Mrs Daddy

There are occasionally stressful moments in raising children. I shouldn't really complain, because Ella was an angel and Katy shows every sign of becoming one, but the most stressful (for me) moments with Ella was trying to get her to take a bottle. We started with her at about 4 months, it worked for a while, then stopped working. Meant that once Nat was working again and I was in charge at home, there was never any guarantee that we could last the morning. Or the afternoon for that matter.

So, with Katy we decided that we would bottle feed her once a day from the start. Of course, Nat & I had different definitions of "start". I thought we would start as soon as we came home from hospital, but nat wanted to hold off a bit. (To be honest, I don't think she's that enamoured with the concept milking herself using a machine.) A bit turned into a bit longer, but finally we managed to pluck up the courage to give it a go on Sunday night. I was a bit stressed about this -- haunted by the screams of Ella I guess -- but Katy gulped it all down (see photo). And, just to prove it wasn't a fluke, she repeated the performance again tonight. Won't be long before Nat decides she wants to go out to dinner with mates every night.

Looking Back

It's funny that we can't remember the specific details of the initial weeks with Ella - how much breastfeeding is demanded and the constant interruption of sleep.  I don't think Katy is as good a feeder as Ella considering they both started out at 3.6kg.  At 2.5 weeks of age Ella weighed 4.1kg while Katy only managed 3.7kg.

Andy's sister Cathy was saying the other day how it's very difficult to distinguish their children apart in early photos.  I don't think we will have that problem...

Ella and Katy at 3 weeks - 

 

See ya

The Olivers flew home yesterday (Ella was very jealous they were going on a big plane!)  They did manage to see snow - one of the aims of their trip to Canberra.  Nathan wasn't too keen on the cold while Ashley had a great time.  Unfortunately there wasn't enough snow to make a snowman - perhaps on the next trip over.

It was great having them stay although I'm quite tired and sick now. Ella had a fantastic time playing with Ashley and Nathan and there weren't too many fights! It also good for us to see how much easier it will be in 11 months time....

Today

Although it was a top of 13C today, it had a real wintery feel. We woke up to fog and grey skies. In fact Black Mountain was still shrouded in cloud at midday. The sun did eventually shine by late afternoon just in time for the sun to set.

Ashley, Ella and Nathan visited Questacon this morning. Nathan was captivated by the waterplay area and despite having a waterproof smock on got completely soaked. Luckily for Nathan mini Q has clothes dryers.  Ashley showed an interest in becoming a vet by donning a white coat and curing the stuffed animals ailes  by feeding them pizza from the play cafe next door!  Ella was attracted to the construction area, spending a significant amount of time taking the plastic bricks up and down the escalator. She also highjack one of the stuffed dogs and took it exploring in the jungle gym, which was also a hit with Ashley and Nathan.

 

Chicken

Chicken, aka Katy is now nearly 3 weeks old.  Her nickname Chicken stems from the fact that she loves keeping her arms and legs curled up close to her body.  This position makes it very difficult to dress her and as a consequence her sleeves flap around without her arms in them. Chicken is feeding better and sleeping for longer periods which is nice - a long way to go before a decent nights sleep though!!  Ella is still loving her new sister although she has regressed to crying at any opportunity which is very unlike her.  It's really tiring trying to keep her happy/not upsetting her as well as comforting her and/or trying to figure out what the problem is.  People have told us this may go on for up to 6 months - I hope that's not the case....

 

Commonwealth Park

The Saturday orienteering was at Commonwealth Park this week.  Ella, Ashley and Katy completed the blue course together.  They warmed up by playing in the mountain of leaves with many other little people - Annabelle, Emily, Max to name a few. It was a nice morning to stroll around the shores of Lake Burley Griffin soaking up the sights of Canberra.  The blue course took somewhat longer than normal due to the fact that it past by the stone castle playground - hence the girls veered off the course to explore the playground for 15 mins or so.

Preparing

Our good friends from Perth Annwen & James with their children Ashley (3) and Nathan (1) have come to stay with us for a few days.  In preparation for their arrival we needed to rearrange the house a little which involved moving Katy into our room and placing a double mattress on the floor into Katy's room.  Ella thought the mattress made a fantastic trampoline....

Meltdown Moment #8

In summary - 

Sick 2 year old + sick husband + breastfeeding and sick baby + no sleep = no fun....

In detail - 

So last night started off well - all in bed and quiet by 10pm. Katy woke at 11pm for a feed and was asleep again by just after 12.  When I was placing Katy back in her cot I noticed Ella rolling around in her bed.  At 2.30am a little pitter patter of feet came down the hall - it was Ella who was feeling miserable probably because of her cold.  Gave her some medicine and laid down in her bed with her (mistake #1).  Thought she had drifted off to sleep and Katy had began to stir for the next feed.  Tried to get up without Ella noticing (mistake #2). Took Katy back to bed to feed her. Ella followed distraught so I woke Andy up to deal with her. Unfortunately Ella didn't want Daddy.  So meltdown moment #8 occurred at 3.30am - Katy feeding and Ella trying to get a cuddle mummy! All was quite again by 4.30am and stayed that way until 7.30am.

rub a dub dub

 ... two girls in the tub.  Katy decided to take the plunge and have a big bath with Ella last night.  Ella currently is being a lovely big sister.  She is VERY maternal with Katy - singing songs (twinkle twinkle little star), patting her, helping change nappies and generally showing her off.

 

Katy arrives home

It's been said before (sometimes by me) that my wife is not the most patient person in the world and, true to form, she had no desire to wait around in hospital for 4 days after Katy arrived in the world. This morning I arrived at the hospital, after dropping Ella at childcare, and it was clear Nat wanted to go home. To be honest, I don't think we were gaining much by being there, so I fully agreed and we set about extracting ourselves from the maternity ward.

Extracting is a good word for it, because it wasn't easy. It wasn't as though they objected to us leaving, it was just that they couldn't get themselves together to sign all the requisite forms etc to let us go. One nurse would tell us we could go, then another would come in and decide we had to weigh the baby, then the baby-weighing nurse said there was no need but the other nurse held her ground. This erupted into full-scale war within the maternity ward, so one nurse went off to lunch and the other one couldn't find any forms. All in all it took longer to get out of the hospital than it took to give birth (and as far as I was concerned was significantly more painful). The worst thing is that Nat has to drop back in tomorrow to get Katy checked out again -- hope she gets out alive!

Anyway, we did finally get home and had a nice family reunion in our house (see self-timer photo). Ella is very keen on helping out with Katy -- holding, carrying, advising us when to put her into the cot or the bassinet -- but in most cases does more harm than good. And, of course, they both decided to melt down simultaneously at dinner time this evening. Apart from that it all went smoothly and we're looking forward to settling back into a normal life.

Katy Imogen Hogg

Nat really has had enough of being pregnant. She's spent the last few days dreaming about all the things she won't miss when the new bub pops out. So when the obstetrician mentioned (yesterday) that maybe it was time to think about inducing the bub out, Nat jumped at the opportunity.

We got up early this morning, dropped Ella off at childcare and cruised into the hospital. Turned out that contractions were already starting, so with only a minor amount of medical intervention Nat was fully in labour by 11:00, and a brand new baby popped out at 1:12pm.

Her name is Kate Imogen Hogg, although to settle a long-running family dispute she will be called Katy for any purpose other than official documentation. (N.B. Nat has retained the right to call her Kate when she is in trouble, which surely won't be very often.) She has dimples -- a sign of her Mum -- with long dark hair --definitely not Mum. She weighed 3.6 kg, is 51 cm long and so far has been peaceful and happy.

Mum is also happy, and even Ella took a shine to her. Stay tuned for more updates.