Four months

Dear baby girl,

Four months seems to be that point where the weeks and months no longer match up! You were 16 weeks about a week and a half ago, but going by the dates, you have just reached the four month mark.

You are at such a precious age right now - you are recognising people and responding with huge beaming smiles, and then burying your head into me like you have suddenly become shy - its so cute. The other day Caleb spoke to you while you were looking over my shoulder and you started laughing - it was an absolute crack up - he laughed back, and that started you of again - so it went on - a little game between you and your biggest brother.

The day you turned 13 weeks you started sleeping through the night. Each night Id go to bed expecting to get up to feed you, but you kept on sleeping all night! You have your last feed somewhere between 5pm & 6.30pm and then down for the night between 6pm & 7.3opm. We dont hear a peep from you until at least 6am - usually closer to 7am! I quickly worked out what it was that started you sleeping through - you found your thumbs! You would wriggle your little arms out of the wrap and start sucking your thumb to re settle yourself. It only took a couple of weeks before I stopped wrapping you at all.

You are still a real cat napper during the day though. You very rarely sleep in your cradle during the day. If I manage to get you off to sleep in my arms you wake as soon as I put you in there. If I pop you on the u pillow on the lounge, or in your rocker you sleep much better. I guess sleeping anywhere is better than no sleep at all during the day. A good sleep for you during the day is 45 min.

Im still fully breast feeding you and it is all going well. You had become really squirmy during feeds, and I tried some gripe water, which seemed to help. Im planning on keeping you on just breast milk until at least 6 months and then hopefully once we start solids, still keep feeding you myself until around 12 months. You have taken a couple of bottles of expressed breastmilk, but it was a bit of a saga to get you to take it. Nanna tried one night when she looked after you and you wouldnt take it, I eventually managed to get you to drink it after abut 10 min of trying and some rather loud protesting on your behalf! Quite often when Im feeding you Isaac will get his dummy and teddy and come and snuggle up on the lounge with us - it is so sweet to have him laying there as well, sharing our special time!

Our cloth nappy journey is still going strong. Ive decided which sort suit you the best - itti bitti d'lish and patooties, we are slowly building a nice little stash of these. We are about to try going to cloth as night nappies as well. Here are some pics of you in a couple of our favourite nappies.

We had another little trip away this month. We spent the June long weekend down at Goolwa with the Kays. You were really good, although a bit unsettled during the night times. Luckily you were sleeping right next to me on a little shelf, and I could just reach over to comfort you.

You are reaching out to touch toys, and sometimes managing to grasp things for a short time. You love sucking on your fingers and hands, and anything else that you manage to get close enough to your mouth. You are a happy baby - most of the time, you like to be able to see one of us though!!!! You also still love being carries in the sling - occasionally we even manage to get Daddy to have you in there for a while too! I love you my sweet little girl, our lives are definately much busier with four precious children, but I wouldnt change it for the world.

xxxxx Mummy xxxxx

3 months

Sunday May 18th 2008

Dear 'baby girl'

You have reached that magical 12 week mark. You weigh 6.3kg. You no longer look like a newborn baby, and your little personality is beginning to shine through.

Last Sunday was Mothers day, and the first time I heard you giggle. You were in bed with mummy and we were playing around after your feed when the cutest little laugh escaped...awwww it melted my heart! Being a Mummy is wonderful! I got a little gift from the school Mothers Day stall from each of you (Caleb & Nath choose one from you and Isaac as well), and from all of you I got this gorgeous trio of Willow Tree figurines that I really wanted. They will be a precious reminder of my very first mothers day as a mummy of four gorgeous children!

Last Sunday was also your baptism.

We were lucky that the Christening gown that had been worn by your great grandma, your grandpa, mummy and all your brothers arrived back from Auntie Helen in Sydney two days before the big day. I gave you the padlock bracelet that was given to me by my mum as a baby, you wore it on the day and you looked beautiful. You were very good during the service, and while everyone was here for lunch after. Your Christening cake was made from pink frosted cupcakes with little pink and white flowers on each, and a cake topper of pink ribbons and feathers with hearts and doves. I even sat a few of the icing flowers from our wedding cake in there as well. Rhiannon, Alison & Uncle Colin were all thrilled to be asked to be your god parents.

You recieved some beautiful gifts from your family and friends - you were very spoilt!

You are still being fully breastfed. We were having a few issues with you being unsettled and squirmy during your feeds, I suspected you had a bit of reflux. On Friday I got some gripe water. Im only giving you one or two doses a day and you seem much more relaxed already. You no longer squirm around while you feed, and seem more content after your feeds. Im not sure if it is just getting to that 12 week mark or the gripe water working! The first dose you had made you screw up your face and shake your head. It tastes pretty yucky to me, you have only ever tasted the sweetness of breastmilk, so I cant begin to imagine what a shock it must have been to your taste buds!

You still tend to be a bit of a catnapper during the day, and rarely can I get you to have a decent sleep in your cradle. You like to sleep out in the lounge in your rocker, or on the sofa snuggled up on your little u pillow. You are no longer a tummy sleeper either. After a few over tired nights when you were hard to settle, I tried wrapping you, and you decided you liked it, and now sleep wrapped and on your back...with your dummy of course! You tend to go off to sleep in our arms most of the time - you are a real snuggle bunny! You have dropped your 10pm (ish) feed, and now only wake for the one feed during the night. Usually somewhere between 1.30am - 3.30am. You have become a lot more effecient as a feeder too, and we are usually both back in bed asleep with in half and hour.

You room is still a bit of a work in progress. Ive painted a set of canvases for your wall, and finally got your name up on the door...

Ive sadly had to pack away a whole box of clothes that you have grown out of. You are in a mixture of 000 and 00 at the moment. There are just so many gorgeous litttle girls clothes, and yes, your wardrobe is dominated by pink....I never understood why anyone would want to dress their little girl in pink all the time - until now. Surely Ive got to be excused since Ive spent the last 10 1/2 years only buying boys clothes! You are using your cloth nappies during the day, but are still in huggies at night. Im actually loving the whole cloth nappy thing- maybe because its just another reason to buy cute pink girly stuff! You are nearly out of your small AIO nappies - good excuse to start building my medium stash. Our favourite nappies atm are called itti bitti d'lish. They are a gorgeous soft fluffy minky fabric on the outside, with bamboo boosters. They are a nice and trim fit, and we have very little problems with leaking - in fact I think they contain the 'pooplosions' better than huggies!

You have started having a bath in the big bath with Isaac a bit lately. He loves it, and so do you. You are so content in the bath, and love kicking your legs around in the warm water. However you hate getting out of the bath and getting dressed. You spent this time screaming. I got you a musical mobile to hang above the change table, and this seems to distract you most of the time. It isnt very often we get through a whole nappy change, getting dressed routine with out some protesting from you though.

We have tried to get a few family photos - wow is getting four kids to all look half decent at once a big ask :) Here are a couple of the more decent ones!

You have quite a few nicnames already - baby girl, Jaz bum, cinta, sweetie, princess, cinta bug, jazzy, Jazzy Joo, bubba, cint & buggy are a few that come to mind.

We love you sweetheart xxxx

8 weeks ...already

Since this post has been in draft form since Jacinta turned 8 weeks on Sunday, I thought I would post it incomplete today (Wednesday). I will get around to typing out her 8 week letter soon, but until then I will just share the pics I plan to include...

...8 weeks and so many cute clothes.

....one of your favorite places for a nap...


....reaching out to touch the toys on your rocker...

....my little chubba bubba in her very cute cloth nappies...

living life

Life seems rather busy at the moment, thankfully tomorrow is the last day of school lunches and uniforms for a couple of weeks, but the start of at least four kids home all day everyday!

So what have we been up to for the last couple of weeks....

The older two boys had their school sports day and both did really well. They both came proudly home with a few ribbons, and to top the day off their team - GOLD, won the day.

Very exciting as that hasnt happened very often while we have been at the school. Caleb also competed in SAPSASA athletics yesterday and their school finished fifth overall, and first in their 'division'.

A couple of weeks ago I got myself a baby sling. I wanted something that was quick and easy to use. I can pop Jacinta in here to go into the shops, or into school and have two hands free - well one once you take into account the other little hand Im usually holding at the same time. Its been fantastic and Jacinta LOVES it. She is so settled that Ive made another one out of some nice snuggly fleece. Its a godsend in the evenings when she is really unsettled. From about 6pm - 9pm is her grizzly, hold me, needy time...yep right on tea time, bath time, kids bed times, etc. The sling is fantastic as I can do just about anything with her snuggled up happy and content...

How cute are these!!! We have used up all our newborn disposable nappies and I am now on the road to becoming a cloth nappy convert. I never thought that day would come, but as you can see, cloth nappies have come a long way since plain old square flat nappies. Modern cloth nappies - or MCN as they are known (yes there is a whole lingo to go with them as well) are gaining in popularity as people look for more sustainable and eco friendly options to disposable nappies. Most of the all in one nappies are as simple to use as disposables, and some are just to cute for words!!! The little green and purple number was a gift from my friend Nat who has just started her own nappy making business (PATOOTIES) pop by her blog and check out the little cuties modelling this nappy!!!At the moment we are only using them part time. I need some more boosters (layers of absorbant fabric stitched together) to put in my magicalls (the bright coloured nappies at the end of the row), so Ive ordered some bamboo to sew some up, then we will be using them most of the time... while we are at home at least. It is taking a bit to get used to the slightly larger tooshie that the mcn give Jacinta, but Im getting used to the look and feel of it now. Its nice not to have quite so many 'sposies' going into the bin each week. Once we get onto the tiolet training with Isaac it will be even less.

Isaac is coping really well with loosing his place as the 'baby' of the family. He loves to help out (which is often far less helpful than he thinks!) His Teddy and dummy have been getting a fair work out though. I think it is his way of reassuring himself. Teddy even gets nappies changed - and has progressed to being a mcn user too [guess who 'borowed that very cute little nappy Nattie? :o)] he also has his very own teddy sling...just like 'cintas!Today (well yesterday as its now Thursday as I finish this post!) we set up Isaacs big boy bed. The cot is now nearly packed away, ready to come out again when Jacinta needs it. This is the bed when it was first set up (thanks for your help Jode!)
and this is my baby about 1 hour after we put him into bed last night,

snug as a bug and sound asleep (with Nathan sound asleep in his top bunk) He did come out and visit about five times in that hour, but let us put him back into bed with out too much fuss. He had a good couple of hours nap this afternoon too, and only came back out once! He looks so tiny in that great big bed, but he is growing up so fast now.

Sunday we took the boys to a wildlife park. It was great to have a bit of family time, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Isaac managed to get his finger snapped by some big weird bird (brolga?) but it didnt phase him at all. You can pat and feed the kangaroos and wallabies which all the kids loved. You actually buy a packet of peanuts or milk coffee biscuits to feed them !!! Isaac was happy to feed the first biscuit to the kangaroo, but after that "I need more bicit" was always followed by "Issac eat it?... not kangroo!" Jacinta slept in her own little pouch for most of the time we were there.

Jacinta turned six weeks on Sunday, and on Moday I decided to do a little photo shoot. She is loosing that newborn look already. Some days Im afraid if I blink she will have already become a toddler! Both of these shots are ideas taken from the gorgeous Katie. Her skills with children and families photography are just stunning. Gotta say, you can definately tell the difference between using a point and shoot camera, and a professional set up. It would help me immensely if I actually got my DSLR out of the cupboard and played around with that, but I just havnt had time, so this is better than nothing. It would be even better if Katie lived closer and I could get her to take them ;) seriously trying to feed, set up, feed, settle, arrange, settle and photograph a baby all by yourself is one long, long process! The second pic ihas been turned into a card that I gave my Doctor as a thank you to put in his office baby album, and I did one for the doctor and midwives involved in her delivery and care as well. (They have a photo board at the hospital they put picks of bubs delivered there)

Well I will leave you with a couple of snaps of my gorgeous babies that I took this morning when we were hanging out on Isaacs new bed!!!! (for those of you who know about my ongoing dummy saga...problem solved. I finally found some of these Tommy Tippee dummies that she likes. they are the same cherry shape as the happy baby ones that I have issues with, but are quite a bit cuter!!! and even cheaper LOL)

PS oops I nearly forgot - Happy Anniversary for yesterday to Katie & Brett and Rozzie & Clint, who all share the same anniversary date as Craig and I. We celebrated 13 years of being married yesterday!!! Hope you all had a wonderful day.

I can...

...still call myself a scrapbooker! Today I scrapped for the first time in months! All my scrapping gear was packed away when I got rid of my old desk last year in preparation for the room re shuffling that occured with the imminenet arrival of Jacinta.

Our new desks only arrived a month ago, but Ive not had much time to sort through everything. Slowly Ive been making my way through my stash, and packing it into my new desk. Yesterday I went through the box of stuff I won in the FK awards for excellence, that was enough to inspire me to actually do something! The fabric flowers are off a bib I got for Jacinta (I dont like the velcro on them as it digs into her neck....so what else was a girl to do but cut it up to use as gorgeous embelishments!)

I dont think Ive shared my entry in the awards for excellence yet either, so while I am in scrapping mode, here it is...

This first one is the LO that won the photography award. Funnily enough this is also the LO that I nearly didnt include in my portfolio!

Here are the rest of them...

one month

Dear Jacinta (aka Jazz, Jazzy, sweetness, my girl, cinta, baby girl, sister, bubs)

Today is Easter Sunday, and as Christians all over the world celebrate and remember the death and reserection of Jesus Christ this weekend, we also celebrate you turning one month old.

Happy Easter my sweet little easter bunny!

You celebrated your first easter with brunch and an egg hunt at grandmas on Saturday with Mummys family,

and an egg hunt at Nannas and tea at our house with Daddys family on Sunday. We have our own little tradition of leaving our hats out for easter bunny to fill with yummy treats, so this year you left out your brand new pretty pink hat that Jim (Auntie Helens partner) bought especially for you, and this morning it was filled with special little easter surprises for you. These first four weeks have flown by so quickly. I know that they will continue to do so, and I am trying to cherish every single minute of these early weeks with you - even those long sleepless nights, that we still get on occasions. It is taking a while to get into a routine, but finally in the last week or so we have had more good nights than unsettled ones. We have moved from the feeding every couple of hours, to a much more workable 2 -4 hours during the day, and usually only one feed over night after 10/11pm somewhere between 2.30am-4.00am. You are also beginning to cut down the time it takes you to feed. 45 minutes is quite a long feed now, in the first couple of weeks it would take you a good hour to feed both sides...that didnt leave much time for me to sleep when you were deciding to feed every 2 hours! We have been to visit both of your great grandmas, and last weekend travelled to Horsham to attend Daddys cousins wedding and introduced you to your great Poppy. Your a lucky little girl still having three of your great grand parents. You travelled really well, and we only had to stop once each way for a feed.

The second and third weeks of your life were spent mostly hanging out inside in the airconditioning as we sweltered our way through a record breaking heatwave here in Adelaide. I think it was 15 days in a row of temperatures above 35 c, with the majority being 38-40. I was so glad I wasnt pregnant still!
Ever since our second night in hospital you have been a tummy sleeper, during the day you are happy to sleep on your back or side in the rocker, but if you are in your bed you will only settle on your tummy. Both Caleb & Nathan were tummy sleepers too. You sleep
You are also a very 'sucky' baby. To try and discourage you from using me as a dummy and snacking constantly instead of having decent feeds, I tried to get you to take a dummy. No funky and cute little dummies for you though, Ive tried the gorgeous little pink nuk ones I bought before you were born - no way would you take them. I thought I might give a cheapy from the suermarket a go, and you love it! Its a latex cherry shaped happy baby one, and Mummy thinks it is aweful! I dont like the look of the round happy baby dummies, I dont like latex dummies, and Im not a fan of the cherry shaped teats! I tried a silicon teat in the cherry shape but you wouldnt take that so I guess I will have to learn to like them!

Im loving be mummy to a little girl more than I ever imagined I would. I love being surrounded by all the pretty girly things, gorgoeus clothes, hanging a line full of tiny pink things out, sitting and cuddling you. I guess its a special bond that a mother and daughter share. Its definaltely no more important than the special bond I share with each of your gorgoeus brothers, its just somehow different.

I treasure these newborn days, and I will make the effort to cherish each and every one of them. Some days are hard, and everyday is definately so much busier than it has ever been, but we all love you so much, and are grateful and blessed that you have come along and filled that void in our family, that until your arrival. we didnt even know existed.

I love you my sweet little girl

Mummy xxx