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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Merry?? christmas

What a first christmas!!!! Caelan's been sick with a yucky cold for a couple of weeks now and it all got much worse last Thursday night - he literally didn't sleep all night. It was horrible. He was in really upset and seemed to be in so much pain and nothing could help him, we just held him while he cried all night. At 3:30am I told Chris to go into the spare room to try and get some sleep cause he was working the next day. He felt really horrible leaving us but did, otherwise he just couldn't have coped on Friday. He got a couple of hours sleep while I sat with poor Caelan and at 6am he came and took the crier for while so I could have a break before he left for work. What a looong hard day for all of us! Poor wee one finally went to sleep at about lunchtime. We had Chris' family chirstmas dinner at our place that night so I had lots of cooking and stuff to do - dunno how I did it?! Auto-pilot's a great thing - it got both Chris and I through the day. It was a lovely night, even though we were zombies - sorry everyone!! But we both really enjoyed it, it was nice to do something normal and hang with family. The nice evening was followed by another yucky night, though nowhere near as bad as the night before, probably due to exhaustion of the short person! While Chris was at work on Saturday (the world just isn't a fair place is it?!?!?) Caelan got worse and was burning up, he continued to get worse so we took him to Ascot Hospital A & E in the afternoon to discover VERY, VERY angry infections in both ears. Poor boy! We left with antibiotics, paracetamol and a temperature of 39 that we needed to get down. So christmas was cancelled this year, he was just too sick. We couldn't go up north to spend christmas with my family - bums, I really wanted him to spend christmas with his 96 year old Great Grandma. Ah well, shit happens! It's been a blur of sleepless nights and a mostly unhappy bubba. Bit sad for his first christmas but there'll be many more and we'll make up for it next year, when he's old enough to really enjoy it. So Merry Christmas - I don't bloody think so! hehe Nah, seriously though, it's been ok - he's heaps better now and we were together, that's all that matters really!

6am christmas morning - Mama and Daddy sure were excited!






Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Underwater bubs


George and Caelan at swimming on Saturday.

Friday, December 15, 2006

He crawls! He crawls!

This morning he actually crawled and it wasn't just one or two steps before flopping onto his belly like he has been doing. This was real crawling, though it was pretty damned jerky and stompy looking but it was crawling none the less. I was sitting on the floor wrapping pressies for his cousins and he really, really, really wanted to come over and check them out. 'Well I'll just crawl then' he musta thought and crawl he did. He went for a good little distance too - about the length of my whole leg from toes to hips. Then I made him do it again. Just to make sure! hahaha So FINALLY he crawls. Gawd it's bin a long time coming, just went through posts to see when it all started. He was getting up onto his knees at nearly 4 months and then doing the rock and going backwards at 6 months and now actually crawling at 8 months. That's 2 months to get to the next stage each time - crickey that's a long time huh?!! LOL But he crawls :)

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Saved our sleep

The following post was written yesterday (Sat 09.12.06) but Blogger didn't want to know about it (think it was down). Yesterday was soooo much better! We might just be damned close to breaking this habit by gum. He was a delight - went to sleep immediately as soon as I put him in bed for his first sleep yesterday, without a peep I tell ya! Second sleep he talked to himself for a wee while and then went to sleep - no crying, no screaming, no fuss! At bedtime last night he cried for less than a minute and then to sleep. HOLY GAMOLY!! This is freakin marvellous and totally thrills us. Horray. It's been hard but Tizzy, we love you. So it's back to being strict again and sticking to his routine and really enforcing things we'd decided were important to us right at the beginning which we'd been letting go if they didn't happen. I think we'd gonna a bit too comfortable and secure and thought "We've done so well, our baby is great and sleeps wonderfully" and let things slide a little and just let things happen that we weren't entirely happy with but though 'Oh he'll be right'. Well we learnt the hard way that he wont be right! So at 8 months and 2 days old we dont wanna chuck him away!! It was a different story when he was just 8 months old. hehehe

UPDATE (written today - Sunday 10.12.06): Last night was a bit yucky on the sleeping front. We went out to a christmas dinner and called Chris' parents at 11pm to see if everything was ok and whether they'd be ok with us being out another hour. Well the wee one had been screaming for about half an hour, so we came home and as soon as I heard the screams I knew something was up. It wasn't his usual 'I'M A POOBUM' screaming, it was really frantic and definitely sounding like the 'HELP ME! SOMETHING'S WRONG!' screaming. So I rushed up and found him on his tummy, trapped in his cot. Poor wee thing! Silly boy, don't know how he did this cause he sleeps in a sleeping bag at night to avoid it, and up until this point it's stopped him from being able to. Bummer, so now he can and we have to watch for this in the night sleeps as well as the day. Dammit. It took quite a long time to calm and fall asleep but I got to sleep at 1:30am to be woken by the little snot at 5am - he screamed for about 45 minutes but fell asleep. Horray! We're all mighty tired here today but it's a pretty normal feeling thanks to our gorgeous little boy.

He's soooooo active these days. All over the show and getting places pretty damned quickly and LOVING being able to do this. Though still no real crawling but by jingos he's pretty damned mobile all the same! It's feeling like crawling is gonna happen soon - though we've thought that since he first got up on his knees at about 4 months! haha And then again when he started rocking and going backwards at 6 months! haha So who knows when he'll crawl really.

We've got a BBQ with all his friends from coffee group this afternoon. That'll be heapsa fun! Must remember to take the camera. Right - off to have a wee relax with my green tea and husband before he wakes.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

He is actually getting worse

Today has been hell. He's screamed heaps before each bedtime - he's only just gone to sleep and I put him into bed at 1:13pm - it's now 3:02pm. He throws himself about so much during these screaming marathons that he ends up trapped face-down in his cot with his legs jammed in the bars and sounds like he's dying. Today has been horrendous and really hard. Freakin Tizzy should come here and try to fix this one before we chuck it away! He's happy when he's awake though so it's not anything other than a sleep/self-settling/putting himself to sleep problem - well that's what we think anyway. But there's no way of being sure - it's all just hit and miss with these wee things that don't tell ya. Because he gets trapped I have to pick him up, then as he's so frantic I hold him till the screams are at a normal level, then it's back in the cot to scream some more while I pat him. It's certainly not getting anywhere this Save our Sleep thing we're trying (well apart from the night-waking which seem to be improving). So at this rate, tomorrow he wont sleep at all, he'll just scream when he's supposed to be sleeping and then feed, play scream again. Awesome.

SAVE OUR SLEEP!!!

Since last Friday we've been trying a new way of dealing with this damned night waking. A friend lent us a book last Friday entitled "Save our sleep" - as you can imagine after this hideous last month or so of hardly any sleep I just about jumped on her when she offered it. The title sold it for me, no doubt the case for millions of sleep-deprived parents all over the world. We don't know why he started this horrid waking but it definitely turned into a habit - one that we're now incredibly desperate to break. Tizzy Hall's (the author) approach is to leave them for a minimum of 18 minutes (for a baby of his age), if they're still crying at the end of that time and you can handle leaving them then do so for as long as you can handle it, as they will eventually go to sleep. This teaches them to self-settle and put themselves to sleep, or reteaches if for some reason they don't anymore.

So he woke at 1am and we left him screaming. Sheesh, talk about hard at that time of the morning, he was screaming at me about how horrible I am and how sad and scared he was - it was killing me inside. He screamed for an hour and a half at full throttle before I couldn't handle it anymore. I was waiting for the calmer cries or the breaks in screams... where the hell are the calmer cried or the freakin breaks in screams?!!?!?! Somehow Chris had managed to fall asleep... WTF?!? ...and was snoring next to me. Oh neat, as if the screaming wasn't bad enough we'll just add some snoring to the mix. GOOD LORD. It was a hard night.

I couldn't do it anymore than that though, and had to go in. Tizzy recommends going in and calming your baby, don't pick them up though, you calm them by patting (or whatever works for yours). So there I was in the middle of the night, sitting naked on the floor next to Caelan's cot, patting this out of control frantic little boy, it was really sad. But eventually he calmed, when they stop crying you take your hand away, if they start again you comfort, anyway you go through this until you no longer need to pat them, then you sit there until they fall asleep, he was looking at me for ages and slowly I hid so he couldn't see me as I didn't want him to fall asleep looking at me cause I just think that's creating another problem. When he was asleep I went out. Lordy, lordy, lordy what a long exercise.

The night waking is definitely getting better - last night he didn't wake at all (though the getting to sleep initially was another story so he was probably just exhausted from the marathon crying session earlier!). The night before only woke once and cried, didn't scream, for about 10 minutes before settling himself back to sleep. The night before that he let rip for about 45 minutes and Chris ended up going in to calm him. But there are definitely improvements in the night-waking - it's not over yet but tis better. The going to sleep is DREADFUL though! He just screams and screams and screams and screams and screams oh and screams and then screams some more - he doesn't do any of the winding down to calmer cries, there are no bloody breaks in the scream!! Lying Tizzy!!! The night before last he screamed for about an hour 15 mins before I just had to go in and calm him. Last night he was having a bloody good go and Chris came upstairs to put some washing away and caved - he went in quite soon and completely forgot everything we'd decided to do. He picked him up and tried to calm him, then put him back in and left. This technique say's when you go in to calm them, do just that and don't leave till they're asleep as she views the leaving again as teasing them and thinks they can get even more worked up and upset if you do that. If they don't calm in 46 minutes (these time frames are bloody weird!!) and you need a break, you get the baby up and go out for a break of 10 minutes. Then put them back to bed and start the 18 minute crying thing from there. If you can keep going and trying to calm them, then you don't have a break and you keep going till they're asleep.

But in amongst all the yuck feelings you get from it and sleep-deprivation Chris just went in and did that and then left. Caelan go super duper freakin worked up then, really didn't think it was possible but he proved it was. So we got him up and gave him some paracetamol, sat him up for the 20 mins for that to take effect and then back to bed. He went straight to sleep from exhaustion the poor thing! But consistency is the key with all of these things, no matter what you've decided you're doing you need to stick to it. Chris felt horrible afterwards and didn't know why he did it, he just couldn't listen to it anymore and had to go in. Poor thing! It's so hard though, when we decided we would do this we decided that we really need to support eachother and in times when I've found it really hard and nearly caved Chris has told me not to and that we have to leave him. When one weakens the other keeps it together and on track - but he didn't even talk to me about last night the silly bum. He went up to put washing away, I was in the kitchen and then he never came back. Opsy. Poor Chris. Poor me. Poor Caelan. Hope it works soon. He's such a damned determined screamer though - apparently most babies have broken the habit and can settle themselves to sleep without any fuss. Mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble... ours is broken!!!

The book worked for the friends baby in 3 days, she's lent it to two other friends and it worked after one night and the other after four nights. Well screw them too! hehe

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Photos





Sure I'll sit here for a photo Mummy.


Hhhmmm... what's in here?


Ops! BUSTED!

Friday, December 01, 2006

Latest photos


Hanging out with Uncle Vincent when him and Granddad visited from Australia.


Getting ready for summer.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

His first real accident

That bastard of a dangerous highchair finally did it! This morning just after breakfast while I was putting Caelan's bowl in the sink I heard a horrible BANG THUD, followed by blood curdling screaming and crying. God I nearly died when I turned and didn't see Caelan or his highchair. I was there before I could think and found him still in the seat and table part of the chair on it's side on the floor. It had all fallen off the legs. I couldn't undo the lock as he had been really jammed against it in the fall and the table part had gone up too far in the opposite direction. I was so scared and just wanted to get him out and cuddle him but couldn't. It was sooooo frustrating! He was screaming the whole time and not moving - I was terrified things were broken, it looked like his arm was broken as it was jammed under the seat in a horrid position. I had to push him a bit and then finally was able to undo the lock and pull him out. My poor, poor little boy! I held him so tight and bawled my head off while saying "Sorry" over and over and over. Nothing was broken and when he finally calmed he was fine. His arm that was jammed was pretty red and swollen looking, had a red bit above one eye and the bottom leg was pretty red. It could have been so much worse, I'm so glad he's ok. Bastard highchair! It's lucky that it's raining today, otherwise there may have been a burning in the backyard! hahaha

Aside from that he's still a poobum! hehe Last night involved lots of crying and way more awake time than necessary in the middle of the night again. He's nearly lost his voice from all the screaming lately, it's all husky sounding and disappears when he's "talking". It wasn't as bad as the night before so hopefully tonight will be even better.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Argh the sleepless nights!

Surely this aint supposed to be happening again at nearly 8 months old... surely. Mummy and Daddy think so anyway!! He's been waking heaps at night and last night was absolute HELL with a completely inconsolable Caelan for most of the night from 2am to nearly 7am. ARRGGHHHHHH!!! Needless to say all three of us are totally buggered and incredibly grumpy today. Caelan's just gone down for a nap after a 40 minute screaming session, no doubt due to feeling so horrible and tired from the sleepless night. Didn't eat lunch cause it was all too hard - poor wee guy screamed as if it was the worst thing imaginable, sheesh it was only kumara. God I wish I could just chuck a fit like that - I'm sure I feel just as bad as him too now. I'm sure Chris wishes he could chuck a fit at work today too - poor thing. Please lord let tonight be better.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Such a big boy

Caelan's just not a baby anymore, before we know it he'll be moving out of home! hehe We went to Plunket on Thursday and he's now weighing in at a hefty 10.3kg. Not as heavy as we thought he'd be though which is good!

All is well in the Clark household... We had a great weekend, with swimming on Saturday followed by sushi and mango frappucino afterwards for lunch. He just LOOOVES sushi and thinks mango frappucino is the best thing in the entire world, even better than Mummy and Daddy I'm sure! On Sunday we left the house at 8:30am and were out pretty much all day, getting home in the afternoon and Caelan was such a good boy. He had a wee 30 minute power-nap at Tanya's house and that did him for the whole day - what a star!! It was a huge day for him at the Avondale markets, then to visit Tanya's and off to the Dogue de Bordeaux breeder to visit all the doggies. He loved seeing more Toa's and squeeled and giggled at them.


Playing in my brand new Exersaucer that Grandma and Granddad got me - I'm so lucky!!


Well it is Movember!

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Laughing baby

He's 7 months old today and totally adorable! Click on the arrow in the middle of the pic below to make Caelan giggle! :)

Marmite monster

Scott took these photos while we were at his and CJ's place on Saturday for a BBQ. Caelan had a great time as you can see!

"I'll get your nose CJ! I'm gonna eat it! Now I'll get your tongue!"






Monday, November 06, 2006

Only reverse works

There's no going forward yet - he's still getting up on his hands and knees and rocking but that's about the extent of his crawling so far. He's just going backwards everywhere - I'm sure he'll find first gear soon. Then of course he just wont stop!

There was no swimming on Saturday so it was nice being able to just chill out and finally we could do something on Saturday evening/night! HORRAY! We usually can't do anything on a Saturday because he's already missed a sleep at swimming and all hell would break loose if he missed another one. Soooo the three of us went to friends for a BBQ - lovely jubbly (thanks CJ!).

Well it's feeding time so I'm off.



Can someone PLEASE deal to this lawn?!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Still only two teefs

He doesn't have any more than the original two but lordy, lordy the dribbling is still horrendous. I'm pretty sure we'll see some more soon. He's not as miserable with it either which is great - he's generally pretty happy, is a little more grizzly than usual but all in all pretty damned good. At least he's happy again - I hate it when he's not.

We FINALLY put his new carseat in the car on the weekend! About time, he'd been using his capsule all this time - yep we're bad parents. hahaha He loves the new seat, he really enjoys being upright and being able to see.

We just had a visit from Maria and George which Caelan loved, he thought Maria was heapsa fun! It's really nice to see him interacting with other babies.



Friday, October 27, 2006

We have a grumpy one

Caelan's been really grizzly and unhappy for the past couple of days. Not sure what's up - we're thinking maybe more teeth (god help me! Ouch). He's been rubbing his ears a lot again and crying a lot for seemingly no reason and not being able to be calmed. Poor wee thing. When he's not crying he seems sad, not really interested in toys or us, just stares off into nothingness looking unhappy - there are none of the gorgeous smiles and no chuckling or squeeling laughter. Hope he comes right soon - I miss my boy! Yesterday he wasn't interested in feeding, completely missed his 3pm feed - just bit and screamed everytime I tried to feed him. Tried a few times over the two hours he was up but nope he didn't want to know about it. He spent over an hour straight crying. Poor little guy, nothing would help so I just held him while he cried. He had his 11am feed and then the next fed wasn't till 7pm - and only for about two minutes that time before the biting and crying started again. He refused completey this morning as well - bit and cried. All we can think of is teething - or perhaps he's just having a bad couple of days for no real reason (we all know what that's like huh?). Hope he feels better soon.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Underwater swimming

Caelan went under the water on Saturday at swimming - he was sooo good! He doesn't care too much for the water in his eyes but really didn't mind the whole being under at all. It was actually a little scary waiting for his turn - I was excited and nervous all at once. He was the second to go and of course he was fine though. He just loves swimming so much, so glad we decided to take him!

He can pretty much sit up by himself now, we have the odd topple over but he's doing real well. Still no more progress on the crawling front though - he gets up onto his hands and knees and does the 'I'm-gonna-crawl-soon' rock but that's about it. He does go backwards everywhere though - this morning he jammed himself under the hall table and couldn't get out. Funny guy. That's some travelling from the lounge where I put him facing the other direction! Teeth are growin' nicely, still just the two at this stage and I'm hoping it stays that way till he's a year old when I can stop breastfeeding! He's really naughty with the biting - just thinks it's hilarious, grins and giggles while he's biting down real hard. OUCH! I do the firm "No" and stop feeding for a while before starting again but it just doesn't work. I push his face into the boob so he can't breath and lets go - doesn't work, makes him giggle and bite harder. In the weekend he had a good time of it - didn't feed at all just bit, everytime it was feeding time he'd just bite and laugh, bite and laugh. When I would say "No" he'd just bite harder and giggle through clenched teeth. Not fun. Not at all fun. Thankfully by the end of the weekend he was actually feeding again and not biting anymore. It's a dangerous thing this breast feeding.


Where's Caelan?! Ohhhh that's him swimming under water!



That aint so bad Daddy.



Running my fingers through Olivia's hair.



Playing on Olivia's toys with Declan.



Wearing Mummy's hat - I'm so cool!


I've got teeth! Look!!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Such a yummy age

It's so much fun - for all of us! Caelan's real happy, talkative and laughy - which makes for a happy Mummy and Daddy. He's sitting by himself now, he can sit and play with his toys for about five or so minutes before toppling over so we're definitely getting there. He's using his hands to stop himself falling a lot more now which is so cute to see, if he starts toppling to one side he'll put that hand down on the floor to stop him - clever wee thing.

On the food-front he's doing really well - eats bananas like a big person and takes things into his mouth, bites off a bit and chews it up before swallowing. WOW! He's just like a person!!! hehehe He bit Chris' finger the other day and only now does Chris feel sorry for me and my nipples - HA! Seeeeee it does hurt! He couldn't believe how hard and sore it was. Strong wee teeth for ones so small.

He's taken to waking at 6am rather than 7am which isn't so fun. Hopefully it ends soon! I got home this morning to find Chris and Caelan in bed together - real cute! :)

Monday, October 16, 2006

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Caelan the brave

He got his five month immunisations on Monday - over a month late but at least it's done now. He was such a brave boy and didn't even cry, I was really scared because the last two times he's screamed his poor wee head off, but this time he was great. Well he is over six months old ya know - he's a grown-up! hehe The nurses were all amazed at his size and couldn't get over how tall he is. It's great to have such a big, strong boy.

He was pretty sleepy for the rest of the day and a little grizzly but all in all he was pretty damned good. Unfortunately for Chris he woke at 6am on Tuesday morning screaming his head off and wouldn't settle, he screamed for over an hour. My poor boys! When I got home at about 7:15am they both weren't happy, Caelan had red swollen eyes and Chris was incredibly over the constant screaming. I know what that's like and it just aint fun when nothing will calm him. He wasn't hungry, he wasn't wet/pooey, he was just screaming. Caelan looked at me with his red puffy eyes, tears still rolling down his face and gave me a little smile - made me want to cry! That was probably to do with the immunisations I'd say. Apart from that all's fantastic.




Monday, October 09, 2006

Six months old and talkin'

Caelan turned six months on Saturday - holy moly he's half a year old! WOW!!! Ok I'd promised myself I wouldn't do that whenever I talk about how old he is, I know it's boring and I know you're probably rolling your eyes and saying "I know, I know, you can't believe it... Yeah, yeah, you're amazed and wonder how it happened... You say it all the time, you're shocked at how quickly the time goes by..." But OH MY GOD I REALLY AM!!! hahaha I'm sorry but how on earth do I have a six month old son?!?! Well of course I know HOW I have a son, we all know that - there were birds, and some bees, and I'm pretty sure there was a Chris there too... Annnnyway! He's six months old :)

Swimming rocked! He absolutely LOVED it. He had the bestest time and flapped and splashed the whole time - it was too cute. We knew he'd enjoy it as he loves bathtime but he really loved it - it was so lovely to watch. Chris got in the pool with him - it's their weekend time which is nice cause he spends heaps of time alone with Mummy. Also Mummy just about vomits at the idea of getting into togs!! hehe Though watching made me want to be in there with my guys. It was so awesome, I was smiling, giggling and snapping away madly, whilst feeling incredibly proud - 'My little boy is swimming!'. His friend George is taking the same class so they had a little chat in the pool (cute last photo).

AND he started saying dadadadaaa yesterday!! 'My little boy can talk!'. Wow this motherly pride this is pretty intense. We were in The Baby Factory and I heard this baby talking, well kinda shouting and I thought 'Hehe cute', kept walking 'Hang on!!!!! There are no other babies around!!!'. I spun around and looked at our little boy in his buggy talking. Ooohhhhh how excited I got. I think Chris thought I was crazy, but my lord it was so exciting. I think Caelan thought I was crazy too. Just like he'd been doing it all the time he was shouting and really happy about it. Yesterday was a great day - he was really happy and talkative, the cold had improved and the sun was a shinin'. Yesterday was a great day.

Anything else... Oh he's started to have the odd bit of finger food too. He's had apple and pear whenever I'm eating one and bread and banana. He thinks it's great. Tis a very messy exercise this feeding oneself but boy oh boy it sure is fun!

Oh and teeth, or I should say ow and teeth. He thinks it's really funny to use them now - youchy! The two bottom middle ones are out of the gums now, they're not very high yet thank goodness. It's all a happenin now - which reminds me, he can sit on his own for much longer now and has just worked out that he can put his hand down to stop him falling if he starts toppling over to one side. What a clever boy!





Wednesday, October 04, 2006

It all changes so quickly

He's got teeth!! They're not all the way up but they're a comin'. The bottom middle tooth on the right is level with the gums, but out of the gums and will be fully out in no time I'm sure. How exciting! That's all - just wanted to post that as I made a point to say he had none yesterday and just a day later THEY'RE HERE! Amazing. Well I'd better go get him so he can test them out on my nipples! hehe

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Still gummy

Aside from all the dribble, shoving everything into his mouth and rubbing, playing with ears and general grizzlyness - we have no signs of teeth. He's also got another cold dammit all - it started with coughing and sneezing in the weekend and now he's a snot machine again. He's one of those lovely babies that has snot running from his nose to his lip - nice!! I always said I'd NEVER have one of those too :) hehe It's also one of Chris' pet hates - we're now "those" parents, with a scungy baby who has a trail of snot from nose to mouth. Nice - he'll be sucking it in soon. Ugh - before I make myself sick I'll change the subject!

Saturday was ahhhh... great :) We were very prepared, got ready early, packed Caelan's bag, feed him - he had a small lunch so as not to be too full when swimming, cancelled an appointment to see a house and off we went. We were running early!! Awesome. I'd charged the camera batteries so there was no chance of running out. All morning and on the way there we kept telling Caelan he was gonna be swimming soon and how exciting that was. We get there (still early) and have pick of the carparks, waited for a while and then went to find out where the swimming pool was. The pool looked awesome - we got more excited. We then realised that we were a week early! hahaha I always knew it was on the 7th but for some reason I was a week ahead of myself. I asked Chris the date and he said it was the end of September. OPSY! hahaha We told Caelan it was a test run and now that we know the best way to get there, we're all prepared for next week. Poor little boy! Stupid parents!