17th April - 5 week update

This will probably end up very disjointed as I can hear Miss G looking for trouble

Stephani
We had our final MW visit on Wednesday which felt really sad. I've been seeing M since I was 16 weeks pregnant so its a long time to have someone in your life and we had built up a great friendship as well as the professional side of it all. She did forget to bring my discharge paperwork though so we'll catch up at some time. She does live locally as well so we might even bump into each other. She's also told me to let her know when we're ready for number 4

Anyway, Stephani was weighed and measured..... She was 5.2kg and 57cm meaning that she has gained over 1kg and grown 7cm since birth. Not a bad effort in 5 weeks! She is such a gorgeous chubby little thing and mostly quite content (although don't try holding out when she wants feeding!)

She is pretty much anti day sleep unless she falls asleep feeding and gets to stay in my arms. Almost as soon as I put her down she is awake again. The swing has been a godsend for this as at least she is still moving in it and she is mostly content in there (unless of course she decides she is hungry again) I never intended to buy a baby swing but there was no way I could do things with the other two girls and be constantly carrying Stephi. Apart from anything else, she is too heavy to hold for that long! The timing to buy it was perfect too - Target had it on sale (25% off) and we also had a voucher from the Bounty Bag. I deliberately went for a small, portable one as I figured it would be a good thing to take along with us to mum's and I didn't want something taking up a huge amount of space considering how little space we have here anyway!

Night sleep is a bit up and down. She's had up to 9 hours in a block overnight and then other nights where she's just constantly woken. Last night was a good night - to bed around 8.30 and through until 1.30. I fell asleep feeding her and woke at 3.30 and put her back to her bed where she slept until after the girls came in at 6.30. She's now dozing again in the swing looking like a total pudding

I can't wait for A to see her today and to see how much she has changed. She just doesn't look like a newborn anymore and really hasn't for the last week or so.

She has had a few problems with wind and can be quite unsettled from it but is a champion burper when she gets it happening. More a champion farter though

We're using a mix of cloth and disposables and at the moment mostly disposables. I bought a second box of them and figured that I want to use them before she's far too big! She is over their supposed weight limit but they're still fitting well and mostly working efficiently (although I've had more leaks in disposables than I have had with cloth) We will hopefully use them up in the next few weeks and then I MUST get night nappies working.

Nearly forgot... she has DEFINITELY been smiling. Good Friday she was all smiles and very responsive to us all. The girls were thrilled to get smiles out of her when they chatted with her

Gabriella
Cheekiest little monkey ever. She has perfected the look - I'm not going to do anything but just check out the twinkle in my eye. OH, speaking of twinkle - she sings her own little version of Twinkle Twinkle It is so gorgeous and she does it at random moments

She wasn't 100% over the weekend - again ran a temp and was clingy and sleepy - so managed to pick up a few extra feeds. She is still pretty much a one a day girl but will make the most of any opportunity she gets to sneak in another feed. She has had a few jealous moments with respect to feeding and we've had a few more tandem feeds but its not ideal for me and is rather uncomfortable by way of getting them both in good feeding positions. I much prefer the morning feed where she and I get time alone together (although Ashleigh is often cuddled up in bed too now)

She's still a total dummy addict and was walking around the other day with one in her mouth and two in each hand! At the same time I have started asking her to hand over dummies when she wants to play outside or if we're at someone else's house and she will happily do so. It was quite a shock when she did it no problems the first time at my brother's house. He thought it was something we had been working on when I had actually not done anything until that moment! My goal is to get her to end up only having them for bed, car on long trips and comfort when she needs it - she actually seeks them out when she's had a fall or whatever now

I'm having to use a lot of cunning to try to keep her in her nappies. She has really taken to removing them every chance she gets. I had resorted to training pants over the top but she can now get them off! At night she is going to bed with a bodysuit over the top of her nappy and then her PJs. I've managed to get some more button together PJs from my SIL but need more yet. G hasn't worked out buttons yet but is well on her way! Too clever

Her language skills are amazing. She has been putting words together for a few weeks now and I adore her "thanks.... mum" when I get something for her. The most common words that she puts together include "please" and "thanks" for whatever which is beautiful. I love that she has such lovely manners already

Sleep for her has also been up and down. I've had nights of getting up and down up to 5 times to her and then the last few nights *touch wood* I've not been up to her at all. I'm making sure that I find dummies and put them back in her cot as I go to bed so that she can find them when she wakes. I also have to make sure she has plenty of water in the bottle in her bed as she can drink quite a lot overnight

Ashleigh
Our relationship can be quite volatile. She is working on asserting her dominance a lot at the moment and its not being helped by boredom over the school holidays. We didn't go anywhere over the Easter weekend as she also ran temps etc and she was just AWFUL! So bored and it didnt matter what we did she was rude and obnoxious.

The biggest issue I am having is rude talking and talking back. Unfortunately, I've been too tired to tolerate it at all and after the first few times of speaking with her about it and telling her how it made me feel I've simply resorted to yelling and time out I'm hoping that A and I can work on it while he's home but I'm worried also that he will be too tired to be tolerant.... common theme when he's home after workign such long hours over his time at work.

At the same time she is amazing. She is such a wonderful big sister for the most part. Last night when my aunt was here I had their dinner all ready to go and asked Ashleigh to get it and put it on the table for them (I'd left it to cool) She got each of their bowls and carefully carried it through then helped Gabriella get into her seat, opened her water bottle for her and then the most gorgeous exchange:

A - Here you go Gabi
G - Thanks Ashleigh
A - My pleasure


She's very excited as she's had her first invite to a kindy birthday party. I'm not so excited - its at Hungry Jacks on a Sunday arvo. At the same time she will be devastated if she misses out and everyone else at kindy goes so we'll be going (must RSVP actually)

She has loved kindy this term and was sad to have school holidays but also very ready to have some quiet time. We made up some little bags with a few easter eggs for her teachers and the kids were all sent home with one easter egg. It also happened to be their teachers birthday so they had cake (apparently)!

She is still obsessed with dancing and everything girly. Its not unusual for her to be Princess Ashleigh or Fairy Ashleigh or whatever else. She loves dressing up and has got Gabriella into it as well. So cute when they're playing dress ups together and Ashleigh sorts out shoes, crowns etc for G as well

Me
Tired..... but happy. I do still feel a little bit of sadness that we have another girl but I absolutely adore her as well. The faces she pulls and the noises she makes leave me with a glow around my heart. At the same time I find her periods of being incredibly unsettled quite frustrating as things that worked yesterday won't work today and I feel like a first time mum again. I think a lot of it is me trying to keep her from disturbing the big girls though. If I let her go a little bit she seems to settle quicker and easier. I'm also learning a lot of her cues - which cry means she needs to be burped etc. I don't really recall the other two having such definite cries for things but maybe I'm paying more attention because I need to know more. With them things were less busy and more relaxed

I've had a brilliant recovery and really very few problems at all. I've had one period of feeling teary and that was when dealing with a rather abrupt doctor. I think the intimate and very private experience of Stephani's birth has made all the difference. I feel calmer to some extent but really need to work on my temper