It rained today!!!! Hooray!!!!
I love it when it rains, even more so when it’s wintery weather and it rains. Tis the best! Summer is doing really really well. She is spending longer and longer each day holding her head up and looking around. It’s so cute. Oh and Yay!…I get to sleep some tonight, as Rick will be doing the early morning feed. Which is usually around the 2:30am mark. I am up with her very late every single night and to get a night off is always what I need!! I am very much a sleep needer. As much as I can get too. Summer is also a VERY gassy baby, which makes it hard as she doesn’t settle down to sleep easily (more so during the night of course) as she is trying to ‘pop’. She makes us laff our heads off tho, with all the noises she makes. She sounds like a lamb most times and she grunts a lot and does all sorts of strange noises whilst she sleeps. Which makes me wonder, how much sleep is she really getting??!!

Well we tried the Karicare Gold+ for just over 2 weeks and we weren’t happy with it. So we have changed to the Nestle NAN Gold range instead as it has bifidus and stuff in it and it’s unfortunately the most expensive on the market, but we have been fortunate enough to find some on sale and if it works out we are going to have to hunt it down on sale. She has taken to it, like it was still Karicare, so no issues there. Her #2’s have changed in colour. And sadly it seems she is a gas sufferer. So during every feed, we have to burp her approx 3-4 times and keep her elevated when she is finished for about 10 mins and also rub her stomach clockwise to help her expel that gas. It seems to be working, so that is great!

She is quite an aggressive feeder too, which probably doesn’t help the gas side of things as she gulps her food down half the time. But we are hoping that this formula does the trick as far as the digestion side goes and hopefully it will help with the gas too

A mother of an old friend of mine was so sweet as to knit me a really kewl scarf for winter!

She had already given us a card and some money for the baby as a present, which was really really sweet and then my Mother in Law came around with the scarf. I really really like it. It’s very nice, just a shame that I won’t be able to wear it much.

It’s amazing how much caring for a baby changes day to day. One minute you have it figured out and the next minute it won’t work anymore and you need to learn a whole new way to answer the baby’s needs. I have tried to take photo’s every so often of Summer. But it’s not that easy with a newborn obviously (when they’re awake) and I don’t have anywhere nice to ‘prop’ her when she is sleeping so I can get some nice pictures. So I am just taking what I can get when I can get it. As long as I have something! Here is a picture of Summer the first day she came home…..

I have to say, that as each day passes by, I am enjoying more and more, looking after our baby. Even with getting up through the early hours of the night and staying up late for the late night feeds, I still am coming to enjoy it more and more. Summer is full of funny things. I love that she is already making us laugh our heads off at any given moment, day or night.

When she crys, she pouts her bottom lip at the end, like she is sulking. When she burps, I find it really really funny. When she is doing a #2, her nostrils go really really white. When she sleeps she makes all sorts of funny noises. Yesterday, she lay asleep in my arms and I went to the laundry to get her a new onesie to wear and when I was coming back up the hallway, she did this long coo. It was soo cute!!!

I love her to bits. I love Rick to bits. I am very happy

I love Rick.
I love Summer.

That’s all I wanted to say

Today Rick and I took Summer to a Child Health Clinic, she has put on 300 grams since being weighed last. At first we were like….’oh wow thats a lot!’….but the nurse assured us that it was normal and she was in the middle range and so all is well. They measured her as well, but that was about it. The nurse gave us some reading material too.

We took on Davina’s advice to ask for a discount on the rental raise they put on the new lease, the estate agent is going to ask for us. Even if it’s just $10. That’s like a can of formula a month paid for. So we can only hope and wait and see.

On our way to get some lunch after taking Summer to the Clinic, I saw a few Birdies (couldn’t tell if they were lorries or budgies) flying across the road, but as I was nearing where they crossed over, the silly buggers decided to turn back around and come towards me and my car. Well sadly one was too low and too slow and flew into my car. As I slowed down I could see in my mirrors, the birdie doing like a stunt man roll on the road towards some parked cars. So I pulled over and demanded that either Rick or I, go and have a look as I didn’t think it was dead and there was no way I was going to leave it laying there injured or otherwise. So Rick said he would go check it out. He went up to look for it and I saw him on the ground reaching under a parked car and he came back with a little green budgie! It was hardly moving. But Rick said from what he could tell it was just in shock. (I had checked the front of my car and could see no blood or other signs of bird) So I assumed it must have hit the plastic part of my bumper and just knocked itself for six. So I got Rick to drive us to get lunch and I tucked birdie under my jumper and took it home. I put it in the aviary and it was all puffed out and shy. And my parrot Tookie decided to start picking on it, so I had to bring it back inside and put it in the inside cage for a bit. Then it was flying round making a mess, so I took it outside and let it sit on my hand and after a few moments it flew away.

So that was my Budgie Bumble. And I think that Rick is a light sleep walker too. He has been doing strange things ….. like looking for our baby in shopping bags that are lying on the bed when he has a nap…!!!???? Yeah and others.

Well it has finally been a whole week since Summer has been at home and part of everyday life with us. It hasn’t been easy…nor has it been terribly hard. Just a learning curve for the both of us, but especially for myself. It’s hard not to get frustrated when she won’t settle, as she cannot ask for anything or tell me anything about how she is feeling or what she wants. But overall, she is a pretty decently behaved little bub. A more beautiful and nicely behaved baby we couldn’t of asked for or imagined we would have.

I will not be writing a daily report anymore. I just wanted to record her first week at home with us, after such an unsteady week trying to get her into the world. I am still writing her birth story. I don’t think I will publish it here. It’s far too long. And apart from the bit about giving birth to her, I don’t really wish to remember it right now. It’s too fresh and they’re not nice memories.

I am taking photo’s of her all the time. Not nice ones that are set up….but just snap shots. I will in the next few weeks, try and set up a couple of special shots that I can blow up and hang on the wall at home. When I do, I will pop them here in a post.

Not much went on today. Just a bit of resting and a bit of washing. The usual Sunday routine. Rick did the early morning feeds and let me get a good nights sleep. I guess that is one of the huge pro’s of Formula Feeding. That you can share the responsibility any time of day or night. I thought that my milk had come in, but I think that unfortunately I’m wrong. I gave Summer a go at the Booby again this afternoon and she had a good go for bout 25 mins or so, but then still needed her normal feed from the bottle. She is such an easy going baby. We are so lucky!!

My Auntie Davina popped in with her 2 girls to visit Summer this morning. I admire her for being able to do anything with 2 kiddies in tow, never mind 3! I can only imagine how tired she must be, from how tired I am with just the 1. So good work Dav!!!

My parent’s stayed till mid afternoon, just as it threatened to storm (which it never did). They offered to clean my house for me, which was really sweet. But I declined…….I would feel funny if someone was cleaning my house whilst I sat there and watched. So Saturday was a nice day with family around to see Summer.

Oh and we also took Summer out to the Grocery shops in her bassinet pram thingy too. She was such a good little baby, she slept the whole time. Unfortunately as soon as we tried to put her in her car capsule, she woke up and was unhappy the rest of the time.