Hi Everyone,
it's taking too long to rewrite these as I transfer them, so I will just paste them over as written - as updates to family and friends, rather than as letters to Wombat...
Saira and Steff have suggested I make contact with a mother's group in my area through the baby clinic. I kept this in mind on Wednesday when we took Wombat up to the baby clinic to get weighed. According to the leaflets on the walls, the nearest group meets at Tahmoor which is really too far away - one of the problems with being in a rural community. So I thought, why not strike up a conversation with one of the other mums who are waiting to see the nurse? ummm... yeah.
It seems they all have little tiny underweight babies, take one look at Wombat and spend the rest of the time we are waiting staring out the window. It's very hard to approach someone who is pointedly ignoring you, so I chatted with Wombat instead. He was very well behaved as usual, though the nurse kept us waiting so long I had to change his nappy twice and feed him in the waiting room (luckily I was the only one there by that time, or I would really have been sent to Coventry). Then he got the hiccups while he was being weighed, so the scale kept jumping over 7 kgs :P He is actually 6.8 kgs, holding right on that top line of the graph. He has also grown 7 cms in height since he has been home (almost a centimeter a week!).
The nurse was very pleased with how alert and smiley he was - especially after I had given him another little feed to get rid of the hiccups. (That is a trick the lactation consultant in the hospital taught me - he gets really violent hiccups, but they will disappear after a few minutes feeding at the breast - if I don't feed him, they may go on for more than an hour! Never hear that one mentioned as a cure for hiccups, do you???)
Lol... he is not at all shy and will feed anywhere in front of anybody!!! It's a good thing I have our lovely embroidered carrier to preserve my modesty - not that I really care - other people find it more embarrassing than I do.
On Thursday, Wombat had to go to the doctor's for his first vaccinations. He was very brave and didn't cry at all until the doctor was getting the second needle ready, then he did get quite upset and wanted lots of cuddles. Unfortunately, he did have a bad reaction to them later that night, with a fever and vomiting, but his temperature never got high enough to call the doctor (the book said to call if it went over 39 degrees) so we just made him as comfortable as we could and gave him lots of loving. His new favourite song is one I made up - to the tune of Frere Jacques...
"Hello Wombat, Hello Wombat,
How are you? How are you?
Mummy and Daddy love you, Mummy and Daddy love you,
Yes, we do! Yes, we do!"
That makes him smile, no matter how bad he is feeling - when he's feeling well, he tries to sing along! He still had a little temperature on Friday morning, and was obviously very tired - he could hardly hold his head up, all his neck strength was gone - otherwise he was reasonably happy. He would 'talk' and gurgle to the gorgeous red dream catcher Daddy bought him, or to Christine's snowflake pictures (which are still very much amongst his favourite things to look at in the room), but every now and then he would feel sickly and cry for a while, poor little lad. Sleeping on Mummy's tummy and Mummy's cuddles seemed to help a little, and then he had a lovely long nap by himself in the afternoon following his bath, letting me get on with some research.
I have been stressing about my literature review which is due on June 9th, but while feeding Wombat in the middle of the night I realised rather than being a scary 2000 words of undefined analysis, it could also be looked at as 500 words for introduction and conclusion, 500 words on American theorists, 500 words on Australian theorists and 500 words on the Australian judiciary. Looked at that way it is much more achievable, and gives me a much better 'sieve' for sorting through my resources - anything not directly related to this stage can now be saved for later reading - trying to get through summarizing all the articles and cases I had saved in advance was driving me crazy. Now the challenge will just be to keep each section under 500 words :P
I was most disappointed to find that none of my good clothes fit me anymore - on Friday I was pulling out patterns and material ready to make a last minute marathon at the sewing machine, but Yeti came to my rescue with the offer of a new outfit for the baptism. We shall have to go out tomorrow and find me something to wear. Baptism invitations FINALLY got posted on Thursday - I'm very sorry for the late notice, but I'd told you all the details already - those in Sydney got theirs on Friday and I rang anyone else not on this list who was out of town who wouldn't receive them in time... (If you got the invitation too late to be useful, and I didn't ring you, please forgive me! Put it down to my embarrassment at being so disorganised, and my desire to still share Wombat with you through these updates... HUGS!)
We shall probably get going home soon after the ceremony, as Nanna is coming with us, so there will be no-one at home, and it's not fair to leave the cats and bird outside once the sun starts to go down out here - it gets very cold very quickly! I am VERY much looking forward to seeing those of you who can make it, particularly Steff and Kae who have travelled up from Melbourne, and Wombat's godmother-to-be Saira and her daughter Saoirse (who I will be meeting for the first time!) I have been looking back at the photos from Kae's christening, and it seems strange to think that the little bump in my belly then is being christened himself in a few days time!
Unfortunately it seems my brother will have an exam on the day and won't be able to make it, but it will be good to see Wombat's Grandma as well, as I haven't seen her except for a flying visit just after Wombat was born. Papa will be stopping enroute from America on his way back home to Brisbane - he has actually seen more of Wombat than anyone (except Yeti, Nanna and myself, of course) when he dropped by on his way home from the Commonwealth Games, just after Wombat and I got home from hospital. (Papa, as you will be flying in from foreign lands, I hope you won't mind us being paranoid and asking you not to kiss the baby - just this once - you can make up for it next time you see him :D We do really appreciate you making the effort to be there, though.)
Sunday - it is such a relief to have my laughing smiling little boy back to his normal self, even if it does mean reciting 'The Jumblies who went to Sea in a Sieve' and 'Custard the Cowardly Dragon' over and over again to entertain him :D
That's really all the news... so onto the photos:
First, here is Wombat on Friday night... "I love you Mummy, but I don't feel too good".. (I wasn't going to use the flash on him, and I forgot to use the night-time setting on my camera, so apologies for the poor picture quality).
This is his new dream catcher - it has little mirrors and glitters beautifully when you set it spinning.
For Christmas, Nanna gave us an angel windchime which has been hanging on the curtain rail for Wombat to look at. Since we didn't have anywhere obvious to hang the dream catcher, Yeti took down the mosquito net (which we won't need for a few months now winter is here), put the windchime in its place, and attached the dream catcher underneath the windchime. It's hard to get a photo of it, but it does look great - especially from Wombat's point of view. (The windchime is particularly cute as the angel's wings are luminescent and glow in the dark.)
Wombat lays underneath it and waves his arm to tell me to set it spinning, then he giggles until it stops! On Saturday Wombat was almost back to his old self - but very very sleepy. I was going to clean and air the room, so put his warm bonnet on to keep him cosy when I opened the doors. Five minutes later he was sound asleep and whinging a little every time I moved - "Go and study, Mum... I'm really tired and you're keeping me awake." Emptying his bathtub and washing the floors will just have to wait!
Finally, last week, I said I would try and get some pics of Mitch playing on top of his cage. Here they are...(imagine the theme music to Jaws)
First, the sheet on top of his cage starts moving strangely...
and then...
and then...
"Peek-a-bird!"
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