Musings on Baby Fever

I knew it would happen at some point, that "baby fever" would kick in again at some point in time. I think that the catalyst at the moment is three friends giving birth in the space of a week (!), and seeing pictures of tiny, squishy newborns has my uterus going ahhhhhhhhh! 

Would I say that given everything the past sixteen months has thrown our way, are we ready for another child yet? No, even despite infertility hanging over my head (it's easy to live in denial when running around after a toddler and smiling when answering other people's questions of "so are you having more children soon?"), which is a potential ticking clock in its own right, the time doesn't feel right. The initial months of motherhood weren't kind to me, I beat myself up a lot at the time about a lot of things - my emotions, the transition from wife to all-encompassing mother, breastfeeding, sleeping, the decision to re-home our pet. This time last year I was just starting to see the light after a bleak few months despite the snuggles and awe-inspiring observations of baby development at its finest. I can't imagine going through this again at the moment, not with Rowan as a toddler. 

But having said that, maybe the next time around (if we're lucky to be pregnant again) I'll be kinder on myself, perhaps I'll relax more and go with the flow, knowing what the initial newborn stage can be like (rather than starting from scratch).

Rowan surprises and astonishes us everyday with the new things he's learning (quite often, Matt and I find ourselves looking at each other and saying "are everyone else's babies like that?!"; of course, we live in a bubble where our own child is a prodigy :P). Tonight as we got Rowan dressed after his shower I found myself saying "if you ever have a sibling, you've set the bar pretty high". 

And he has. I also know from many friends that rather than the love in your heart dividing when another child is born, instead it multiplies. And when the right time comes, what shall be will be.

How Quickly Times Change...

I took this picture of Rowan with Matt when he was six months old, and it's one of my very favourite pictures of the two of them. Here is an updated shower picture of them both, taken during the week:

Rowan is nearly 16 months old here.

Seeing this set makes me wish that I'd had the hindsight to have taken a much earlier shower photo of my boys (ie, with Rowan as a newborn), as it will make a gorgeous display someday if I continue taking these style of pictures every few months. We used a baby bath up until Rowan was about 5 months old, when he outgrew it and starting wriggling about too much. Since we don't have a bath in our apartment, straight to the shower it was!

P.S. - Click on the above pictures to see them larger (I promise you it's worth it!)

Oh, and if you made it this far, here's a little bonus picture:

(love me some baby butt!)

Wordless Wednesday

What getting dinner ready every night tends to look like:

Back to Work & Childcare

All ready to go on his first day.

So I started back at work as a Kindergarten teacher on Monday, and Rowan had his first day of childcare. We both survived, I thrived. So far so good, the last two working days have been overwhelmingly positive and though I know things will get a bit more intense in the coming months, for the time being I’m enjoying the ride.

And then there was childcare... I dropped Rowan off at 7.30am on Monday morning after his milk feed to have breakfast at the centre. He was a little wary but separated okay (as did I – no tears!) and the room leader was really nice about it all. I called his room late morning and one of the carers mentioned that he was asleep. Yes, asleep! The boy who hasn’t taken a morning nap since he was 11 months old. Sure, it turned out to only be an hour’s nap but it totally counts. And there was no more napping for the rest of the day so he definitely slept well that night, but I just couldn’t believe it. I was to finish at 3.15pm that afternoon (the positive thing about starting on the clock by 8am!), to pick up Rowan at around 4pm, and got a phone call from the childcare centre just before 3 asking me to come and get him as he had been distraught for the past hour... poor little man. :(

After picking Rowan up.

When I got to his room, I went in and they put him in my arms, but he was still sobbing quietly. It wasn’t until a few minutes later – after doing a big poo – that it seemed as though he suddenly realised I was there and as he lay on the changetable and I cleaned him up he animatedly came back to life and started chattering about all sorts of things (namely doors, nappies and butterflies). Then he was fine for the rest of the day. Apparently he got to go outside during his day and loved the sandpit (Rowan hasn’t had too much exposure to sand yet), as well as the book area and spent half an hour looking at every single book with one of the carers... sounds like my days with him, really. 


Books are a huge interest area to Rowan, especially if they have a cat in them. Let's hope this (fascination with books) continues as he gets older. So that was our first week... here's to the ones to follow, hopefully they are just as positive.

15 Months Old

Rowan is now 15 months old, my little man is getting very cheeky and vocalising a lot more (and I'm starting to see the beginnings of frustration when he's trying to communicate his needs and I don't understand). Since he mastered a lot of the physical milestones over the past few months, it's all about communication these days... and that is pretty fun to watch. He's a little sponge when it comes to absorbing sounds and he'll attempt to imitate most things you say.

He is starting to learn about right and wrong, and often gives the game away before doing something he knows he shouldn't (such as pulling washing off the clothes rack or hitting me in the face in frustration). In the case of getting physical, I sit him down and tell him "no" firmly, which usually results in crying and occasionally the flailing of limbs.

There have been so many new words and sounds this month, it's difficult to keep track of them all - in the past two weeks there has been at least a new word every day, it's a pretty amazing time to witness! A lot of food and animal-related sounds (we're thinking of taking him to the zoo sometime when the weather gets better, Matt and I both think he'd love it!). Some of the new words are:

• cuddle "cuul"
• shoe "ooo"
• cheese "kee"
• crashing "caaar"
• light "aigh"
• door
• bib "bii
• car
• bye bye "buh-bye"
• yoghurt "yoyoyo"
• sheep "baabaa"
• snake "sssss"
• bird "biiiir"
• dog/cat/duck/cow (see, lots of animals!)

Rowan gets very excited about going out and will excitedly yell variations of Go! Key! Door! Car! (imagine everything being said in exclamation... that's Rowan :P)

He also now uses the words Mum (Mumum or mama), Dad (dadada) and Nan-Nan in context, which is fun too. He plays a game with us where he 'talks' into his toy phone and says "lo Nan-Nan", imitating games we play with him. I'm looking forward to the imitation becoming real pretend play in the coming months, and we give him lots of opportunities to copy us and have a go himself (whether that's pretending to 'feed' us, vacuum the floor, or taking his plates and cups out of the dishwasher).

So all in all, it's been a very vocal month indeed!

Brushing his own hair

laughs with Daddy after dinner

my blonde boy with the unruly curls at the back!

Rowan LOVES water!

We love him so. <3

The Childcare Experience

I really felt for Rowan today (and for myself!), it was his first experience in childcare. Admittedly, only a short play (~40min) as part of his orientation before starting on Monday, but not an overly positive experience. It took him a while to stop clinging to me, but eventually I settled him and went to go and sit in the foyer for a bit. One of the carers came out about 20 minutes later and asked if it was okay for Rowan to have lunch with them since the food trolley was coming around. I thought he’d be thrilled by this as he loves food very much, but apparently this was the icing on the cake and too much for him to take in... as they put a little bowl of baked beans with potato in front of him, he burst into tears and was inconsolable! :(

So I was called back into the room to try and settle him, and encourage him to try some food (which he did, but wanted to feed me first :P). Poor boy, when I got back there Rowan was sobbing in the book area with snot running down his face and his whole body wracked with each sob. I’m not used to seeing him like this, so it came as a shock to me – I was expecting a little clinginess or a few tears. After he had a few mouthfuls of food and a drink of water, we arranged to come back tomorrow and Rowan retrieved my bag and made a beeline for the door.

Do I feel good about making the decision to start him in childcare? Definitely not, I just hope that the adjustment period isn’t too difficult for him – I’m expecting it to last a month or so (he’s only attending one day per week), but this is our only choice for a Monday so we all need to get through it. Here’s hoping tomorrow’s play is a better one!

This Month in Scrapbooking

I've been digiscrapping like a machine lately, working on Rowan's 1st year book (nearly done!), my pregnancy album (11 pages to go!) and miscellaneous pages in our 2012 family book. I've also recently been asked to be a part of Scrapping With Liz's summer CT (creative team), which I'm thrilled about (I've had a secret crush on Liz's template designs for over a year now, and hers were the first templates I started using when I was getting into digiscrapping more seriously).

Here is a selection of my recent work, clicking the images will take you to a larger one. My main galleries are at ScrapOrchard and Zig Zag Scrap, where you can see these layouts and more!