Something to Smile about!

First things first! Dan got his old job back! So that's GREAT News!!!!

Although he hasn't actually been able to start yet because work has been put off with all this rain! (But at least he has a job - so we're not complaining!)

We took Kayla to see a proper Private Doctor on Monday because I got sick of useless public GP's who can't wait to push you out the door! We saw Dr. Kerry who is a lovely lady and checked out Kayla head to toe. She believes she has bad colic which is probably the reason for most of her discomfort, though she was a little concerned with Kayla's hernia - as it is looking a little bigger than normal...

Poor Bubette! :-(

She has referred us to a pediatrician to have a good look at it. (Finally!!! A doctor who took me seriously!) Other than that - she is one healthy baby!

Her strange poos have seemed to clear up, and we think it may have been from the type of formula we were using. We changed her formula to goats milk, and almost immediately her poos went back to normal! But she still seems to be in pain a fair bit like she has tummy aches, and she farts all the bloody time! (Like HUGE rippers! - it's almost embarrassing to take her out in public! hehe :-P) But hopefully that will get better soon - the poor thing!

Other than her discomforts - she is such a happy gorgeous wee thing! Her personality is really shining through by the day now and she is so full of smiles and laughs. She has adorable bursts of excitment and kicks her little legs around and throws her arms up in the air with a smile. She is holding her own head up now and turns her head towards voices and follows moving objects with her eyes more easily. She's starting to babble and goo and gah like she is trying to talk it is soooo cute it makes my heart melt!

I say 'Hello Darling' to her a lot - it's pretty much the first thing I say to her when she wakes. I swear she said 'Hello' only yesterday like she was trying to mimic my sounds! I know it could be a coincidence but it wouldn't suprise me if it wasn't! The sound she made was like "Hellooo bahingg" almost like she was trying to say "Hello darling!" LOL! She's such a little sweetypie!

I have been getting cute snippit videos of her every now and then, but unfortunately it is so hard to upload them to this blog (which is why I hardly post them!) Uploading videos only seem to work from my Mums computer and even then it can take hours! But when I get some time next time I'm over there I will try and upload a few for ya's to see - because it really is lovely to see her in action rather than just still shots all the time!

But for now, all I can post is more photos...

OMG! Look at this!...Heck she has grown so much!

Thanks for stopping by! xx

Life goes on...

Well everything got a bit better after that horrid Friday the 13th! Kayla's birth certificates dried out and recovered well enough to not have to apply for another one! So that's fine with us!

The file for Kayla's photo book couldn't be fixed but I started from scratch again and I like my new design better than the last - so I'm happy about that!

Things got better with Kayla and she started sleeping better, and everything seemed back to normal again.

But then suddenly things got bad again!!

Yesterday Kayla was back to being very irritable and there was just no settling her! She's such a happy bubbly baby, but the poor darling seems to have a problem with constipation and will be smiling one second and screaming in pain the next!

She seems to scream in pain when she is trying to poo, and when she finally does - it's a dark green stool - followed by a very runny yellow diarrhea. It has been like this twice now and it doesn't look normal at all, so we will be taking her to the doctors tomorrow to have her checked out.

And as if that's not enough - poor Dan has come down with the flu and is very crook at the moment, so Kayla and I may have to stay at Mum and Dads for a bit while Dan recovers before Kayla catches it too. Although my throat is very sore and I have a splitting headache at the moment, so she may not escape it after all! (That's if she hasn't got it already!)

But the biggest bad news of all is Dan lost his job today! Nothing he did wrong, but unfortunately a whole bunch of employees at his work were let go today because they just don't have enough work for them all any more... and unfortunately Dan was one of them!

It's a little devastating and daunting suddenly having no income with a mortgage to pay off and a baby to raise! But life goes on...

We're keeping positive about everything in hopes that Dan will find more work easily and quickly (fingers crossed.) It would have been nice if they had given him a bit of notice at least instead of cutting him off like that with no warning... but that's life I guess!

Lucky for Dan - his boss's wife from his old job told him that he was always welcome to go back there if things didn't work out with this job. So he contacted them this afternoon and they've asked him to go in on Friday to discuss if they may have some work for him.

We are hoping that it will be good news because we don't know what we're going to do otherwise!

So wish us luck peoples!! :-)

On a brighter note, I've finally taken a few more piccys of the little Miss! I was having a good look at her today and realized that she really has grown so much since the wee Bubette we took home from the hospital! So I whipped out the camera and started snapping away!

I'm still yet to capture her gorgeous gummy smile, but the camera has a 2 second delay and I always just miss it! (So annoying!) But she's cute anyway whether she is smiling or not...

CHUBBA BUBBA...

Thanks for stopping by! xx

FRIDAY THE 13TH!

Boy what an unfortunate day!!!

Ya know how some days run so smoothly and everything is great with not a worry in the world? And then you get the odd day where everything goes wrong like the day is out to get you and will stop and nothing?! Well today was one of those days!!!

The night before last, Kayla was absolutely perfect! It was the first time I had felt truly confident in myself as a Mother. She barely cried once, as I had developed a routine and was able to attend to her needs before she even knew that she needed them! Like at feeding time, rather than her letting me know that she was hungry - I already knew, and was able to catch her just as she was waking up rather than waiting for her to cry. I would feed her, burp her and she would go back to sleep like a little angel until the next feed. (AND she would let me put her down to sleep!!) The whole day and night continued like this and it was the best day I had yet! I felt that finally Motherhood had become like a second nature to me, and that I was very in tune with her and could deal with any problems that would occur.

Today though... was a DIFFERENT STORY!!!

First in the early hours from about midnight to 2am the little Miss was more agitated then she has ever been! She just would not settle! Didn't want her bottle, didn't want cuddles and wouldn't go to sleep!!! It was really heartbreaking just not knowing what was wrong or how to fix it! But eventually she just ended up crying herself to sleep.

I ended up getting too worked up myself to be able to drift off to sleep when she had finally nodded off. So I didn't actually fall asleep until about 4am! But then half an hour later, Kayla woke up screaming again for a feed.

I know she was hungry because she was long past due for a feed (but wouldn't feed earlier) plus she was doing the 'Neh Neh' signal for hunger and sucking on anything that came near her mouth lol! She was absolutely starving but she just would not take her bottle! I would put the bottle up to her mouth and she would start sucking like mad, but then immediately push it away and would start getting really worked up!

I tried changing the bottle, changing the teat, changing the formula and even tried putting her on the breast! But she just would not have it! It couldn't have been her oral thrush causing her discomfort because it has just about cleared up. I tried burping her, comforting her, changing her, bathing her, giving her a massage for belly wind, playing with her, entertaining her, nursing her to sleep EVERYTHING!!! But it seemed the more I tried, the more worked up she got.

All I could do was wait till she cried herself to sleep again and then when she finally did she would wake up every 10minutes - scream - reject the bottle - and scream herself to sleep again! By this stage I was just soooo tired it was really testing my patience! Finally she seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep when Dan was about to leave for work, and I thought (hoped) that she would sleep through and give me a chance to get some proper sleep myself.

Just as I began to drift off, Dan came in and handed me a parcel that he had spotted on the front lawn as he was driving out. It was Kayla's birth certificate that we had waited ages for!

It cost us over $60 for a standard Birth Certificate and a professional one to frame. But to my horror, due to a big storm last night, both of these certificates were DRENCHED in water and totally ruined!! So now we are going to have to get another one!!

Being already emotional and totally sleep deprived - I just started bawling my eyes out! Poor Dan felt awful leaving me like that but tried to comfort me by saying "It's OK hun, Kayla is finally asleep, you can get your sleep now." So now it was my turn to cry myself to sleep!

But just as I was beginning to drift off and Dan had just pulled out of the driveway, Kayla started screaming again! Now I was too tired to physically deal with it. At about 8am it had just came to the point where I did not have the energy to try anymore so I had to call Mum to come and take her away from me.

But as it turned out - she was on her way anyway because Mum looks after Kayla every Friday! I was just so tired, I thought it was still Thursday! lol!

Mum took her to the pharmacy to see a baby specialist to get her weighed and measured to keep an eye on her growth. She's a little on the chubby side but that's a good thing! Means she is feeding well and is not underweight! But this lady believes that she has bad colic and reflux! So maybe that is what the problem is. Also I should mention that at Kayla's 6 week check up we found out that her belly button problem is actually a hernia! But not to worry because apparently it doesn't cause her discomfort and should hopefully disappear as she grows. If it is still there when she is 3 years old she'll have to have surgery.

Meanwhile, I caught up on some much needed rest but had developed a horrible miagraine which had me waking in agony every hour or so! Good thing Mum had Kayla for the day because I didn't get up until 3pm!!

Just before Mum returned Kayla to me (4:30pm) I jumped on the computer to carry on with a project I've been working on in my spare time. It's this program where you create gorgeous photobooks to capture all your wonderful memories. It's very expensive to get published, but it's amazing quality and takes a lot of time and creativity to create so it's well worth it. (My Brother Danial's girlfriend just had one made of their holiday - it's absolutely beautiful!) I have been working on one for Kaylas first year (Much like this blog - transformed into a book) and by the end of the year I wanted to get it published.

Hours and hours of creativity and hard work has been put into this book and getting every page absolutely perfect (I had 30 pages so far!) But when I tried to open it to do some more to it before Kayla got here... an error message appeared saying 'File corrupted, unable to open file.'

All my hard work into this beautiful book................. GONE!!!!!

I have tried everything to get it back... but it's just not going to happen! :-(!!! I'm going to have to start from scratch again!

I am absolutely devastated to lose 2 precious keepsakes in one day! First Kayla's Birth Certificate and now this! *sigh*

I heard that Friday the 13th is a very unlucky day - but this is ridiculous!

I just hope I don't come across a black cat...

*giggles*

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

(Sorry I don't have any more photos to show you at this stage - I went to take some but the batteries went flat in my camera! [of course they did! I couldn't be so lucky on a day like today!])

Thanks for stopping by! xx

A Very Special Day!

WooHoo! Last night Kayla went to her first party! It was a combined party for the big Birthday Month!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother 'Uncle Danial' who turned 30 on the 1st! My other brother 'Uncle Paul' who also turned 30 on the 3rd! My Mumma 'Nanny' who turned 46 on the 6th! And Meeeeeeee who will be turning 25 on the 10th!!! We also celebrated our gorgeous new addition Kayla who was finally met by some other family members and friends for the first time! AND it was also the anniversary of the day Dan and I first met and fell in love 5 years ago! Which means that it was also JMay and Mikeys 5th Wedding Anniversary on this day too!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GUYS!!! .... Boy! What a day!

I'll post some more photos soon, I've just got to get them off Mum and Dad! But it was a great night, Dan and I really enjoyed ourselves and little Kayla got loads of attention!! (Of course she would!) She was very content all night and was quite happy to be the center of attention and loved having cuddles with everyone! (It was nice for Dan and I to have a wee break too!)

This day was even more special because earlier that day Kayla LAUGHED for the first time! It was the most gorgeous thing in the world!!! She often chuckles in her sleep like in the video I uploaded in one of my other posts, but this was a full on baby laugh while she was wide awake!

Actually it's quite a funny story! With all the sleepless nights I've had lately I've been sleeping in rather late (because that's when Kayla sleeps too!) But on this day I wanted to get up early to help Mum prepare for the party (as it was held at Mum and Dads house) But I had suddenly woken up in a mad panic and I was so disoriented that I had thought that it was well after 6pm and I had missed the party! lol!

Dan was in the loungeroom watching Kayla at the time, when I came flying out of the bedroom yelling "WHERE'S THE PHONE? WHERE'S THE PHONE!!?" (We actually have no clocks in the house! So we rely on our mobile phones to tell us the time lol!) Dan didn't know why I was freaking out but he jumped up quick and handed Kayla to me to go and search for the mobile for me - no questions asked lol. I was still half asleep and panicy believing it was very late in the afternoon - I'd hardly registered that Kayla was in my arms!

I was holdng her, but hadn't even looked at her - instead I was anxiously watching Dan searching franticly for the phone and I started yelling in frustration "THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!! WE NEED TO BUY A BLOODY CLOCK!!!" I was so frustrated and angry because I was convinced that I had missed my own party, and poor Dan didn't know what the heck was going on! But I suddenly realised that Kayla was in my arms and I looked down at her.

She was looking straight at me with her eyes lit up and she had the biggest most cutest cheekiest smile on her face that I have ever seen her do! It was like nothing I had ever seen before - a total heart melter! Suddenly I had this completely calming feeling come over me, it just totally melted my heart. "Oooo Hello my darling" I said to her "Do you find Mummy being angry funny do you?" her big smile hadn't faded, but just as I'd said that, she threw her little head back and started laughing!!! Like a "Ahh ha ha ha" it was so bloody cute I could have just about fainted!

So apparently she finds frustration funny! *giggles* Unfortunately Dan missed it because the poor Bugger was still trying to find the phone! But I suddenly didn't care any more because I was so overjoyed by Kayla's first laugh! Besides... turns out it was only 10am in the morning LOL!!!

I can't wait for her to do it again, I really want Dan to see it! I guess I'll just have to get angry again to make it happen! :-P hehe Jokes!

Other than that, Kayla is doing well! Poor thing has a bit of oral thrush at the moment but it is clearing up quick because we have been treating it so that's fine. We have recently noticed though that her little belly button seems a little too popped out and seems to be popping out a little more each week! When we changed her nappy last night it was looking almost like a wee hernia which is a little worrying!!

But Kayla has her 6 week check up at the doctors tomorrow first thing in the morning (Thank Goodness!) So I will be sure to get it checked out and let you all know how it goes!

Here are a few more piccys...

Who's a cutie?...

"ME ME I'm a cutie!"...

Teddy Snuggles...

Nodding Off...

Thanks for stopping by! xx

Dunstan Baby Language!

Dan and I have learned to use what is called 'Dunstan Baby Language' as a way to understand what Kayla is trying to communicate to us.

(You may have seen the badge about it below on the right sidebar.)

A lot of people have been asking me if it is any good, so I'd thought I'd do a wee post about it!

A friend of ours, Kristy recommended it to us, she used it for her baby twin girls and swears by it! So we thought we'd give it a go too and have also found it to actually be quite amazing! It has proven to be very accurate and certainly makes things a lot easier for us by being able to understand Kayla's sounds and needs.

Dunstan baby Language teaches us that every newborn communicates from birth to 3 months old with 5 distinctive sounds that signal different needs.

Those sounds are:

'Neh' : Meaning Hungry - Kayla does this sound the most as feeding is her biggest need at this stage. She also uses this sound when she just wants to suck on her dummy. The sound Neh is made by a sucking reflex which is common in all newborns, so it's quite clear that they are hungry when they make this sound.

'Eh' : Meaning Gas - This is the second most often sound that Kayla makes usually after she has been fed. Sometimes she will stop during a feed and make this sound, so we will then pop her over the shoulder and pat her back until she burps. Once she has burped if she is still hungry she will use the 'Neh' sound to let us know that she has not finished feeding. Very handy indeed!!

'Eairh' : Meaning Lower wind - This is a longer sound, the sound that even I make when I have a belly ache! lol! Kayla is quite a windy baby so she suffers quite a bit with lower wind. Although we burp her during and after every feed, she still manages to get some wind trapped in her belly. (Thank God for the 'Eh' sound though, because if we never learned it - her lower wind could be much worse!) So this sound lets us know that she is in pain and needs help to do a big fluffy! *hehe* To help this, we place her on her belly, massage her back and rock her back and forth until she is relieved. We also use a natural medicine called 'wind drops' which can help too if it gets really bad.

'Owh' : Meaning Tired - Kayla has only just started using this sound quite a bit when she is really over tired but fights to stay awake. (Like when she just wants to sleep in somebodies arms!) It's much like a whingey yawn. Cuddles and being rocked to sleep fixes this, but we are still working on being able to put her back down! (As I mentioned in the last post.)

and lastly...

'Heh' : Meaning Discomfort - This sound is used the least with Kayla, in fact I've only heard it once or twice and that was when she was rolling herself into awkward positions and needed help getting comfortable again. They say that babies will make this sound when they need their nappies changed, but I haven't found that with Kayla (All babies are different I guess!) besides... she hates getting her nappy changed so she probably doesn't want us to know when she has a dirty bum! :-P lol.

Most of the sounds seem very similar and easily mistaken and hard to tell apart. I thought it was going to be hard to make out these sounds at first but it's amazing how fast you can differentiate the sounds of your own baby!

So overall I think it has been very handy for us especially as new parents, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone else that is expecting a newborn in the near future. (And there are quite a few of our friends with belly beans at the moment! ;-))

Next we will be using Baby Sign Language for Kayla from when she has hit 3 months old. JMay and Mikey used this for Bonnie and say that it has been very successful, so we will definitely be giving that a go too.

Oh! I just realized I haven't got any new photos to post with this!! (Been so busy I haven't had the time!)

Hang on... I'll go take a quick snapshot of her right now...

Here ya go...

Cheeky Chops...

haha!

Thanks for stopping by! xx