wouldn't be bothered by a few stitches. Wrong! I didn't feel the actual tear but I did feel the stitches going in. The pain was much sharper than delivery, which was not what I expected (thank god for the gas machine!). I still cringe thinking about it. And then of course we need to include the recovery time as well ... but enough about that!

* Neck ache. Now this one took me by surprise, and it's quite sweet actually. This was from spending the first few days staring down at little Stickybeak. I couldn't take my eyes off him. When I told Noisy Daddy he said he had a sore neck too, which was also sweet. This one is easy to fix but it means you have to stop staring at your brand new perfect baby and who wants to do that? Next time I'm getting a masseuse to swing by the hospital room.

* Sore legs. I must have used my legs a lot during labour because they ached for a few days afterwards. This was fairly minor on the pain scale. 

* Nipple cripple. I expected breastfeeding to be hard, I had been to the classes and could see that getting your baby to latch on could be tricky, but what I didn't expect was for it to be so painful. We're talking bloody and scabby. It was a few weeks at least before Stickybeak latching on stopped curling my toes and bringing tears to my eyes. It might only last 30 seconds but it is hell! And considering you are breastfeeding 6-8 times a day, both sides, that's not an insignificant amount of pain. Long after the latching pain went away the general soreness remained. I think somewhere around 3 months it all came together and became a pleasant experience, one that I now love.

By now I had been putting up with various pains for a couple of months so it was beginning to feel like the post-baby horrors were never going to end. (See what I mean about labour at least only being short term and one-off?). And I haven't even got to my number one pain yet! So without further ado:

*Wrist pain. Of the shooting, stabbing variety running through my hands, especially across my thumbs. This takes out the dubious honours not because it is the most painful but because it has been the most debilitating, most expensive and has lasted the longest (five months and counting).

Apparently this injury is common for new mums because looking after a baby involves a lot of wrist action. Unavoidable wrist action, which is exacerbated by the fact that we still have the relaxin hormone running around our bodies.

The main causes are from cradling the baby's head, especially when you pick him up out of the cot, lifting his head when changing outfits, raising the legs and bottom when changing nappies (at least 10 times a day in the early weeks), and supporting his neck when bathing. But without a doubt the number one culprit for me was holding Stickybeak's head in place while breastfeeding him. Without realising it, I was locking my wrist in a painful position for more than 20 minutes at a time.

I put up with it for a few months hoping it would naturally go away but it just got worse. I visited an osteopath and did massaging and stretching but it didn't really help and I didn't have the time or energy to spend on the exercises. In the meantime, holding my baby was painful and came with the added fear that I might drop him. Six months later I finally bit the bullet and got cortisone injections and went to see a physio. The cortisone took the pain away so now I can hold Stickybeak again without fear, which came just in time because he has turned into quite the wriggler! The physio normally would recommend splints but as she said it just isn't practical when you are taking care of a baby -- you need to be able to move your wrists -- but I am back to doing stretching exercises, which I will be doing daily for a long time to come.

And after all of this I am told the pain isn't over yet. From all accounts when my baby gets bigger I can expect back pain, mainly from getting him out of the cot and in and out of the car seat. Over and over and over again.

And to think I spent all those years worrying about labour pains!

Were there any unexpected post-baby pains for you? What ranks as your number one?

Which celebrity does your baby look like?

Not even out of hospital and Stickybeak Baby is looking for a family resemblance.

We all get a little bit obsessed with trying to figure out who our babies look like. From the day they are born we are assessing their eyes, hair, lips, nose, mouth, toes etc for a family resemblance.

I was a bit sad when nearly everyone said that our baby looked liked Noisy Daddy rather than me. And not just looked a little bit like him, but looked like a mini version of him, to the point that there was no me. So imagine my delight when I finally found a part of my body that he inherited from me. Even though it was a part that frankly he probably could do without (it isn't a third nipple but it's close) I still felt relieved and happy that I had my stamp on him. (And to those few people who said that my baby looks just like me, thank you, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for you.)

The funny thing is, for all this obsessing over which one of us Stickybeak Baby looks more like we ended up finding someone who bears an even closer resemblance, and he isn't even related! For the ABC viewers out there the name Doc Martin should be familiar, it is a BBC TV show about a cantankerous older doctor in a quaint village. To be frank, he isn't the handsomest of men so I feel a bit bad for the poor bub, but the likeness is undeniable. Let's take a look at the evidence:

Here's a pic of Stickybeak Baby at around 12 weeks - cute huh ;)

Now here's a pic of Doc Martin:



Uncanny, no?

Have you found a celebrity that your baby looks like?
-- Natalie

Advertising fail: prams

I had to laugh when I was flicking through some parenting mags recently because these pram ads caught my attention for all the wrong reasons.

Great pram, bad parents

Could these parents be any less engaged with their baby? Not only is the bub facing away from them but Mum and Dad are looking in the other direction AND drinking cocktails. If I had to give this pram a tag line it would be "for the parents who wish they weren't".

Maybe we are meant to believe that this pram is so good it takes care of the baby, leaving you to get hammered and stare vacantly at the sunset. On second thoughts, maybe this is a good advertisement after all!

Thanks Mum, but I'd rather walk

Is it not a little bit weird to advertise a pram and not have the child actually use it? Trust me when I say that nothing sucks more than holding your baby while pushing an empty pram. It would be even worse on a very windy day like depicted above.

I also find it odd that 'British' is listed as a unique selling point, especially considering I saw the ad in an Australian magazine and the models are very clearly in San Francisco. Hmmmm.

So high tech it's invisible!

Parents? Check. Kids? Check. Pram? Oh wait....

Now that I've been paying attention to pram ads it seems that for some reason (known only to clever marketing types) showing parents pushing an empty stroller is a common theme. Here McLaren decides to go one step further - it has removed the pram altogether!

The family does seem to be looking at something with interest though, are we to believe they are staring at their mega awesome pram that is so awesome that it can't be shown? Maybe it's performing cartwheels while washing the dishes. Maybe there's a baby in it doing something really cute. The point is that we don't know BECAUSE WE CAN'T SEE IT!

By the way, what is with the dad's haircut? Mum looks every bit the modern, casual glam gal about town but dad looks like he wandered in off the set of That 70s Show.

Baby, I'm yours

Just when I started to doubt myself, wondering if there was something wrong with me for not understanding the ads, I came across this one by Stokke which for me actually works.



Not only does it show the pram, it also - shock horror - shows a child actually sitting in the pram, and liking it! And it has a parent who creates the impression of enjoying time with their baby. Even though it looks totally inappropriate for the Australian environment this ad makes we want this pram. See, advertising can work!

Have you come across any strange ads targeting parents? Tell me I'm not the only one and share your finds below.

-- Natalie

I want a 'do over'

Can you feel it?
 
C'mon you have to feel it?

I can see you're clueless and have no idea what I'm talking about. No worries, let me enlighten you

Christmas is coming..........

yes people Christmas!
Ok slightly melodramatic on my part but when I woke up this morning and realised my youngest was now 8 mths old today, it could only mean one thing - Christmas morning was only 2 months away.

I'd seen some signs in the supermarket you know a section or two of tinsel, paper and the like, hell I had even clocked the towering Christamas trees for sale at Costco and simply thought 'oh how cute' not 'omg batman'. [Ok a little PG 13 but I'm trying to cut down on my potty mouth]
 
But I now have to admit I've been in denial about this year's Christmas.

de·ni·al/diˈnīəl/
1.The action of declaring something to be untrue: "she shook her head in denial".
2.The refusal of something requested or desired.
Let me tell you upfront I love Christmas, I adore shopping for just the right presents, wrapping them and placing them under a 'real' tree as the lights flash on and off day and night.
 
But last year was a fizzer.
 
Geek dad was overseas working for 3 months and I was left to hold down the fort. I was heavily pregnant, working 5 days a week with a toddler who was not coping sans daddy and I was surviving on chicken noodles and canned tuna for dinner.

I had token decorations in the house, I couldn't bear to make my annual fruit mince pies blaming pregnancy and the humidity and I was not even tempted to fill up the stockings I had attached to the fireplace. My saving grace was my toddler cheeky monkey was too young to appreciate the fuss that is Christmas.
 
Christmas Day finally arrived and it was a very, very long day.
 
Cheeky monkey and I raced around the city from one engagement to the next; birthday cake for Em at Bondi Beach for breakfast, stealing a kiss from my 2 day old baby niece, eating mum's overcooked turkey, to marvelling at my friends courage after having lost her baby sister to cancer hours after giving birth to her much loved baby boy 6 weeks early.
   
By the time we got home I had a severe headache and all I wanted to do was collapse into bed. But my little boy had other ideas, namely throwing up all over me, his cot and bedroom floor. After the clean up I was thankful he was so exhausted he slept until morning.
 
So who wouldn't want a 'do over'?

I'm talking a real tree, full to overflowing stockings, mince pies, handmade decorations, countless presents, smiles from all my boys and if the Gods are on my side the temperature will be in the mid 20's!

 
There are no guarantees this year will be a successfull one but god damm it I will try my darndest.

What plans do you have for Christmas?
-- Hannah

Hello baby, bye bye brain

Before I was pregnant I was warned about baby brain but part of me didn't really believe it. Then I got pregnant. After I surfaced from the first three months of extreme tiredness it became apparent that the fact that my memory had gone walkabout wasn't just a fatigue thing. It seems that in order to make a baby's brain your own needs to take a holiday.

Here was a typical scenario of mine while preggers, but especially in the last trimester:
I walk into the kitchen, see my medical notes and remember that I need to make a doctor's appointment. Realise I left the phone in the bedroom, I trudge up the stairs to go get it (not an easy task with an enormous belly). Get to the top and am so exhausted I forget why I came upstairs. Walk into study hoping it will jog my memory. Nope. Walk into bathroom, see toilet - oh goodie, I need to go. Think that must have been why I walked upstairs, so I go back downstairs. Sit on couch and stare into space for a while. Walk into kitchen for a snack and see my medical notes and remember that I need to ... oooooh.

REPEAT.

In the medical world it seems the jury is still out on whether baby brain actually exists. One website I read had a doctor (male) musing that women probably suffer forgetfulness during pregnancy because they are so focused on the baby that they can't think of anything else. I like to think we women are a bit more complicated than that, although towards the end of my pregnancy it really was hard to think about anything else.

I wasn't the only one that needed convincing that baby brain was an actual thing, my partner also had some doubts. He expressed this by being upset when I buggered up simple tasks and, you know, forgot everything all the time. But I realised he had gotten on board when I went to the shops and forgot the one thing he wanted and he wasn't mad -- by then he was used to it.

Here are things that happened to me because of baby brain:

• Dr tells me important things about me and my baby's health. When I call mum five minutes after the appointment I struggle to remember the details. (btw, this is why my partner came to most of my appointments, I recommend outsourcing a memory where possible!)  
• I would frequently find myself standing in a room and couldn't remember why I was there.  
• I would call a friend and forget why I rang. Have a lovely chat and hang up. Remember three hours later that important question I had. REPEAT.  
• My packed lunch for work had a habit of staying on the kitchen bench. And on the days I remembered to take it, I would forget and buy lunch anyway.  
• I found myself walking back into shops, cafes, etc to retrieve my jacket, umbrella, wallet ... you get the picture.

But it could be worse, a friend of mine thought her car had been stolen. It turned out she left it at the park FOR THREE DAYS.

By the end of my pregnancy, having lost total confidence in my brain, I was writing everything down, and I got a lot of understanding smiles from midwives and receptionists. I take that to mean that a lot of pregnant women are like that and not that they thought I was especially daft.

The good news is that baby brain isn't quite as bad once the baby arrives. I don't do much spacing out on the couch anymore (who has the time?) and I no longer need a chaperone to doctor appointments (although I would still like one). But I went to the shops today only needing two things. I didn't write them down because they were only two things and I can remember that. Got home from shops with three items, none of which are either of those two things. And even now I can remember I was meant to get bread but can't for the life of me recall what the other thing was. I guess my list-making days aren't over yet...

What silly things has baby brain made you do?
--Natalie.

Who's up for a nudie run?

Just before nudie run time!

Every night around 6pm (earlier if I'm organised) I start running a bath to wash away any incriminating evidence on my two little cheeky monkeys before Geek Dad arrives home.

This is not my favourite time of the day as my oldest son has a love/hate relationship with water. It took him over 2 years before he would actually sit down to bathe and don't even attempt to wash his hair unless you insert earplugs and maybe skull a stiff drink to toughen your resolve.

If it's me bathing the two of them it's essential to let my oldest know it's bath time while we eat dinner. Preparation is key but the magic is the promise of bubbles, lots and lots of bubbles.

Once he is in the water it's not long before I have to start the next stage of bribery so he will be convinced to get out of the bath.

After his teeth are brushed and before he has clocked that bed time is sooner rather than later all I have to do is suggest a nudie run.

The rules are simple.

We count down from 3 and then it's game on.

My son flies down the hallway squealing with pure joy. Within seconds it's over but the mood has lifted and we go into the last stage of our bedtime ritual with smiles on our faces.
Until it's time to tackle bedtime.

--Hannah