Thankful Thursdays & LSNED Day 15

The Blue Mountains is a World Heritage area, rich in natural bushland and history. I love the laidback atmosphere where you can sometimes feel isolated, but also part of the community if you want. Then of course there is the gorgeous natural landscapes. Although extremely prone to bushfires, the area is still lovely to live in and explore. Then there is the Three Sisters (in the photo above and perhaps one day I'll tell you the story behind these three rock formations) - possibly the most famous landmark of the area. I'm thankful for the fact that I live in such a beautiful part of Australia.

What are you thankful for today?

Today's lesson is more of a previously learned lesson that was confirmed. We've had the feeling that Jasmine has been fussy and unsettled (especially during the afternoons) due to the fact that she's been missing daddy now that he's back at work. Well, perhaps today (and the past weekend) had confirmed that as she has hasn't had her afternoon fussy period and has been reasonably content. I think only time can fix this one particular issue. And possibly a very healthy dose of patience!!!



(Sorry if this post today sounds disjointed and/or not completely comprehensible. Lack of sleep and a currently grumpy Jasmine has frazzled me a bit and my brain doesn't seem to be working. I know it's silly, but I'm kind of stressed out that I didn't get this post up on Thursday - as it's just gone midnight now. Really it shouldn't matter in the scheme of things, and no doubt I'll (hopefully) forget all about it tomorrow, after the post is up anyway!)

*hugs*

Thankful Thursday

Some days finding the Positive in the everyday or finding something beyond the basics to be thankful for is really easy. Other days, it's almost like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Today is one of those latter days.

However, as I started to compose this post, God made me realise that I actually have it good and all the complaints and negativity that I was going to write just all disappeared. On the whole, Jasmine really is a good baby and if on days like today she screams (not cries) for a solid hour and a half, well, that's nothing compared to some other babies. And I'm just thankful that I don't have multiple babies (sorry Ali if you're reading this!).

Yes, I may be extremely exhausted.
Yes, I may feel frazzled beyond belief because of her crying.
Yes, I may feel like I'm at the end of my tether.
But hey, I did manage to survive today and I'll be able to survive other days like it. I just needed to take a step back and be thankful how Jasmine is now for it could be a lot worse.

Are you going through trying times at the moment and find it hard to be thankful? Or are you the opposite to me today and have upteen things to be thankful for?

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays

Today I'm really grateful that Gus has been able to take so much time off work (8 weeks in total) to help me with the first two months of Jasmine's life. He has been an awesome help and such a hands-on dad. Changing nappies, bottle preparation AND feeding and bath-time have all been his domain. Not to mention taking out the nappy bin!! Next week he goes back to work and I'll be all alone again and really missing him. I'm sure Jasmine will miss him too. Let's just hope that doesn't mean she will be too out-of-sorts for me from now on!

I'm thankful today too for the pretty flowers that have popped up now that Spring has hit the Southern Hemisphere. Our cherry blossom is in full bloom, as is our little apricot tree and the flowers are gorgeous. Although I'm reluctant to let go of winter (I do love the cold weather), I do love the Mountains in Spring - just as lovely as the Mountains in Autumn!

What are you thankful for today?

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays

Just sneaking this weeks' Thankful Thursday post at the last minute (it's 5 mins to midnight right now). I know I missed last week's Thankful Thursday - last week was a bit of a difficult week and I must admit that was hard come up with anything I was thankful for. In hindsight though, there was lots of things I could have been thankful for, but there you have it.

Anyway, back to what I'm thankful for today:

Jasmine had her first immunisation shots this week. Unfortunately I couldn't get any photos as I was holding Jasmine at the time and Gus had gone back to the house to get something and missed the whole event! Nevertheless, I still have the memory. :D

Jasmine had one oral injection and two needles, one in each thigh. I was so proud of her as she was soooo good with all three injections. The oral one she took without any issue, and apart from a short scream from the initial pain of the needles, she settled really quickly and forgot all about it within minutes!

We were given both a pep talk and a handout about the possible reactions she could develop from the injections, so we braced ourselves for what was to come. It was a big relief to find that today, two days later, the only reaction she really had was just being sleepy for the 24 hours following the injections. She had a very slight swelling on one thigh, but it didn't seem to bother her.

So I'm thankful that we've passed this hurdle without any hassle at all!

Is there something that you're thankful for today? Let me know!

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays

Just a quick one today. I'm thankful for the lovely flowers that I managed to buy today. I haven't had any flowers in the house for a while now. We had some when Jasmine was born but not for a long time before that. I love having fresh flowers in the house as they always make me smile. I hope they make you smile too. :D

What are you thankful for today?

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays

Today I'm thankful for the opportunities that we've had to take all three babies (two-legged and four-legged!) for walks this week. The weather has been beautiful, sunny and strangely warm for this time of year, so we've taken advantage of this and we've managed to take them out three times this week. That's three times more than the poor dogs have been out for at least a month!! We've all enjoyed the walks, although the two-legged baby hasn't noticed much as she was fast asleep for all three walks! LOL

Please excuse the poor quality of the above photo. I forgot to take the camera and the photo was taken on Gus' mobile, which isn't that crash hot. I can fix it, but right now I'm too tired, brain dead and generally can't be bothered and you get the idea of what story the photo is conveying anyway, I hope! Oh, and if you're wondering where the two-legged baby is, wonder no more (LOL):

Other things I've been thankful for this week:

• a delightful pizza lunch and catch up with friends at work, and a chance to show off Jasmine.
  
  
• successfully managing to take Jasmine out for one full day, which included ensuring that we were in the vicinity of a Shopping Centre Parents Room or other appropriate place for feed times!
  
  
• glorious Spring-type weather in the middle of Winter - go figure.
  
  
• decreased frequency of feeds, which has resulted in at least half-an-hour or so more of rest/sleep between feeds, yay! Some semblance of sanity has been returned to both Gus and myself. LOL
  
  
• increased acceptance of the fact that Jasmine isn't going to grow an extra head or have all her limbs drop off just because I've had to feed her on the bottle. (Only kidding - I'm hugely exaggerating my distrust of formula feeds. I do realise that formula isn't that bad. I myself was a formula fed baby and I turned out okay...I think! LOL)
  

So tell me what have you to be thankful for today. I'd love to know!

*hugs*

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*

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*

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*

Thankful Thursdays

Although the above photo was taken two weeks ago when I was at 36 weeks, not much has changed since then, thus today I'm thankful that the pregnancy is progressing well at this late stage. Baby's head is only just dropping down into my pelvis but it doesn't look like she'll make an appearance any time soon! The rest I'm getting now is really helping as I don't feel as tired and stressed anymore and can just concentrate on preparing myself for the birth. We had our first ante-natal class last Saturday and that was pretty overwhelming - I'm still trying to sift through all the information and emotions! I don't think any class or any advice from other mother's is going to prepare me for what's to come. Am I freaking out? You bet. LOL

What's happening in your neck of the woods that you're thankful for today? :D

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays

Just a quick one today - I'm very thankful that I've finally finished up at work. No more early mornings and long commutes into the city and no more sitting up for hours on end (lying down is MUCH more preferable! LOL). I still have a few things I need to complete, but I can work from home, which I'm also thankful that my workplace has allowed this to continue.

Thanks also to all of you who have been asking about me. I'm currently in my 36th week (37th on Saturday) and thankfully have no problems besides being excessively exhausted and beginning to get a bit impatient! I'll hopefully update you all a bit more over the weekend - if I can get enough rest that is!

Let me know what you're thankful for today. :D

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays

Hello and welcome to Thankful Thursdays!

It's been very cold here in Southeast Aus this week and more so up here in the Mts. Yesterday only got to a top of 5C, brrrrr!! Today doesn't feel any warmer although our weather station did say that the maximum today reached 10.5C. Currently it reads 7.5C with a windchill of 6.8C. BRRRRRR!!!! On the plus side though, I hope we get more snow this year. That would be awesome!! :D

So today, I'm very thankful that we have this awesome gas heater. Not only does it keep the living room warm, it also looks pretty with the flames and fake logs. It also has the added bonus of keeping the dogs quiet as they love to sleep in front of it. Well, at least Pepper does, and with abandon!! :D

What are you thankful for today?

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays

Today I'm thankful for the ease and umpteen means with which we can communicate with one another now. You can call someone on a telephone or mobile phone or Skype; you can send someone an SMS or email or even a hand-written letter (remember those?!?); you can message someone on Facebook; you can leave a comment on a blog; you can chat via ICU (or other chat programmes); you can chat and post messages on forums . . . the list is endless!

Communication is not just restricted to the local neighbourhood either, but encompasses interstate as well as global family and friends. My mind boggles at how small our world has now become due to the simple act of making communications easier to access.

What are you thankful for today?

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays

Photo credit: Exo-guy on Flickr

This week I'm exceedingly thankful for a final opportunity before baby is born to get pampered! Tomorrow I'm booked in to get myself (gently) pummelled and I can't wait! It's been a very stressful few weeks (months?!?!) and I think I definitely deserve this. I'll tell you all about it when I get back. :D

Let me know what you have to be thankful for this week!

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays

Thanks for joining me on another Thankful Thursday! As usual I have a tonne of moans and groans and finding something to be thankful for is getting harder when all I can think about is how sick, tired and achy I'm feeling. However, moans and groans aside, this week I'm VERY thankful for having enough energy and lack of nausea to attend (and thoroughly enjoy!) Ironfest - a local Medieval Festival - this year with a bit of Steampunk thrown in. I'll be blogging more on Ironfest tomorrow (Hopefully! I'm still trying to go through the gazillion and one photos we took on the day!!).

Feel free to let me know what you have to be thankful for today. :)

*hugs*

Thankful Thursdays

Today I'm thankful that when I'm not up to cooking (which has been alarmingly too often in the past 8 months!), I can still get awesomely good food from the shops in the village - all using the freshest ingredients (even organic in some cases!) and all very delicious. Today's choice was an eggplant parmigiana. Mmmmmmm . . .

Along the same lines, I'm also thankful that Gus has stepped up to the plate, faced his fear of the kitchen and isn't doing too badly at cooking! He still needs my guidance of course, but small steps at a time, hey?!? He's awesome and I love him heaps. :D

*hugs*