Today has not been a good day. We haven’t had a day like this since this day and the time she cried for four hours, only today has been worse because we’ve been having so many wonderful days that I was completely unprepared for it.

As you will know, the little blossom was awake for quite a few hours last night…crying. I tried rocking, pacing, bouncing (gently), you name it and I tried it…nada. She finally fell back asleep and at 7am I swapped over with the Happy Husband. By 7.30am I was drifting back into the land of nod. At 8.30am I was woken by crying, crying, and more crying. Not even the musical bee made her smile. This was serious!

Changed her nappy, putting her in a disposable instead of the cloth in case that was what was making her uncomfortable. Nope. An early feed topped up with expressed milk in case she was still hungry. Nope.

Her behaviour was completely out of character so…off to the Doctor I went, feeling every bit the anxious mother that I pride myself on not being.

Of course the minute we get to the Dr.s surgery she stops crying and only starts again when it’s time to leave! Nothing of consequence seems to be wrong, though (mercifully) the Dr. does agree that she has obviously been upset about something. Reflux perhaps?

Off I trot. The car. Peace. I drive around A LOT. Off to mother’s group. More mercy, she sleeps, feeds, plays and sleeps.

We get home. It starts again. I AM GOING OUT OF MY MIND!

Bless her, she holds my finger with her little hand. I love her. Still crying, still driving me crazy. I feel like poking my eyes out with a stick!

Is it time for HH to come home yet?

It is not helpful that I am dealing with this after an essentially sleepless night!

Reprieve. The reason I am here writing this is not because I need to get a break for a few minutes so that I don’t actually poke my eyes out with a stick. Though, that would be reasonable! The reason is because she has finally knocked herself out.

Here are some pictures of the day. Despite the disaster there were moments of peace, some of which I managed to capture.

Some cheeky cuteness….

And just before her last meltdown…
I though the top was very appropriate!

I also took a ‘before’ shot of me…thinking I could then take an ‘after’ shot. Oh how I naive am I!?! The closest I got to ‘after’ shots are the three at the top of the post. Some-less-than-sensational pictures of me which perhaps give you a glimpse into my state of mind today!

In my google searching I just came across this article on the Big Picture of Motherhood . Some of it I can already connect with, some of it resonates with stories I’ve heard from other mums, stories I now have a much great appreciation of, experiences that I will probably face in my own life down the track. It’s a really helpful read for mums, expectant mums, people who work with mums…and given that I know people in all three categories read this blog I thought I would put the link up here. I hope it gives you the encouragement and insight it gave me!

p.s. I would secretly love to be a more balanced version of Bree. If you have seen my house, or me (for that matter!) you would know that I am living in a fantasy land…oh well, it’s a nice place to go sometimes…fantasy land, that is!

p.p.s. Yes, LP is now asleep but given that it’s almost 7am I thought I’d just stay up until it’s time for HH to get up and I can hand her over to him.

…that I am awake at 4.20am and at my computer!

Since the little darling has been sleeping through the night for the past 3 or more weeks, this is not a place I was expecting to be again…at least not for a while.

Oh well…

I took a photo of myself to capture how I am feeling right at this point in time, but it turns out I don’t look that great at 4.20am. Hmmm…I feel so much better knowing that! I think I’ll spare you the pain of seeing me looking like crap in the middle of the night…I might also spare my pride too.

Instead, lets think of all the productive things I could do in these wee hours as I try and get the little one to go back to sleep and let the lovely husband keep sleeping…

- get Little Precious to sleep (you know, it’s only after I’d written and re-read this post that I realised this wasn’t on my list…oh dear, we are not off to a good start here. Heck, that should be abundantly obvious by the fact that I am even here, blogging, at all!)
- read the Bible
- read the really good book sitting next to me called ‘Respectable Sins’…expect more from me on this in the next little while
- choose LP’s outfit for tomorrow. A lovely friend from church dropped off a pile of gorgeous little girl clothing that her girls have grown out of and I can’t decide between the SEVEN beautiful dresses which one she should wear tomorrow. Taking the term spoilt for choice to whole new level! I might have to take some pics for you…
- start learning Photoshop
- try and work out where the HH and I might be able to go on holiday at the end of the year
- feed my addiction to the blogging world
- trawl around eBay.

I feel like that list started well and and then took and sudden and sharp downturn…I suspect I will do all of these things in some measure. I’d like to say the top two numbers two and three on my list will be my priority but as I yawn here and struggle to keep my eyes open (though the FLURO light in my office is a *real help* on that front!) I suspect this may not be the case.

I’m hungry. First things first…food!

Let me leave you with some more pics…

I like to call this one ‘Funky Town Girl’
Imagine me dancing around the house to a made up song that goes something like ‘You are a funky town girl, funky town girl, my little funky town girl’ and the expression on her face will be understandable.

Now here’s a picture to terrify me as the time slips past 5.30am…what if there were 3 of her??? She’s cute, but is she ‘love me if I multiply’ cute?!?

Ok, enough of my ramblings folks. Here’s what you all really want…more pictures! I am going to be very self-indulgent and post a number of ‘self-portraits’ of Little Precious and I. Perhaps you can tell me which one is the best because I can’t decide!

Could she be any cuter? Enough said.
turns out it’s possible…such cuteness!

Ok, enough of the self indulgence…though it was fun :)

Here are some other cuties…

Have I mentioned that I am SOOOO hanging out for our new kitchen!
Pretty in Pink and still in love with and in awe of the musical bee!

More cuteness

I have now lost track of which pictures I have already posted so sorry if there are duplicates here.

Good to catch up with you all here :)

See you again soon.

I thought I was addicted before but now it’s official. I am a blog-mad-woman! Turns out though that there are a lot of completely addictive good quality, laugh-out-loud funny blogs around.

This Open Letter to New Mothers had me nodding my head in agreement, while Things I Swore (Pre-parenthood) had me in stitches…so much to look forward to! The hysterics continue with What I Wish I could Say and don’t even get me started on Good Morning Mummy. Here’s vermin in your eye, I’m still laughing over that one!

These blogs are full of very funny and engaging stories and more than satisfy the new ‘blog-voyeur’ me! I could go on for ages but I don’t want to burden you with a blog addiction that sends you back to your computer every 5 minutes to get your fix distract you.

That said, if it’s too late for you and you’re also addicted a fan of blogs let me know and I’ll happily share with you some more ‘light reading’.

Before Little Precious arrived I was told, in jest, that you weren’t a real parent until your child had vomited in your mouth.

I am proud (?) to say that I have now joined the ranks of real parent! She got me in the mouth…hair, down my top and all over my face last night. Oh, and she got herself too!

We would have taken a photo but were laughing too hard! Laughing because I should have known better – she missed the Happy Husband’s mouth by only a couple of centimetres in the morning when he was doing exactly the same thing…tossing her around in the air not long after a feed.

She’s never been much of a chucker…up until now, so we hadn’t previously been caught out with this behaviour. Let’s just say that after yesterday I have much greater appreciation of mothers of babies with reflux who are constantly changing their babies clothes – LP went through 3 outfits yesterday due to spew.

Apart from being a very funny (and somewhat smelly), it was also a helpful experience for two reasons.

1. It happened just after I was feeling like the unfun parent. I wrote (but have yet to post) some more about playing with children yesterday and afterwards had an ‘ahhhh’ moment. No wonder I don’t know/feel confident that I can play with LP, I never really knew how to play when I was a child myself! This brought back all my fears about having a little girl…that she would be just like me when I was a kid. This would not be a good thing! Throwing LP around in the air amidst a lot of laughter and then being vomited on eased some of my concerns!

2. I overcame my fear of showering with her (the fear being that I would drop her and she would crack her head open on the porcelain…I know, ridiculous!) Given that we were both covered in spew it was the best way to get cleaned, and you know what…it was even a bit of fun! Not that I will be in a hurry to repeat it, I am more than happy for the bathing/showering to remain the HH’s domain!

All in all, it was another new experience and I as my head landed on my pillow last night I felt like the luckiest girl in the world!