Wow, what a crazy couple of months. I cannot believe it's already March!
My laptop had to be repaired last month and has only just come back, so I have spent a whole month only able to access the internet from my iphone - not conductive to writing blog posts unfortunately!

Here's what's been happening in my neck'o'the woods lately :

# Riley had a party! He turned six, and we had a fabulous Superhero party at our place :)

He invited 8 boys and 6 came, and they all had a ball playing together with Ry's gifts and running around the backyard. Lucky too, as this usually-super-mega-organised mummy was exhausted after;

# welcoming this gorgeous little guy into the world!


How lucky am I? Not only to I get to experience my own three incredible boys being born, but I also have been priveledged to support not one but two other women in birthing thier babies! Katelyn is my cousin's girlfriend. She has no family or friends here, is very young, and unfortunatly my cousin is not wonderful partner/father material. However, Katelyn is very maternal and a level headed girl, and I think she will do just fine with her little boy with some support.
It was an incredible experience and I will be forever grateful to have been part of Domonic's birth.

# Felix got BIG!!



My littlest bub at birth has turned into my fasted growing boy! He's growing at a rate of knots and all the clothes I brought him for winter are fitting him well already. He'll be in size 0 in the next month or so :(
He's the sweetest thing though, and we all completely adore him! Feeding is going well, and I am sooo enjoying our time together!

I have his birth story half done, so will post that soon. In the meantime, I have developed an icky gastro bug this weekend - perfect timing as Gerard is away at a cub scouts camp with Jackson for the weekend, so I get to look after the others and be sick at the ame time!

Back soon!

Wow, it's Riley's 6th birthday in Feb, and of course I'm in party planning mode!
I convinced He decided to have a superhero theme, and rather than going with spidey or superman (I dont 'do' licenced stuff) I found this gorgeous vintage inspired superhero party kit on sale for only $45 at http://www.tenlittleindians.com.au/ and have been searching out vintage superhero images to print as iron-on transfers to make tee-shirts for each of the kids to wear :)
I am not too sure yet what i'll do about the cake, but i'll have plenty of time to think about it after next week, when three of my four return to school :( We have had such a wonderful holiday break together, and I'm pretty proud of how i've coped with having them all at home and a newborn all at oncce, and 'm a little sad about them going back to school.

The next party to plan is Tegan's 16th!!! She wants a Mad Hatters Tea Party, which will be a lot of fun!

I took Felix to have his photo's taken by a girl in town who is just starting out in digital photography of babies and families. She did an amazing job, and for only a small cost we get a disk of the pictures! Felix was an angel, at six days old - slept through almost the entire shoot!!
Anna hasn't finished putting our disk together yet, but here are a couple she gave me before Christmas;

Well, here I am...back online sans one basketball belly and pro one gorgeous, sweet smelling, cuddly little newborn, isn't he just the sweetest?

Felix Elijah joined us earthside on Saturday 11th December, three days after he was 'due' to arrive and after around 8hrs of labour. He weighed in at a healthy 3500g (7lb12oz) and 50cm length.
Felix's birth story is a little eventful, and I shall get to onto writing it asap, but in the meantime, some pics of Felix's first couple of days :)

Freshly baked - still a little purple!

''He's got blonde hair!!''

Meeting his big brothers The next day - meeting Felix with Mummy (I hemorrhaged and was unable to see visitors the first day)  New Big Brother! Tegan and Felix Jackson is in love!!!! I am home with the four kids all on school holidays for the next six weeks, which almost makes me break out in hives thinking about lol! trying to get into Christmas with lots of carols and Christmas cooking with the kids, but will try and get Felix's birth story on here soon!

Back to the short and sweet birth stories of my boys. Today it's Riley, who's birth was a completely different experience to that I had with Jackson.
Riley was due in Feb 2005. It was the longest, hottest most uncomfortable summer of my life!! I didn't gain as much weight while pregnant with Riley, but with the heat of summer, and the fact that we were renting a house with only one (questionable) air-con, I was completely over it by about 37 weeks!
I joked pleaded with my doctor several times in my 39th week to 'get this baby out', and was completely sick of the whole affair and anticipating another overdue bub.

A week before he was due to arrive, I started havingh contractions while at a friend's house. They lasted most of the day, and after dinner we decided to leave Jackson there over night as we were pretty sure 'this was it'. By midnight it had come to a halt, only adding to my frustration!
The following week, on the day of his due date, the 23rd Feb, I woke at 5.30am with an almighty contraction. It was stronger than any I had felt through almost the entire labour with Jackson, and I got a bit of a shock when they contined irregularly in this fashion for most of the day. Again frustrated however, that I would go for several hours with no contractions - then get three or four enormous ones in a row. Called the midwives at the hospital, who said not to worry about coming in until they were five mins or less apart or my waters were broken.

By 5.30pm on the same day, I was cranky, tired from the extreme pain of the (irregular) contractions and called the hospital again to see if I could see my Dr (to beg for him to get this baby out NOW lol)
I arrived there at 6, and surprisingly, by that time had started to get regular strong contractions, and was feeling a little more optimistic about the possibility of meeting my baby in the next 24 hours.
Imagine my surprise when I was announced to be 8cm dilated already, after only half an hour or less of 'regular' contractions! My waters were broken (although when I think on it now I'm not sure why?) and Riley arrived fast and furious with only the gas for pain relief just after 7pm - only an hour since we arrived at the hospital with irregular contractions!!!

Unfortunately, although the birth was very short, I felt shock at him coming so fast, and found it much more difficult to bond with my second son. This, coupled with Gerard and his family visiting and holding Riley at every opportunity, and the extreme after-birth pains and let-down pains I was experiencing for the first time (I had neither with Jackson) it took me a while to get to know him.

I am determined this time to be ready for a quick labour if it happens, and to make sure I get the breastfeeding thing working before I leave the hospital, but am confident after my two very different experiences of birth, I could handle almost anything!!

I'm jumping on board here with Bubby Makes Three for her 'Show it like it is Challenge' where she invites bloggers to share pics of thier lives and homes as they are - without the 'magazine appeal'. This week she's posted about her Christmas Tree, and invites us to share ours.

I just happened to drag our tree out of the top cupboard in our bedroom this morning (with the help of Gez!) after Tegan remembered at 7am that it was the 1st of December and that we'd told the children last week they had to wait until December to decorate for the season!

I love Christmas - it's always been a happy and joyous time of year for me and our family, and as a child, Christmas was spent with masses of cousins, simple yet thoughtful gifts and sharing wonderful meals together. I love creating a similar atmosphere with my own children - despite that they rather lack in the cousins department!!

Our Christmas Tree holds a mixture of beautiful ornaments I have collected over the past few years, as well as the priceless home-made ones my the children have created. It's not spectacularly beautiful, and it's the same every year with the exception of a couple new ornaments added to the collection, but it is ours, and I love it - crappy tinsel and all!

Here are my babe's decorating the tree for 2010:

I am halfway through the 38th week of my pregnancy, leaveing me with less than two before that magical date - the 8th December. Obviously I could be still sitting here with this belly for another three weeks...but lets worry about that if/when it happens!

I am getting more and more excited about our impending arrival, and surprised at how different this pregnancy has been in comparison to my other two boys.
I have craved very little this time around, and any cravings have been short lived, and mostly involved fruit, juice or icypoles. I've craved tomatoes, watermelon, strawberries and at the moment it's (hella-expensive) crunchy nectarines. Other than that I've craved orange juice, quelch icypoles, straight ice and (for a short period) iced coffee.

I've gained very little weight -So far I have gained about 5.5kg which sometimes makes me feel a little anxious, as I certainly gained the reccomended amount (and some!!) with both the other two boys. I feel tiny this time, and feel a little silly about the whingeing I did way back here about my friends and their tiny basketball bumps - cos that's exactly what I look like this time around. My appetite has decreased hugely over the past 9mths, and I find that I am eating portion sizes half what I would have before the pregnancy. I do snack a lot more on fruit during the day though.

Since Jackson starting the Ritalin, life here and the 'tone' of our home and family has changed dramatically. Jackson's tantrums have gone from being near-constant to less than four a week - and they are not nearly as bad as before. My (and the entire family's) stress level has decreased hugely, and we are all feeling calm and relaxed - I truly never would have thought it could be as good as it is right now, after what we have been through the past few months. I have been able to enjoy being pregnant and truly look forward to meeting our new little family member, without stressing about how we will manage around Jack.

Here's the bump and I last wednesday at exactly 38 weeks:

On the house front that is!

FINALLY - after five years of drawing up plan after plan after plan for extending our house, than deciding to sell/build, rent/rent, sell/rent/build etc etc etc. We seem to have dicovered 'THE' home extention/renovation which will suit our family and home 'perfectly' It sees us with an extra bedroom, main with ensuite, bigger bathroom/laundry and large open plan living area - all with only minimal builder assistance.

We will do all the bedroom reno's ourselves - this really just involves the building of wardrobes and associated plastering/painting etc. The ensuite will wait until the rest is done and if we have the $$ .

The only part we will need the builder for is the approx. 6m x 4m extention to the back of our house and stripping out the existing bathroom & laundry to make the bathroom slightly bigger as we don't have a bath in there at the moment.
I'm completely thrilled, as it is looking like an affordable yet viable option, and I get everything out of it that I wanted:

• Not messing with the structure of the existing front part of the house, 
• having the main bedrooms together, 
• a bigger bathroom 
• and an ensuite in the master b/r

We start the search for a builder on Monday!! Wish me luck :) 

Things have done an 'about turn' for us recently on a few different fronts.

• Gerard's father passing has left his mother living in our town, alone in a large, brand new house.
• His new job, whilst being a positive move for him on many levels, may not be somewhere he stays long-term.
• Jackson's issues have extended to school, and for the first time are being acknowledged there, meaning we are finally being better supported by his teachers. 
• Intervention from the Paediatrician, OT and Speech Therapist are being engaged - all of which we access in our town.
•  I am becoming increasingly anxious about feeling isolated with a newborn, as most of my close friends have children the same ages as my boys - and have 'passed' the baby stage.

All of these things have decided for us that moving out of town, to a new school and away from the kids extra curricular activities, playgroups, Gerard's mother and my grandmother (who is 85 and spends a lot of time with us - including several meals each week) is not an ideal step for us now, despite the obvious benefits I spoke about here.

This means we are going to stay put for a while, and make do with the six of us living in our three bedroom house. It's not perfect - we will be squashy, and we are looking into ways we can extend our home economically without feeling like we are simply 'tacking on a room'.

In the meantime, I am sitting at home, in my final weeks of pregnancy, desperately wanting to 'nest'...and having no nursery to decorate, walls to paint, space to create for our little boy-o. So, I am improvising.
His change area is set up in our lounge, and the cradle has a little corner in our bedroom. I am swooning over beautiful nurseries on the net - but for now am making do (and saving $$$)

Here's a peek at the spaces he will occupy around our home:

I've been meaning to get on here for a few days and say that things are starting to look up. Jack has seen the paed again, and unfortunately/or fortunately (???) is not displaying enough signs/symptems of any one behavioural disorder (rather an eclectic and somewhat confusing mix of several) to get a quick diagnosis, however the next few months will visit with a speech therapist and paediatric occupational therapist to help figure out where his strengths and weaknesses lie. He has also started on a minimum dose of ADHD medication, again as a diagnostic tool. We had great success with the medication for the first five days, but have just encountered a couple of bad days too. At school he seems more settled however, and this was our main concern, as his academic ability is very high when he is able to concentrate.

I am getting quite big now, although I am certain I am not as big as with the other two, having only gained about 5-6kg. I am feeling the heat in the afternoon now, and turned the evaporative cooling on this afternoon for the first time. We have decided on the little freckle's name now, and I have been starting to think about washing clothes and linen. I have a cute little stash of mcn's as well as trusty flats, so my fingers are crossed that Gerard will get the hang of cloths and disposables will rarely grace our little freckle's bum.

Here's the freckle and I at 36 weeks

We lost Gerard's father last Monday.
I cannot imagine the next couple of months when Gerard learns to live without his dad, the boys without thier Poppy.
It hurts my heart to imagine my husband not being able to chat with his dad. About the farm, the weather, the season, the horses. Anything.
It hurts my heart to imagine never hearing another of his stories, or being teased as we walk in the door, and hearing about the antics of my boys on the farm.
It hurts my heart to think that this baby never got to meet the man who would have doted on him more than anyone else in the world.
Poppy, we miss you so much.

Jackson's 8th birthday was a rather quiet affair compared with other years, but we still managed to give him a special day, filled with love, fun and family :) He went off to school with 21 froggy cupcakes to share with his class, after a 'birthday breakfast' which is a ritual in our house, where the birthday boy/girl gets to choose whatever they like for breakfast the day before, and we all sit around the kitchen table together (much like every other day, but less rushed!) and share gifts.
After the kids left for school, I spent the rest of the day creating these cuties, and getting ready for a surprise family BBQ.

This little guy was one of my favourites - and it seems Jack and I have the same taste in monster cupcakes, as this was his choice too!

Wat u lookin at?

Hairy McScary!

'The Gang' (well, some of them!)

First view of the cake!

Jackson with his favourite Uncle Chris -About to blow out the candles!

Are you sayin' you're actually going to let me eat this? Colouring and all?

Mmmmmm...would you hurry up so I can eat it!!

So, all's well that ends well, and if you thought that the cupcakes would be the highlight of my boy's day, you've got it all wrong! When asked this morning what was the 'best thing about your birthday?' he replied by singing "You've got a friend in me"...so it seems the musical birthday card was the clear winner, and the cupcakes were purely for Mummy's enjoyment!

I gave birth
I was almost 18
I thought God had sent me an angel when I first set eyes on him (I actually really did, so drugged was I after a 36hr labour, no sleep, pethidine, epidural and gas!!)
I fell in love
I became a mother


Today, my boy turned 8 years old. Where oh where has the time gone to?
I still think God sent me an angel.
Jackson, my favourite first little bear, you bring me such joy and such dispair. Things are really, really hard for you right now, but Mummy and Daddy are trying our darndest to make it right for you my love. You always know when I am upset, or stressed or joyful. You know, and sometimes you use it to your advantage, but mostly you just know, and you let me know that you do in ways you probably don't even realize.
You are THE BEST big brother.IN.THE.WORLD. You simply adore Ry, and it shows. Always. We can't wait to see you adore this new little boy we're growing for you.
You are so very, very clever my boy. Much cleverer than we realize I think. I love the way you think and I wouldn't change it for anything, but I do wish sometimes it would slow down just a little so things were easier for you.

At the moment you love learning about animals. Birds especially, and you have Grandma and Grandad entralled by how quickly and thoroughly you are learning all sorts of minute details about the birds you spot around the farm. You will wander around for ages with Grandad's binoculars, and come running for us to 'see something special' when you make a 'find'.

We love you little man. Never ever forget how much. You will always be my favourite first little bear.