I know it's crazy but I love my family!

The last 5 days we have celebrated my Mum's Birthday. My house has been full of my family. This used to feel like a chore to me - I would love it for the first few hours and then I would be wanting my house and my space back. Though when everyone left yesterday and the house was quiet I felt a little bit empty. I then realised that not only do I want Paddy to be surrounded by family, I want to be surrounded by family.

We have never been a close family and I have always turned to my girlfriends instead of my sister but I think that having babies has brought some common ground between two very different people. And our maturity to realise the differences we have as mothers and women and the ability not to judge and feel judged is what is bringing us together as sisters.

Now to convince her to move closer...........

And my Mum, what can I say! She was with me every step of my pregnancy. She was in the birth suite waving a hand fan in front of my face for 12 hours straight. She was up for every feed with me when Paddy was a newborn. And she comes to stay a few nights every week to be with us. Seriously what a women! And what an inspiration as a mother - a mother who has always put her children ahead of herself. I can't wait for her to enjoy every minute of her grandson.

Now to convince her to move into our house full-time.....

This is my beautiful family at Mum's birthday luncheon. I love you all.

Come back soon!!!!

Who Irons Anymore?

A friend said to me yesterday "I have to go home and do the ironing". Was she blowing me off or do people still have the traditional ironing basket in the corner.

I used to but found that I would only ever iron what I wanted to wear and left the rest. Now I don't even know where my iron is. I just take everything off the line and hang it up straight away.

If I don't have an ironing basket does that make me a bad person?

A Satisfying Day

I was working on my feet again all day and Paddy fed what seeemed like every hour again all day but as I am sitting at my computer reflecting on the day I have a feeling of ummmm.....satisfaction.

A few things happened today.....

After weeks of battling with Paddy in the car we finally bought a car seat and faced him forward. Today was his first trip in it and it was quite successful. Only minimal crying compared to all out screaming for the half an hour it takes me to get to work.

I went to the Op Shop today. I needed fabric to make this for my Mum's Birthday luncheon (it is a green, white and lavender theme). Glad to say I found an apron, some napkins and scrap fabric which I think will work.

On my hunt for green fabric I found this little top which I think is great (will be even better when my milk starts to calm down if you know what I mean....!) I hate to admit it but this is my first serious clothes buy from an Op Shop. I have always bought clothes for the fancy dress parties but nothing that I would actually wear. Now I am going to start to look more seriously.

And lastly I received my Etsy order in the post. My serious Mum earrings - I love dangly earrings but now I have little hands that like to grab I decided to invest in some smaller dangles. These are from Simple Serendipity. Check out Sara's shop - it is full of cute little inexpensive earrings.

So on reflection today was a day that was satisfying. That's all you can ask for I guess.

Now all I want to do is crawl into bed and be done with it!

Sunsets

I may have worked all day on my feet... I may have had a baby that refused to be put down all day.... I may be stuck in traffic....

But at least when I stop at the traffic lights I get to appreciate this beautiful yellow sunset.

Monday Mamma: Sleeping Through!

We are full of celebrations at our house - we are on Day 4 of Paddy not feeding at night. For the last four nights the latest I have fed him is 9pm and then he doesn't feed again until 5am. He wakes twice every night and we just give him his dummy and he goes back to sleep. It is a huge step in our house. Up until now I have been feeding him twice during the night.

When he was born I read The Contented Little Baby Book and implemented the routine that she recommended. The main aim of this routine is to get the baby used to the difference between day and night. So during the day we would feed and then be awake for a period of time before we go down to sleep. This was hard to do with a newborn who wanted to sleep all the time - we tried all the tricks in the book including wiping his face with a wet washer! Then when we settled at night we had a bath and then fed with dimmed lights and the night feeding was always done with no talking and no lights.

As Paddy and I have gotten used to each other we have worked out a routine that works for us but isn't exactly by routines in the book. We have been doing this for the past 4 weeks or so. And now at 10 weeks we are one step closer to sleeping completely through the night.

I am dreaming of all things that may be possible if I got a block of sleep longer than 3 hours. Imagine if I could sleep for 8 hours straight - the possibilities are endless!

Mothers Groups vs. Playgroups

In the 10 short weeks of Paddy's life I have had the experience of both a Mothers Group and a Playgroup.

I attended a Mothers Group where you took your child into a different room where carers minded them (I got to keep Paddy with me because he was so small). There was food and tea and candles burning in the mothers room. The focus was on the mothers - mothers contributed by sharing their stories about what is going on with them.
I then attended a small playgroup in the town closest to us. There were about 6 mothers there with their children and it was a great facility with heaps of activities for the kids. The focus here was on playing with your babies.

Being a new Mum I feel so positive about this new phase in my life. When I attended the Mothers Group I left feeling so negative about having a baby - how having a baby changes me not for the better. At the playgroup the atmosphere was so much more positive. We were engaged with our children and everyone there, though I am sure some people get to the end of their rope on lots of days, was in a positive frame of mind. These people weren't looking for time apart from their children, they gained strength and positivity from interacting with their babies.
I couldn't believe that two groups of mothers who are in the same stages of life could be so different in their attitudes.

So I have decided that I need to leave the negative Mothers Group behind and join in with the positive Playgroup. Eventhough Paddy is too small to play in the sandpit or swing on the swings he is still exposed to an atmosphere that values his contribution and engages with him.

Monday Mamma: Freedom in our Routine

In the spirit of The Byron Life we are joining in on Monday Mamma posts.

Being a new Mum there are so many new experiences that I go through every day. What is new to me is the constant routine that I now find myself in and the restrictive feelings of living inside the walls of a routine.

My life before Paddy was so easy. I lived for spontaneity - I loved waking up late and deciding what we would do for the day while lying with my hubby in bed. Working for ourselves we weren't really ever restricted in our day.

And then BAM this all changed. To go anywhere we had to time it with the sleeping and feeding. Even in the home I couldn't just go for a walk outside.

I remember when Paddy was first born this was the reality that hit me the hardest - "I am never ever able to do things on my time or by myself again". I had worked my life to get to a space where nobody could restrict what I did. I didn't feel obligated to do anything - everything I did was something that I wanted to do. I lived my life for me. And when that reality hit I was really truly scared.

But what a difference 9 weeks can make. Now Paddy and I are starting to get to know each other we can work together. I no longer have to wait until sleep time before we can put him in the car to go somewhere. I feel more comfortable about taking him out of the house because I know what is wrong when he is upset (well 80% of the time anyway!)

The reality that I am tied to my little man is now a joy. I no longer mind bowing to his routine because my love for him dictates everything - I would do anything for him.

Strangly enough in this what was once a restrictive routine I have found a person within me that is capable of living for someone else and that feeling is liberating. Probably because it comes from a source of absolute pure love.

Breastfeeding and Drinking

Let me set the scene..... Last night we were having visitors over. It got to 4pm and I was feeling really flat, my day had been really challenging and I really felt like a wine to try and lift me up before the visitors arrived.

So I grabbed this glass. I filled one quarter of it with wine and the rest with soda water and I drank it right after I fed Paddy. And I felt super. I had the music going, Paddy and I were dancing and I thought to myself this has done the trick.

About one hour after that I hit a major wall. I felt sick in the stomach and I got the most amazing headache. I felt ridiculous for even thinking that I needed that wine to help me through the night.

Am I destined to be without wine in my life forever? Or is it my body telling me that my one glass of wine was totally unnecessary?

Any breastfeeding and drinking stories or advice would be appreciated......

Housekeeping Thursdays

I never in my life thought I would have a designated day for cleaning the house. So how on earth did I get to a place where I clean my house on Thursdays? Can I really blame this one on hormones....?

At least my toilets, my bathrooms, my floors, my washing is all done on one day. And more importantly I know that every Thursday night I get to crawl into a bed with clean sheets. An event that to me is pretty close to pure bliss.

Time to pick up where I left off....

I am back online at home. Being online and working out my baby's sleeping habits (finally!) means I can get back to regular blogging. I am so enthused to be back online that I started a new blog to record our family adventures - The Simple Cooks

I toyed with ending the Maree Rose blog. A couple of reasons.....

I felt like this blog was just about me and I felt that I am so much more than I was now that I have Paddy.

I felt a bit self-centred having a blog about my life that didn't record everything about him.

Then I thought a little more clearly - I need to have this part of me to stay strong. I can't completely give up on everything for me just because Paddy isn't the main focus.

So with that sorted I will use this blog to record my mission to get on track to a simple world. Achieveing this has become even more important now he is here with us.

This renewed excitement started when I did a Frugal Housekeeping workshop. I am lucky enough to live in the same part of the world as Rhonda from Down To Earth. I attended her free workshop in Maleny and it was brilliant. If you haven't checked out her blog you must - she is a truly inspiring woman.

Anyway, I have her notes close by at all times and am getting through them step by step.

Step One for us is Tracking our Money and Budgeting.

A budget has always floated around in our lives we have just never stuck to it.

We are both tracking where we are spending our money - I have followed Rhonda's suggestion and have a little notebook to write down everything that I spend my money on. Then we can see where it all goes and work on reducing the wasteful spending. In just one week it has made me think about everything I buy.

Give it a go.....