Some people were reporting to us that our blog had been hacked! I’ve spent the evening cleaning things up and removing any malicious code that I could find, so hopefully everything should be back to normal now.
A hacked blog is never a fun thing – if you ever find yourself in the same boat, let me know and I’d be happy to help out.
Also, please let us know if your anti-virus is still telling you we have a problem!
Have you read “Food Rules” by Michael Polan? A while ago I read “In Defence of Food“, and I loved it, and I’m keen to read Food Rules too.
I found this little animation over at Brain Pickings and thought I would share it with you- it’s a cool animation sharing (VERY briefly) what the book is about.
I think one of the important things to remember when reading these books, is that they’re American, and therefore all the information isn’t completely relevant to us here in Australia. That being said, it’s still really interesting information, and the general principles of eating real food, etc., are definitely sound advice.
It’s been over four weeks since Lior was born, so I think it’s about time I shared his birth story!
Four weeks is quite a while, and while looking after a tiny baby is as good an excuse as any for not writing for so long, the real reason I suppose is that it’s taken me this long to get over the process, and be at a stage where I can talk about it and not cry *sigh*.
There’s a suprising amount that I don’t remember about the process, and so I asked Luke to write it down from his perspective first. Luke’s version is in blue.
I’ve been hesitant to share this story, because it’s not a very ‘good’ birth story, and I don’t think people should read lots of horrid birth stories when they’re pregnant. The power of positive thinking is so important! So if you read this, I want you to know that I DID IT. I got through all of this, and it wasn’t the end of the world. When I think about what I did now, I am PROUD, because I did all this amazing stuff, and our bodies are incredible things. So know that if I can do it, you can too!
ALSO, I’m not sure if this is too much information or not. It’s VERY long (though not as long a the long version!!), so if you don’t want to know all the details, don’t read on!
****** ****** ***** ***** *****
The story starts on the 10th of January. I met up with some friends for dinner and we talked about babies almost the entire night (there are four of us, and two of us were pregnant). I said, as I had many times in the last week, that things were looking good for an earlier than due date delivery, and that the midwives and my doula had said to have my bag packed. Lior was head down, and engaged (he had been for a while), so it was just a waiting game. On the way home Luke and I were talking and I said something along the lines of “You know what? I’m sick of wondering when this baby will come. I’m sick of waking up each morning and wondering if today is the day. Lets just forget that I’m even pregnant (HA!) and just cary on with like as normal. This baby isn’t coming till 42 weeks, so there’s no point thinking about it now!!!”.
That night I had really awful sleep. I had quite a lot of pain for the previous few days in my right hip, and the pain that night was atrocious. It was bad enought that after being awake for 1/2 hour or so I thought I could justify a panadol. So I got up and went to the kitchen to get the panadol and some water. Well, I opened the fridge door, and just like that, my waters broke. I could feel a wetness, and then a trickel down my leg. I knew it was my waters breaking because they say that if it trickles down your leg, then it’s your waters! I looked at the floor, and realised that I was not going to be able to clean this up myself! I called to Luke quite a few times and he finally woke up.
I cleaned up the floor with a few paper towels and then called the hospital. They spoke to me, and then Talia (who was sitting on the toilet), and told us to go back to bed, but come in once we’ve had breakfast in the morning.
Of course, there was no way I could possibly sleep (Talia did try to for a few minutes, but that didn’t last long), so instead I got together a few last minute preparations, and took our final belly photo outside by the fence.
We called Tess, our Doula, who was excited, and told us to sit tight until the contractions started. 10 mintues later she called back asking if I still had the period like pain I had described to her in an email a day or two before. Yes, I did. Did it come in waves? I had to think about it, but yes, it did. They’re contractions, she said, and she was on her way down.
I couldn’t feel any contractions, even when Tess arrived and she could feel when my belly contracted, I still couldn’t feel any difference. Eventually that changed, but I never, not the entire labour, felt contractions like you read about. I had back contractions instead. Remember how I said I had that awful pain in my right hip? Well that didn’t go away. That was there, as a constant the entire time. I knew I was having a contraction when the pain increased in that area and then moved across my back/bum and stayed on the other side of my hip, then went back to the right side.
Pepper was acting really interestingly during this phase of the labour. Normally, Pepper would sit in her room most of the day – sleeping and looking out the window. But while Talia was in labour Pepper would stay around us, and come up to Talia to make sure she was okay. At one stage Pepper came up to check on Talia whole I was helping her through a contraction, and Tess snapped a photo at just the right time to show her head between ours. Our family of three was about to become four, and I think she knew it.
We laboured all day. It was an interesting process. I tried a heap of different positions. The fit ball worked well, as did our tounge shaped bean bag (it has dips in it- perfect to fit big bellies into!). We played music, and eventually at about 6pm we had quite a few that were only about 2-3 minutes apart. Because we’re abut an hour or so from the hospital, we didn’t wait for them to continue, we hoped in the car and took Pepper to my parents. By the time we were at the hospital my contractions had stopped (actually, quite a while before- I really only had about 1/2 dozen in the car). I was meant to go in to get checked anyway (because my waters had broken earlier in the day), so they monitered my contractions (or complete lack thereof) and baby’s heart beat, which was fantastic. We handed in all our paperwork, including copies of our birth plan, and suprisingly, the midwife came back and said what a great birth plan it was! We were suprised because, while our birth plan was quite reasonable and detailed (we had tried to cover as many different options and circumstances as possible), it was obvious that we were very pro a natural, and intervention-free labour and delivery.
Becuase I had no contractions, we went home. I had the option of staying overnight in the maternity ward, but I said no. Initially it was because I was so frustrated & heartbroken that I didn’t have a baby yet, and the idea of being somewhere with a whole heap of new mums was a bit too much to bare. After a talk with Tess, she said there would be a higher chance they’d want to induce me if I stayed overnight. I wanted my own bed anyway, so we went all the way home, and got there at about 1am.
I slept awfully that night, with some really painful contractions (about 6 or 7) until about 4:30am when it was too much, and the sun was starting to come up anyway. I was in a bit of a funk. I was sad, and I had serious thoughts that I would never meet my baby (ridiculous, I know). I cried a lot that morning. I was so frustrated (and tired). Luke decided we needed to take action, and told me that we’d both had enough, and it was time to get the baby out. This sounded quite good to me, & I had the brainwave of sitting in the baby’s room. Maybe being around his things would put me in a good mindset and that would help things. It certainly did help. Luke sat in the rocking chair with my body pillor foled over on his lap. I sat on the fit ball inbetween his legs, and pressed into him, laying my head on the pillow. We stayed like this for hours, and timed contractions.
When Tess arrived in the afternoon Luke went and had a nap (he was quite exhausted, but also too protective to leave me on my own). This really spun me out a bit, and I kept asking Tess if we could please bring him back in. My contracts changed from ‘strong’ and frequent, to really mild, and hardly at all. After an hour I went and got him and things started up again. I took some drops of a natural remedy to help labour along (from the naturopath), and that helped also. In the afternoon we went outside to walk around the lawn (it was FINALLY cool enough). This was the magic ticket. The contractions while I was standing and walking were almost more than I could bare and Luke had to walk beside me because I would be totally helpless to keep standing when they happened. They were getting close together, but we waited longer this time, knowing that the car would really slow them down. We really couldn’t stand it if they stopped again!! It was about 5pm when we decided to go to the hospital.
They quickly found us a room at the hospital. Talia and I had a shower to relieve the terrible back pain she was experiencing, while Tess set up the iPod speakers. I thought the baby would arrive any minute.
Our midwife’s name was Katie, and she was pregnant herself. We had met her previously on a tour of the maternity ward and birth suite. She was amazing. She helped us to remain calm and focused throughout the birth, and respected the birth plan we had given her, she even complimented us for it. I had changed into my board shorts for the shower, and at some point we joked about how many men don’t ever think of that, and that a midwife had walked into the shower to help a woman and found her husband in there, naked with her!
As we were getting out of the shower, I was startled by a man in a polo and jeans walking in the room. I pulled the shower curtain closed and told Talia to stay hidden because some guy was in our room. I thought I must have been another husband.
After the shower we dried off, and put some music on. The man I saw enter the room earlier came back in and introduced himself as our doctor! Talia stayed naked for the rest of the birth, except for the hot towels and blankets she was wrapped in.
When I was pregnant I was fairly adamant that I did NOT want to labout naked. Tess convinvced me (it wasn’t hard) in one of our first meetings that I did need to be naked at the end if I wanted the skin to skin contact with the baby just as soon as he was born. I did want this, as I’d done a lot of research into the benefits of skin to skin contact. It turned out that once I was out of the shower, the thought of having to put clothes on what all too much. I didn’t care even remotely about what I looked like, or who was there. I didn’t care about some man in a polo shirt, I was overwhelmed with how exhausting this process was, and how overwhelming my emotions and hormones were. I felt like a different person.
Talia spent a little bit of time on the fit ball in the early stages at the hospital, but mostly she stayed on all fours on the bed, occasionally switching positions to give her knees a break. At one point we found a position were I was sitting up in the bed and Talia was on her hands and knees resting on me. We even set up mirror so that I could see the birth from this position. The contractions were staying at a fairly regular interval so we tried burning oils, drinking some special herb, and listening to particular music to speed them up again.
The contractions slowly gained momentum. Over the cause of a few hours Talia’s controlled breathing turned into moans, then onto loader ‘Aaah’s. Soon the time in between contractions had reduced to just a few seconds of relief. We watched the clock and hoped that we could have a 12th of January birth! But unfortunately around 10pm the contractions eased again, and we had trouble getting them going again. Talia and I jumped in the shower again to try and encourage the contractions to return.
As Talia got in the shower, she tried to sit down on a peanut shaped for ball, as she had done earlier. Only this time she couldn’t manage it because she could feel the baby’s was inside her when she sat down. She managed on her knees for a while, but the shower really didn’t help much.
I had no sense of time while I was in labour. Ever so often I would look at the clock and be suprised at how much time had passed. We had missed out on the 11th, but the 12th was the date I was hoping for. When the contractions stopped again, I was dissapointed, I wanted to cry (again!).
The doctor came back into the room at this point. He explained that we might want to consider the oxytocin to get the contractions started, the risks of doing so, and the risks of not doing so. He had read our birth plan, and knew we wanted a natural birth, so he really didn’t push that on us at this stage. He also mentioned that because the labour had progressed longer than 14 hours since the waters broke, there was a higher chance of infection, so he wanted to put Talia on antibiotics. After some discussion about the pros and cons, we declined, because we didn’t want Talia to be on a drip.
At this point, around 12am, we decided that the labour had gone on long enough and we decided to make a concerted effort to get the baby out. After a few hours we had made no progress, and we were feeling, desperate, defeated, and exhausted. Talia and Tess discussed using oxytocin to kickstart the contractions. I was so ready for it to be over at this point that I didn’t even wait for their answer, I just walked out of the room and told Katie that we were ready for the oxytocin. This meant Talia had to lie on her back in the bed (very uncomfortably) with a drip in her arm, an sensors on her tummy to monitor the baby & contractions.
During this time I started pushing a bit, just because I wanted to get the baby out. I didn’t have any ‘urge’ like they talk about. I never did the entire time. I slept a lot at this point. If I wasn’t having a contraction then I was in deep, deep sleep. I felt like I was constantly jolting awake when I realised I was asleep. At some time during this as well I’d been told that I’d used up all the ice chips in the birth suite, and so I couldn’t have any more. This was quite dissapointing for me, as I got SO parched while in labour. I almost didn’t believe whoever told me, and was going to make them get me some anyway, but I was too exhausted.
Once the drip had been put in, the sensors hooked up to the machine, and the Katie conducted a vaginal examination, we were left alone for a little while. During the VE we discovered that the baby was malpresented, his head was rotated to the side which was why it was so difficult for him to come out. Also, the doctor came in and asked again if we wanted the antibiotics he had recommended earlier. We had said no because we didn’t want a drip, but now that Talia was on a drip it could be added easily, so we agreed this time.
This was my first VE, and I am SO glad that I had opted for none previous. This hurt more than any contraction, and felt waves of panic spread through my body as I tried to keep calm and relax. In this particular case it was necessary, but I seriously have no idea why women choose to do this just to know how far dialated they are, it hurt like hell and for me was the start of the traumatic part of the birth (If you’re wondering, we chose to use external indicators to know when I was fully dialated).
Laying my back hurt like hell, and I couldn’t squat my legs up at all, which helped. I decided to just go back to all fours anyway, even though it meant that the monitors needed to be held by someone for them to measure Lior’s heartbeat. I *knew* there was nothing wrong with him, and wasn’t worried.
We were told to expect a birth in the next half hour or so, but after an hour we still didn’t have the baby in our arms. The doctor came into the room, and said that because the baby’s head had been so close to coming out for so long, we were going to have to take some external measures to get the baby out, otherwise there could be long term pelvic floor problems for Talia. I panicked. I thought he was going to tell us we needed a cesarean section. So when he told us that we needed to have the baby suctioned out I was so relieved that I agreed to it immediately. I think Talia felt the same way.
Knowing that we wanted a natural birth Katie came in and encouraged Talia to push it out. There was still a bit of time before the doctor was ready to suction the baby out. At first she was hesitant to tell Talia how and when to push (we had specified no pushing coaching in our birth plan), but at this point we were so desperate that we told Katie to forget about that part of the plan and tell her when to push!
The next day I spoke to Katie when she came to see me in the maternity ward. She said that in that time when I pushed and pushed and pushed, even with no ‘urge’ to push, that I rotated Lior’s head around enough that they could indeed do the vacuum. If his ear was still coming down first, then they wouldn’t have been able to continue. I am left to think that the only option after that was a C-section, and this, for me, is definitely not something I want.
It had been explained to me earlier by the doctor that because the baby was being suctioned out, we may not be able to have a delayed cord clamping, if the baby comes out not breathing or not crying. So as the hospital staff entered for the suction, I found the one responsible for cord clamping and told her that the delayed clamp was very important to us and not to do it without getting my okay first.
When they’d said about not having the delayed cord clamping I gave this desperate prayer to God that Lior would be okay, and he WOULD be breathing and crying when he was born.
As he was setting up (and putting Talia’s legs up on stirrups so that they were spread wide apart), the doctor told me you could see the head during the contractions. I had a look, but I couldn’t see anything. He did another vaginal examination at this point, but he was much rougher than the midwife had been, and it hurt Talia considerably more. At one point Talia told the doctor to stop, but he didn’t. Then she yelled at him ‘Just wait!’. It took him by surprise, and he said ‘Fair enough’, and took a short break.
The doctor got the vacuum ready, and even our doula said she would get the gas ready for pain relief. I thought this was strange, and exhaustedly said no. The doctor attached the vacuum, which made me actually cry. Again, the waves of panic, and I just kept thinking how I REALLY didn’t want to do this. The doctor didn’t understand that I didn’t know when I was having contractions, and this was really frustrating for me because he wanted me to tell him when I was going to push, so he could pull. The frustration I felt at not being able to explain this properly to him, and having to be in charge of something (when we would push/pull) that I didn’t have any idea about was probably the most frustrating part of the entire process. Even though I said I can talk about this birth without crying now, apparently I can’t talk about this part without crying!! I just bullshitted my way though it and made up random times when I pushed, and he pulled. I had Tess on one side and Luke on the other holding my hands, and I held on so tight. Tess whispered to me that when she said so, I should stop pushing (even though I was meant to) as this would reduce the tearing. I did what she said.
I was on Talia’s right, Tess was on her left, and an assortment of doctors and nurses where hovering around the business end while the doctor pulled and Talia pushed. After about 10 minutes the suction cap (which was a fair bit wider and harder than the top of the baby’s head) was pulled out, still attached, and Talia let out an almighty scream. She sprang up in bed yelling ‘STOP!’ and Tess and I had to hold her down again. This was by far the most painful part of the birth, and it caused a tear which needed stitches later.
The scream I gave was the most involuntary thing I did the entire labour. I really had felt so in control of the pain the entire time, and this just happened and it was worse than any natural pain, because it was happening to me. Someone else was doing this to me, and I couldn’t stop them. The pain my body created itself was easy to manage. I knew it was part of the process, and I was thankful for it because it meant things were happening. The vacuum though… *shudder*.
The doctor called me over after that and I watched as with the next contraction the head came out. The rest would come out in the next contraction but in the meantime I got told hold the head to support it. The suction cap was removed, and when the next contraction came, the doctor and I delivered the baby together. I was in total shock, fighting back tears of joy and disbelief.
He came out purple, crying and active, which was a good sign because it gave us a few extra minutes before another doctor would want to cut the cord.
I heard his cry before I saw him and I remember this feeling of huge relief. I thought “Thankyou God for this!”.
He went straight on to Talia’s chest and one of the first things I remember her saying was “it’s a boy”. Everything else happening around us blurred while we stated at him in awe. We touched his tiny hands and felt the umbilical cord (we were waiting for it to stop pulsing and turn white before we cut it).
And that’s that. Lior had been a real trooper, having a perfect heart rate the entire time, which was the reason they let us go on for so long. I had not held up so well though, and a flurry of doctors and nurses came in and did all sorts of things to me. I just looked at Lior, laying on my chest and told him that this was all for him, so he better be thankful one day!! After everything was fixed up I fed Lior. He latched on really well, and we only needed a bit of guidance from the nurse and then he was all good. Luke took his shirt off after a little while to have some skin to skin time. Ideally we would have like this in the first hour, but because of my complications it wasn’t possible.
Katie (the midwife we’d had the entire time)’s shift had ended about 1/2 hour before Lior was born, but she stayed on with us till the very end, which we appreciated. Gayle was our new midwife, and she was equally as lovely.
We spent time with the baby while Gayle commenced a bit of a tidy up. Talia breast fed for the first time and I got my first hold (I took off my shirt for some skin to skin time). We also got our first visitor – Esther Bentley from Goodlife who worked in the birth suite. She told us that all the hospital staff were really impressed with Talia’s birth and were all talking about how well she had done without any pain medication.
And so that’s the story of how Lior entered the world. After 2 days + 4 hours of broken waters, 10 hours first stage labour and 6 hours 2nd stage labour he was born on 13th January at 7:40am. He shares a birthday with my brother, Rhys. He was 3775g (8 pound, 5 ounces), and 54cm long. When the visitor doors opened at 11am he was greeted when many many family members all totally in love with him.
By 11am when people saw him his crazy vacuum head had totally de-swelled, and a few days later there was no bruise at all. 
Dear Lior,
You are now one month old. To say this is suprising is an understatment. It feels like there’s no way 4 whole weeks have passed since your birth! To celebrate this milestone, we had your birthday party/dedication on the weekend weekend where we declared our intentions to raise you the way God wants, and with a knowledge of him. You had lots of family and people who love you turn up, which is pretty fitting with how your first month has been- surrounded by lots of people!
You see, your first month has been quite social. You go out somewhere nearly every day, and that’s not including the train station when we take daddy to work, and pick him up again. From gate-crashing your Great Aunty Kris’s 60th birthday party the day you came out of the hospital, to visiting the shops every other day (just for the air-con, not to buy stuff!), to mothers group, and to the Sunshine Coat and back nearly every weekend means you are one busy boy!
You are a fairly good sleeper, but you have a lot of wind, so that has caused you a lot of pain. You usually sleep for about 2 hours at a time, and have granted us some lovely 3-4 hour sleeps at night. One night we even got 5 hours! It was quite blissful! You like to sleep a lot in the day, but in the afternoon/evening and night it takes a lot to get you to go down because your wind has built up during the day and you’re in a LOT of pain. The last few days we’ve started using a medication with you- infacol, to try and ease your pain a bit, and it is making your life a bit easier (and ours).
You love to eat, and would do it all day if I let you. I have to say, I am quite proud of how well you attached, right from the beginning, and how few problems we’ve had!
As far as milestones go, you are so strong, and can quite easily lift your head and move it around. You a wriggly little thing and can spin yourself around on the bed when you really want to. You’ve started to grab onto things. It’s quite lovely when you reach out a bit and accidentally grip onto our shirt or something. Your Dad and your Pa have both reported you following them with their eyes for a few seconds on the weekend. It was pretty exciting.
Yesterday you gave us your first real smile, and made us so excited!
We all love you so much.
Love, Mum
We seem to be rather rapidly approaching Lior’s 1 month birthday (!!), and I want to take some monthly photos to record the growth of his first year.
So, I need some suggestions on where I should set these photos. I really want some consistency (like how the belly photos were always in front of the fence), so I need to pick a place now where I want them all to be. Here are a few suggestions below- I would appreciate your thoughts on which one you think would work, OR a new suggestions if you have one!
So being a new mum is hard, hey? A fair bit harder than I anticipated to be honest.
I mean, people had warned me and stuff, and I’ve read that it was all sleep deprevation and what not, but I thought it was meant to be all staring at your baby lovingly all day as well? I’m going to be totally honest with you and say there HAVE been a few moments when I have wondered where you would take a child in order to ‘give it back’, because the constant crying (Lior suffers from a bit of wind and reflux, which you can tell really hurts his poor insides) is a bit too much to handle!
I’m learning some things about myself- like how much I absolutely adore sleeping, but how I suck at doing so in the day time. About how having a baby totally changes you, and how they’re so precious to stare at. I love his little hands and his little feet. I love his face when he just lays there QUITELY, I even love his pout when he’s about to burst into tears.
Three weeks on and I’ve been haphazardly documenting his life in little notes all over my laptop, iPhone and the iPad. They’re not really organised, or ever very well date stamped. There are things I’ve forgotten to write down. Dates I can will never remember now. But I guess that’s part of life…
I haven’t blogged because I’ve been strangely protective of my little baby’s life. What do I want to share with the internet, and what do I want to keep private??? I have no idea!
I have no quarms with showing photos, and instagram seems to be the only blogging I do lately. I never thought I would be very bothered with the ‘privacy’ issue of blogging about kids, but now it seems to be something that matters… who knew?!
One of the few things I get really passionate about is travel. I just love being away from home, going on adventures, and winging it.
Every day I find myself day dreaming about one of the places Talia and I have visited, and Now that I’m grounded for a little while with Lior, I thought I would share some of those destinations with you, instead of planning our next big adventure.
So it’s with much trepidation that I am going to tell you all about Dahab. Trepidation – because this place is a hidden gem that is probably best kept as a bit of a secret. Dahab because that’s the place I miss most on this particular day of the week.
Dahab is a diamond in the rough. Found on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsular, it’s surrounded by Egypt proper, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan – none of which are very nice places for the solo travelers.
Located on the Red Sea, Dahab is just beautiful. The juxtaposition of the clear calm sea on one side and the desert mountains on the other is just breathtaking. Aside from welcoming locals and day trip options (Petra or Mt. Sinai), there are three things that make Dahab a must see destination.
A spectacular view from the roof of our hotel.
Not least of which is the price. We paid EGP $80 (about AUD $12.50) for a double private ensuit room per night, including breakfast. It was a nice big room with a great view – the only catch being that most places in Dahab only have salt water showers.
Dahab also has long streets filled with market stalls selling Egyptian jewellery, shishas, clothing, scarves and henna. With a little haggling you’re sure to strike a bargain.
Eating out was just as cheap – we ate out at restaurants every night we were there for next to nothing.
Some beautiful scarves sold on the street side.
Another market stall selling sheeshas.
Which brings me to reason #2 – the restaurants. All along coast line are restaurant after restaurant. Most places have you sit in a circle of mats on the ground with a low table to eat at, or a fire of you’re just there for drinks or a shisha. If you have a seat by the water, you can literally reach through the makeshift window and touch the water. We heard stories from owners about drunken patrons falling through the walls into the sea.
But it’s not just the cheaper-than-groceries price, the remember-your-name-the-next-day style service, or the Arab-beach-bohemian atmosphere. The food is also amazing. Most places offer fresh seafood, and everywhere we ate was of a quality as good as, if not surpassing most Australian restaurants. It wasn’t the ritz, but it’ll beat the take away Thai place down the road hands down.
Right by the water!
It wasn't very busy when we were there.
Finally, you can’t go to Dahab without going diving. Voted the third best diving location in the world, swimming in the red sea was an unforgettable experience.
Talia and I hired a wetsuit, flippers and snorkelling equipment for the day at about AUD $10 for the both of us. You can also go scuba diving for even better views. Because of the price and the dive quality, Dahab has got to be one of the best places in the world to get your scuba licence.
About to step in to a whole other world.
For us, it was the perfect rest stop between two high tension destinations on our trip. If you’re in the area (or even if you’re not) plan to visit Dahab – my favourite place to relax in the world.
Relaxing with some new friends!
Last Wednesday Luke went back to work, so Lior and I have spent a few days getting use to being home together. Yesterday (above) I gave the sling a go while he was lightly sleeping in the morning. He’s a little clingy when he’s not in deep sleep, so he likes to be cuddled, and you know what? That’s okay.
Today (below) we ventured to the hairdressers after a relatively sleepless night (someone thought it was morning at 2:30am, which I guess technically it was MORNING, but not late enough to wake up!!). He was a bit grizzly at the beginning of the appointment, so I held him, and then fed him while we waited for the highlights to develop. He was super good though and slept through my eyebrow wax, hair wash and cut! He was grizzly again at the end (hungry again), so we had another cuddle, and a feed when we got into the car.
I was NERVOUS about going to the hair dressers. It’s a scary thing to do with a 2 1/2 week old- he’s so volitle at this age- sleep, eating etc. Because of his irratic sleep last night I really didnt know if he would stay in the (very loose) routine he’d put himself into over the weekend. But when you got a sweet hair voucher for Christmas ($29 for 10 highlights, eyebrow wax, haircut etc!), that needs to be used before it expires, you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do! And you know what? We did. We survived, and we weren’t a complete nuisance to the staff and customers in the shop!
Still no birth story- sorry about that everyone. It’s been more emotional to go through it all, and write it all down (the whole affair was over 2 days long), plus we’re recording EVREYTHING that happened and then shortening it for the web…
So I thought I would share some photos, and if I ever find some time we might even start posting somewhat regularly again!
Lior, 1 day old.
Lior and I, 1 day old.
Luke & Lior- a few hours old.
Lior & Marzy (Luke’s mum)- a few hours old.
Lior & grandma (Talia’s mum)- a few hours old.
Lior & Pa (Talia’s dad)- a few hours old.
Lior & Nana (Talia’s nana)- a few hours old (Lior was birthed via vacuum- hence the big bruise on his head!).
Lior & Nonna (6 days old).
Lior & Pa (6 Days old)
We’re still adjusting to life with Lior, and Luke is putting together the birth story, so posts are a little spare around here. We should have something together in the next week or so though! In the mean time, here’s an awesome video my brother, Hayden, made. Enjoy!