Our first "Proper" smile

Hi all,

Good news!!! Sabrina has learnt to smile. Yippee!

As you can tell I am rather excited about this. It has only taken 7 and a half weeks to achieve. She gave me a pretty good scare last night and decided to sleep for 9 hours straight. I only dozed for the last 3 or so, thinking that she was going to wake up. We will see how we go tonight as to whether it was just a one off or the beginning of a new routine. (Here is hoping- would be very nice to have an uninterrupted sleep for something a bit different!)

Maddie had to go to preschool the other day dressed as a princess. Thought you might like to see.

Hope you are all well. Love Annette

Clinic sister update

Hi all,

As promised in this morning's blog...

We have put on 1.4kg since discharge weight. This is a true measure as it was a bare weight. And our head has grown 1.1cm in 2 weeks. We need to go to the clinic to get the length measured, will try and get there soon.

Love
Annette

Its been one of "those" nights

Hi All,

Well it had to happen. Sabrina has also read the same books that I have on the whole feeding every 2 hour thing. The books warned me that at 6 weeks expect 2 hourly feeding. Guess what today we are 6 weeks. So last night we took to 2 hourly feeding. Mummy NOT happy!!! Hopefully it doesn't last too long. So if this blog is a bit all over the place you know why. Here is a pic of Sabrina whilst I am working on this blog. It would be nice if I could join her! I guess being up a fair amount of the night takes it out of even the littlest of household members. One thing I did discover is that Bronte has taken to sleeping outside our window acting on guard for Sabrina. (She was there every time I got up last night and ran off the minute the light went on - so I wouldn't see her)

Weekly highlights:

On Wednesday we had lunch with Jill, Mon and Fabi. It was good to catch up and do a show and tell. Here is a picture of the cross stitch that Mon did for Sabrina's wall. She did an Angel for Maddie when she was born. Maddie thought that Fabi was simply the best and has been telling anyone who will listen that the next time she sees Fabi that they are going to play dress ups and be fairies.

On Saturday we took ourselves off to the Blacktown City Festival. It has been many, many years since I have been to the show. It hasn't really changed in all this time. We wandered around the street stalls and then watched the parade. Maddie thought the parade was pretty good. Sabrina managed to stay awake for the parade and didn't seem at all worried about the noise.

Yesterday afternoon was another date with our freezer and cooking for it. We are definitely getting the hang of it. After living with the concept for the last couple of weeks can recommend it. It makes the whole dinner thing a lot easier!

The rest of our week has been pretty "normal" in terms of places and people we have seen.

The home visit clinic nurse rang this morning at 11am to tell me that she would be coming sometime between 12 - 2pm today. So much for my take it easy morning. I will post again later with the weigh in results from this visit. Hope you are all keeping well.

Love

Annette

Louise and Michael's 30th Birthday Party

On Saturday night we had the double celebration of Louise and Michael's combined 30th Birthday Party. Michael's birthday is earlier in May and Lou's is the middle of June so a middle ground date was required hence Saturday. The party was out at the Farm (new farm anyway). All the usual suspects were in attendance. It was really good to catch up with Susan again. The party provided a show and tell Sabrina event for a couple of people that had yet to met her. Namely Susan, Mrs B and Mel. One thing though, it was very cold by the end of the night. Fortunately with having Sabrina I was able to earn passage to the "nursery" (lounge room with the fire place) much more comfortable than freezing outside.

Cake cutting... (they should be getting used to doing this by now)

Maddie had a great time. Caleb and little Jen were there and so she ran and ran all night. She wore Jen out by the end of it.

Sabrina - getting bigger

Hi all,

It was Sabrina's one month birthday on Wednesday last week. Hasn't time flown. If only it went that fast when I was pregnant. As it had been a month since our last weight and length check we took ourselves up to our local chemist on Thursday. This is a new clinic for us as the one that we went to with Maddie doesn't do it anymore. One thing that I had forgotten about with going to the clinic is the wait. We stood in the line for nearly 1 hour. Fortunately Sabrina was having a good day otherwise we probably would not have stayed.

Needless to say she has grown. We have put on 1.2kg from our birth weight and have grown 2 cm in length. I must be doing something right. We are now fitting into all our 000 clothes. Which is a good thing as we have more of them than the 0000 ones. Funny thing is that we are still 4 cms shorter than Maddie when she was born. Maybe this one will be a little more "normal" instead of our beanstalk - not that being a beanstalk is a bad thing.

Maddie is discovering just how much a little person cries and that it is not that fun when you can't figure out why. She is still being a really caring big sister. We have found that one thing that Sabrina does enjoy is to be sung to by Maddie and to have her read stories to her. Fortunately Maddie enjoys both these past times too.

We survived the week

Well, we survived our first week with Nathan back at work. By the time we got to the weekend we were all exhausted but you get that. To give you an idea Maddie fell asleep on the lounge on Saturday night at 7.40pm and didn't wake up till 8.30am on Sunday - she doesn't do this very often only when she is VERY tired!

Our week in review...

On Saturday we went to Ma and Pa's for Mothers Day lunch. Then had Andrew and Karissa over for dinner and the compulsory game of Rummykins. Definitely a good way to spend a Saturday Night.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers out there for last Sunday. I had a really good day. I am now the proud owner of some new clothes and a Deep Fryer. We have had a great time deep frying. We had one many years ago but it was not a swish as this one - really hard to clean, and no thermostat. This one has these defects rectified. Went to Mum's for lunch.

On Monday us girls took ourselves off to playgroup. It has definitely grown since the last time we were out there. I couldn't get over how noisy it has become. The next "generation" of 1 - 2 year olds are starting to make there mark and be playing whilst the 3-5 year olds are intent on racing around like mad folk outside. I guess it gets it all out of there system. Sabrina behaved herself and pretty much slept through the experience.

On Tuesday we caught up with the Hickings. It has been so long since Sam and I have had a Tuesday catch up. I think we both needed it. The kids once again raced around burning up energy. Trampolines, Swings and Sandpits are definitely a hit when you are little. The Hickings bought another car... Here is a picture

Wednesday was a quiet day. Thank goodness!!! I started doing our filing. I really hate doing this job. Probably as I leave it till it is an absolute disaster area then start. Nath went to try out his new golf clubs out at the driving range. He still thinks they are pretty schmick so this is a good thing.

Thursday Maddie was at preschool. Alittle sad as one of her favourite teachers left on Thursday. Maddie did not really want to go as she knew it was Caron's last day. It is amazing how quickly they attach themselves to people. Although I think that Caron spent alot of time with Maddie. She realised on Friday that she had forgotten to give Caron a card. (Maddie is really into giving cards at the moment) this resulted in more tears. I had to promise that she could make one and take it next week. Whilst Mad's was at school, Sabrina and I went to Mum's for a play day. Ended up shopping up at the new Kmart at Stanhope Gardens. Still reckon this is one of the best ones around.

Friday - Maddie Preschool, Me - more filing (oh what fun!!!!!!!!) We decided that we should try to get ourselves organised in regard to the dinner thing. As witching hour has returned and limits the amount that I can do in the lead up to 6pm. Decided that the whole freezer cooking idea may be a way around this. Little did we know at this point that this decision would dictate pretty much our whole weekend.

Saturday we went and bought some of the containers that we are going to need if this concept was to work. We then had to sit down and find recipes that were suitable for the concept. Result didn't really have any recipe books for this purpose - better go and buy one (a girl can never have to many recipe books!) While we were out and about also had the weekend compulsory trip to BUNNINGS (yes Lou - at least once a weekend is normal) we got the stain for our skirting boards. Nath tried it out in the en suite on Sunday morning - we figured it was an out of the way place to see if it looked ok. Looks really good, now we have the big job of going the rest of the way around the extension. Nath also went to his Mum and Dad's to help move there new water tank. I think Andrew best described the process. "Dad had his new 1250 gallon water tank delivered (into the front lawn) this week. Nathan, Vern, Dad and I just lugged it down the street, down the lane way, over the neighbours side fence, through their backyard and over Dad's side fence into his backyard." It must have been a sight.

Sunday afternoon was spent cooking and I mean cooking. By 6 pm last night we had put into the freezer 9 main meals and 6 side dishes. Not bad for 6 hours work. Hopefully they all taste great after they have been frozen because they all tasted pretty good before they went into the freezer.

Am off to do a bit more cooking. Have a good week. Will blog again soon.

Love

Annette

Welcome to Sabrina

Good Afternoon,

As you are probably aware on the 23rd April we welcomed Sabrina Kate into the world. She is proving to be an absolute blessing. She is very well behaved ??? as to what happened this time around. As you can see she is a very settled contented baby. I guess with the family she has been born into this is a good thing.

This morning we went on our first girls only outing as Nathan is back at work today. (Yes that is a 4 letter word that has not been allowed to be spoken for the past 3 weeks) We went out to playgroup at Church. It was so good to catch up with the gang. It feels like forever since we have seen everyone. I guess having been housebound for the last 4 weeks of the pregnancy does that to you. Needless to say - We survived. I had forgotten how much stuff is required for an "outing" and how long it takes to pack and unpack car and kids. Guess I'd better get used to it again otherwise Mad's will drive us all insane being cooped up at home. It's not just me that has been missing the gang, with the way Maddie was racing around outside this morning you would think that she hasn't seen all her friends for years.

Maddie is coping well with having to share time with Sabrina. She still gets a little clingy when people are spending to much time with Sabrina. Especially at night when Nathan is cuddling her. He has had to learn how to juggle the two of them on his lap. I think from his point of view thank goodness we are only having the 2 of them. The lap could get a little squashy if there were any more.

Will try and regularly post to the blog so that you can all be kept up to date with what we are up to.

Love
Annette