Thankful Thursdays

I did so well with the blog posts last week, didn't I? Not so good this week. We've had to alter the feeding routine for Jasmine this week to every three hours and that means very little time in between feeds to do anything of substance really. By the time she's finished feeding, we just have enough time to feed ourselves, clean up, sit down for a short while and then it starts all over again!! We're barely having enough time to rest and "sleep" has dropped out of our vocabulary entirely unless it is preceded by "total lack of"! I really don't know how those mums with babies that feed every two hours or less manage to cope. So unfortunately, the first things to suffer from this lack of time is this blog and also my blog reading. My Google Reader Unread Posts count has gone off the scale! LOL So please forgive me for not leaving comments on your blogs lately. At least I've been managing to keep up the Monday Giggles and Thankful Thursdays. Otherwise this blog really would remain very silent!

Anyhoo, I shouldn't complain so much considering this is meant to be a THANKFUL post!! So, today I'm thankful that Jasmine has finally put on a bit more weight this week. Last Thursday she weighed 3.67kg - the same weight as when we left the hospital almost two weeks ago. After adjusting her feeds and increasing the amount of formula she's getting (hate this but no choice at the moment *cry*), she finally weighed in at 4kg exactly on Tuesday. The lack of weight gain hasn't affected her in the slightest as she's still sleeping well, responding to us and other stimulus and also going through LOTS of nappies!! LOL

I'm also thankful that the weather is finally clearing up and we had a gorgeous day of sunshine today. And no wind!! Usually August/September are the windy months here, but for some reason July has been exceptionally windy, and the storms three weeks ago were totally out of character for the weather this time of year. Strange times indeed! So I'm thankful that I could actually sit outside (briefly as it's still quite chilly!) with Jasmine for some much needed Vitamin D. :D

Well, that's enough about me, what are you thankful for today?!

*hugs*

Monday Giggles

Good morning! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. My weekends are starting to merge with weekdays, so I now have no idea what day it is. I woke up yesterday morning wondering why I didn't hear the school bus roar past the house and seriously it took me about 5 minutes to realise it was Sunday and therefore no school buses! *roll eyes* True story.

But enough about me, hope you enjoy today's Monday Giggles!

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays

Today I'm thankful for heaps of things. I've been saving them all up because it has been two weeks since the last Thankful Thursday post! :D So without further ado, I'm thankful for:

• the birth of our sweet little girl. A bit of a bumpy beginning, but I still wouldn't change anything.
  
  
• the absolute calmness and readiness I felt on the day of the birth, from the moment my waters broke until the moment Jasmine made her appearance. I'm sure that's not common for a first time mum!
  
  
• the wonderful midwives at the Blue Mountains District Hospital - even though they did confuse me to death with the seemingly different tips and advice they were giving me. In hindsight, they were all actually saying the same things, just in different ways which made it sound like they were all giving conflicting advice. Then again, perhaps it was just me being tired, stressed and confused. LOL
  
  
• the support from our families, especially my mum and MIL who have brought us lots of food!
  
  
• the way the dogs have accepted Jasmine into the household without being jealous or aggresssive. They're curious, but not scared or territorial. I'm VERY thankful that they haven't wanted to rip her to shreds!!!! LOL
  
  
• the fact that we got off pretty lightly with the severe wind storm that ripped through this area two weeks ago. We had only sustained a bit of roof damage (the capping of the roof somehow got blown off), our compost bin collapsed (still trying to figure out how on earth this happened as nothing fell on it), the canvas cover on the BBQ is MIA, a storage trunk somehow got blown out into the middle of the yard, and a few branches fell off some Banksia shrubs, but everything else was okay.
  
  
• the quick repairs to our roof last Friday, just before all the rain this week!
  
  
• not having to throw out a lot of stuff from the fridge because of not having power for two days (due to the abovementioned storm).
  
  
• the way that Gus has proven me wrong and taken so readily to fatherhood being a very hands-on dad. Love him heaps! :D
  

Phew! That's certainly a long list, isn't it?!?! I better stop there otherwise this post will go on and you'll get bored! Come back next week for another Thankful Thursday! :D

*hugs*

Explore - Adventure

"A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be too short." - Bertrand Russell

The Oxford (Online) Dictionary defines Adventure as an unusual and exciting or daring experience. I must say that I have had a good many experiences in my life that have been unusual, exciting or daring enough to be classified as adventures. I wouldn't say that my whole life is one big adventure, but instead I see my life as made up of a series of adventures. They may not happen everyday, which makes them all the more special when they do happen.

Some of the big adventures in my life thus far include travelling to Hong Kong by myself upon graduating from high school; hiking around Cradle Mountain in Tasmania for at least 3 hours longer because we thought we were taking an easier route (but of course it ended up much, much more difficult!!); and scoring a free trip to Canada with Workskills Australia. These were definitely memorable adventures, but so too are the small, everyday adventures like heading down to Chinatown with my work colleague in our lunch break to buy Emperor Puffs or going on a photo safari in our local neighbourhood or even something really simple like taking a different route when walking the dogs. For me, it's the little adventures that shape my life. The big adventures just add a bit more excitement.

What adventures have you had today - big OR small?

*hugs*

Jasmine - Aged 0

Firstly, I want to thank you all for your lovely comments about Jasmine. Both Gus and I loved reading them and I'm sure Jasmine will too once she learns how to read! Love you all heaps! mwah!

Now, Susan Weinroth wrote monthly update posts on her blog (and is still going after a year!) for her little boy Noah and I'm going to steal the idea because I think it's an excellent way of keeping track of Jasmine's growth. I even copied her idea of sticking the number of the month on a onsie, although Susan made her stickers and I went the lazy way and brought them from Picky Sticky! LOL

Kind of looks like Mini Me from Austin Powers, doesn't she? LOL

So, without further ado, here's Jasmine at 0 months (well, she's actually two weeks today, but it's taken me all this time to get a decent photo of her AND to get this post organised!):

• Weighs 3.67kg (8.1 lbs). We still have a little way to go to get her back to her birth weight.
  
  
• Doesn't do much more than eat and sleep like most babies! At the moment she's very good - she's a very contented baby most of the time and will settle fairly easily. Sometimes after a feed she will lie in her bassinet and just look around contentedly. Love this, although I'm wondering how long it will last!! It's probably just the lingering sleepy effect of the jaundice making her so placid!
  
  

Click for larger view.
• Is extremely expressive with so many facial expressions (see photo above)! Of course we love her smiles the best and they're often so spontaneous. :D
  
  
• Will feed every 2-3 hours although if we top her up with formula, she can go 4-5 hours! We do want to wean her off the supplementary formula feeds (and the sooner the better) but mum's milk supply is still not quite enough. (I'm trying, I'm really trying everything!! :( )
  
  
• Wears newborn size 0000 clothing, although we're finding that there doesn't seem to be a standard with baby clothes as some size 0000 will fit exactly and others are way too big!!
  
  

• Absolutely hates having a wet nappy and will complain the whole time until she's changed and her clothing is all back in place. LOL
  
  
• Is very active - just like she was in the womb! She squirms and moves constantly, even when asleep. Flailing her arms about like the robot from Lost in Space is her specialty, although a bit annoying when trying to attach her for a feed. LOL
  
  

• Channels Houdini and will often free her arms and have them up by her head when sleeping, no matter how tight we wrap her up.
  
  

Well, that's our little girl in a nutshell at the start of her life - may it be a long one. Love ya heaps little one!

*hugs*

Explore

Jasmine is two weeks old today. I feel like 200 years old! Thankfully that doesn't show up in the self-portrait! I don't take a lot of self-portraits, although I'd like to, especially ones that don't involve a mirror. I've yet to work out what to focus the camera on if I use a tripod rather than a mirror!

The lack of self-portraits doesn't mean I don't scrap pictures of myself. Gus is always ready to take photos of me which I can scrap. In fact, I think I need more photos and layouts of Gus!!

Creativity is at an all-time low and has been since the start of the pregnancy. Or maybe even before that. Total lack of energy through the pregnancy meant I did very little scrapping, although I did create a few digi LOs. I'm hoping that once a routine has been established with Jasmine, I can get back into scrapping again. At the very least I have a new topic (and a gazillion new photos!) to scrap!

Having said that, I'm trying to remain positive and hope that I can learn to manage my time (and the baby) and my energy levels so that my creativity will come back! I'm actually very surprised at how optimistic I seem to be lately. Is it still pregnancy/new baby hormones? Or perhaps my OLW for this year - {Positive} - IS starting to have an effect on my way of thinking. That would be awesome.

I hope I can at least finish this new class from Shimelle - Explore. I don't really know what we are exploring, but the word alone conjures up adventure and journeys into the unknown. That alone sounds exciting! Will you join me? There's still time to sign up - click here.

*hugs*

Monday Giggles

Yay! Monday Giggles is back. I couldn't leave this off for too long. It's fun hunting around for things that make me laugh, or giggle!

Enjoy!

Three men were discussing at a bar about coincidences. The first man said, " my wife was reading a "tale of two cities" and she gave birth to twins."

"That’s funny", the second man remarked, "my wife was reading 'the three musketeers' and she gave birth to triplets."

The third man shouted, "Good grief, I have to rush home!"

When asked what the problem was, he exclaimed, " When I left the house, my wife was reading Ali baba and the forty Thieves"!!!

Source: A Joke A Day

*hugs*

Introducing . . .

If you've been wondering if my conspicuous absence from this blog means that I've gone and had the baby, then wonder no more (and yes, I do realise some of you have been stalking this blog awaiting the news!!!)! Let me introduce you to...

Little Miss Jasmine!

Over a week and a half ago, on Tuesday 5 July, little Jasmine entered the world at 1.36am after mum laboured for about 10 hours (completely natural birth, no interventions although copious amounts of both nitrous gas and much appreciated encouragement from hubby was required at times).

Weighing in at 3.9kg (8.6lbs) and 51cm in length, she wasn't a small baby! Upon taking her first breath of fresh air, she immediately let us all know that her lungs were in perfect working order and that being naked and cold and out in the big wide world was most uncomfortable.

Dad was immediately smitten by this new little being. Mum was a bit too exhausted at the time to really take it all in and just wanted to close her eyes and sleep!

Once she had been weighed and measured and cleaned up a little, she was returned to the care of mum and dad. All three were then lead out of the Birthing Suite to one of the suites in the Maternity ward for some much needed rest.

Three days later, it didn't look as if we were going to be able to leave the hospital just yet. Jasmine developed jaundice from not getting enough fluids (mum's milk was slow in coming and in short supply). This is where things started getting distressing, moreso for mum and dad than baby herself. Due to the high levels of bilirubin (toxin associated with jaundice) in her body, there was no choice but to undergo Phototherapy (UV light) treatment. However, the weather last week was very cold, and severe wind storms had even taken out the power to the hospital on two nights (airconditioning cannot be run on generator power, so for those two nights, we almost froze!). Hence the midwives weren't taking any chances and Jasmine was put into a Humidicrib (incubator) just so that she didn't freeze to death as she had to lie under the lights completely free of clothing, even her nappy. Watching her sleep in a big, noisy machine under blue lights was not pleasant at all. (Several other events lead to even more distress and anxiety, but I'll spare you all the details - thankfully nothing was really that serious.)

Thankfully God had His firm hand on the whole ordeal, and a little short of 24 hours later, the bilirubin levels had dropped to a manageable level and the Phototherapy was no longer needed. We had to stay in hospital one more night for monitoring and to make sure that the bilirubin levels stayed down, but at least we were over the major hurdle.

Finally on the morning of Sunday, 10 July, Jasmine was given the all clear and we were able to take her home. We still have the breastfeeding hurdle to overcome, but hopefully that will sort itself out over time.

In the meantime, we have the fun job of trying to work out some sort of routine, getting rest where we can (although I'm finding this is an almost impossible task!), but best of all, enjoying our new little bundle of joy. (psst - she already has daddy firmly wrapped around BOTH her little fingers. LOL)

I'll leave you with a few last photos and hope that this whole post has made sense. Very little sleep is completely addling my brain and ability to string meaningful sentences together! :D

Hopefully normal programming will return to this blog, although don't hold me to that! LOL


*hugs*

Monday Giggles

Wow! I can't believe it's Monday again already - where do the weeks' go?!?!

Here's another parenting fail I should definitely learn from.

Enjoy!

*hugs*

Weekend Wrap-up

I don't normally do a Weekend Wrap-up but this weekend was particularly pleasant.

I didn't want a Baby Shower - too much fuss - but a few friends of mine from work decided to have a "Baby-Shower-in-the-guise-of-a-get-together" anyway. :D We went to Lillianfels on Saturday for High Tea. You might remember we did this last October for our wedding anniversary so I'll spare you the photos of the delicious food. ;)

Instead, here's a photo of my friends' gorgeous little baby, snuggled up against Clancy (or was his name Claude? I can't remember now! Sadly, he had lost his name tag. :( ).

My delightful friends brought me lots of presents, of which I don't really want to show you as they are mostly practical items such as breast pads and disposable change mats and other such necessities for when baby finally arrives! What I can show you though is the lovely cake that was made for me:

I was very touched as I wasn't expecting this either - it's such a lovely cake!! I must explain however that since I wouldn't tell my friend the proposed name of my baby, she had to resort to "Baby Hua" instead. LOL

It was lovely to catch up with them, even though I've only been off work for two weeks. :D I'm also touched that they did travel all the way up here to the Mountains to spend the time with little ol' me! Thanks guys - mmwah!!

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the rest of the weekend - just good memories:

• Saturday night dinner at Monte Bello in Katoomba where they have a most delicious duck risotto.
• After dinner coffee at The Carrington historic hotel, whilst sitting in front of a huge {fake gas} fire and enjoying the Yulefest (Christmas in July) decorations.
• Sunday breakfast at The Conservation Hut in Wentworth Falls overlooking a gorgeous fog filled Valley of the Waters.
• Taking the dogs out for a good run at a nearby park.
• Spending the rest of Sunday afternoon chilling out.

I hope you all had a good weekend too!

*hugs*

A Layout to Share

I love using sketches, and I love this new challenge blog (Once Upon A Sketch) that has only recently started up. Their challenges combine gorgeous sketches with great journalling prompts, which I think is great as I'm starting to learn to document the stories rather than just scrapping pretty pictures.

When I saw the sketch for the current challenge, I couldn't resist and knew it would be perfect for my growing tummy photos. Of course, being the procrastinator I am, the LO has taken me all week to do and I uploaded this at the very last moment! LOL (Thanks to Blogger, I unfortunately had to link to my Flickr page rather than this lovely blog post in order to make the deadline!)

Here's the sketch:

And here's my LO:

Credits: My Wonderland Kit by KLewis; Flower stamp from Spring Vine Borders by MWise; Title from Pregnancy Brush by AEdwards; Strip Templates by LWeifenbach; Tab Journals by JBullock; Journalling font - LD Soccer Mom by ScrapNFonts

Click on the picture to get a bigger view. The journalling reads: Here I am in the last 3 months of pregnancy. What a journey it has been! It's been quite interesting watching both my tummy AND you growing, and now it's almost time to meet you!

Apart from taking part in challenges on UKScrappers (which I haven't done now for a loooong time!), this is my very first entry to a Challenge blog. How exciting!

Thanks for looking! :D

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays...on Friday!

Well, here we are with Thankful Thursday on a Friday! No thanks to Blogger giving me nothing but a "Bad Request Error 400" all of yesterday.

Today I'm thankful that even though I might not have the energy to sit at my craft desk and flit around my craft room looking for supplies, I still have a creative outlet through digi-scrapping. Whilst it doesn't quite have the same satisfaction level for me as scrapping with real supplies, it's still scrapping!! Unfortunately, I still procrastinate just as much with digi-scrapping as real life scrapping, perhaps even more so due to being able to undelete anything! Looking for supplies is not as easy either, but I must say that there is still some satisfaction in seeing a finished page. The good thing is that I tend not to go back to fiddle with a page once I've deemed it finished and it's been published somewhere, like on this blog!

(BTW, see next post for details on that lovely page featured in today's picture. :D)

Since you're reading this, you can safely assume that bubby still hasn't made her appearance. Maybe I should be thankful too that I have the patience to wait out these last few weeks? LOL

What are you thankful for today?

*hugs*