another breast infection

hmmm this time after a 13hour period with no feeds.

I think I am going to have to start waking the little guy at 10.30 or 11pm so his night time fast is more like 8 hours rather than 12 to 13.

Had fever and a really sore really red breast this time.

Spent most of my day yesterday at the doctor, then at medicare.

Had a fairly full weekend ... uni at work so kt and rj and cooking and all their care and entertainment fell to me.

Was totally exhausted by sun pm ... and really looking forward to a quiet monday at home ... not at the doctors.

Anyway stayed home today and am making the most of my time!

Even did some weeding, photography, washing etc.

Uni bought himself a karcher high pressure cleaning system and has made all the paths and concrete around our yard clean and sparkling. He used the water from our tanks!!!!

Spring is just about here and the garden is blooming ... it hasn't had much attention at all from me but things like the blue salvia which I thought were brown and dead have all started to regrow!!!

Looks like I should not pluck a dead plant out until spring because it might only be hibernating.

Whenever uni pays attention to the yard (mowing) or in this case high pressure cleaning it makes me want to get out there and complement his work with some of my own.

I didn't get all the weeds but I have made a dent in them.

I also took some photos of the garden ... my lemon plant has flowered again and smells divine!

And so does kt's bean plants ... one of which has a bean pod!!!!

The kids each grew a bean plant in class and we also grew some additional ones at home.

Borlotti beans (this is the kind that smells so nice, has such pretty flowers, is climbing rapidly ... and has a pod) and also chickpeas ... these have a small pretty white flower and lovely delicate dark green leaves.

They are all flourishing in a pot full of tomato growing soil in our circular garden.

all I want for christmas are my two front teeth

Today kt lost her second front tooth at school.

She looks very cute with an enormous gap in her mouth and is saying her "s" and "c" sounds in a very funny way!

I have taken photos and will upload them soon. LOL well sooner or later anyway.

R is still not having a good time dealing with the antibiotics in my system. He has been very sleepy and wanting 2hourly feeds. He then falls asleep after each feed, gets put to bed and wakes up after 45min to an hour.

We did go shopping at Coles this morning and he had his first ride in a shopping trolley. I never took Kt in one before, but I figured I would give it a try this time around.

I strapped him in and the "seatbelt" was way too loose, so I basically kept my hand on him the whole shopping trip.

He lay quietly looking around at everything, but if he had been wriggly I would have taken him out immediately.

Today was the first day I dropped kt off at school and let her walk by herself from the car to the "surfing the pages" room where the year 1 students have been having stories read to them before school each morning.

She was pretty pleased to be able to do such a big kid thing on her own!!!

Then R and I scooted off to the shops, beating the crowds and got home just after 9am.

I commented to uni later that this was probably only the second or third time in the last 7 years that I have managed to get to the shops before 9 in the morning.

When kt was a baby it took me most of the day to get organized to go out anywhere.

Admittedly that was because she was a late sleeper.

Anyway I had better go now and wait for the tooth fairy.

second breast infection and more kicking feet

argh .... its only been about a month since the last one!

Luckily I had another script ready to go and jumped on it fairly quickly.

It was the other breast this time ... above and right up to the nipple.

Poor R is suffering from some very runny and explosive poos at the moment as a result of either the infection or the antibiotics.

He also still has a cold ... poor thing.

I will ask my doctor next visit if I can get another script for antibiotics so I have one on hand. Next visit will be in about 6 weeks for R's second set of injections.

He is still such a sweety!

Now he can propel himself out from under the covers by pushing off with his feet against the mattress and ending up almost at the top of the cot.

When we change his nappy he kicks the nappy change mat off the change table.

This morning uni changed his nappy and got ready to hand R over to me. R looked back over his own shoulder and saw me and used his "propel" kick to push his feet against uni's belly and launch himself backwards to me!!! It was very cute!!!

Mastitis

Well 5 weeks into my breastfeeding journey I have developed a breast infection.

The night before I had any symptoms R woke up every 4 hours for a feed (prior to this he had lengthened his feeding gaps to 5 or 6 hours). This meant that the next night my breasts produced a lot more milk and got very full when he went back to only waking every 6 hours.

My left breast was so full it started leaking milk and was big and uncomfortable. I ended up sleeping on that side and in the morning it was very painful.

The pain did not ease when R emptied it and in fact anywhere below the nipple that I touched or that was pressed against would hurt. It didn't improve during the day so I made an appointment to see a doctor and was prescribed antibiotics (cephalexin).

They had started working by the next morning but seem to have affected R badly ... causing him tummy upsets and large and explosive poos.

I have been eating yogurt to see if that will help my digestive system but it doesn't seem to be helping R.

Last night he woke every 3 to 4 hours for a feed and today his longest sleep was 2 hours ... leaving me hardly any time for lunch and no other jobs unless I was prepared to do them while he screamed.

Every time I put him down for a sleep he would wake up and yell and nothing except picking him up and breastfeeding him would calm him.

Uni is on afternoon shift at the moment so I had to pick up kt from school and look after her and feed her and read her stories etc as well as try and keep R calm.

Kt was actually a good helper ... and has calmed him down herself several times.

She is a really terrific big sister and I am relaxing a little more knowing that she knows to be gentle and is caring and affectionate and interested in her baby brother.

He really loves her too!

The other morning when he woke up we both went in to greet him in preparation for bringing him along to school with us.

He looked up at Kt and gave her the biggest grin! It lasted for ages and his mouth was wide open and he was looking right into her eyes!!!

Just lovely.

I got a few big smiles just for me, later on in the day too but Kt's was the biggest!!!

I should really be trying to sleep now, but I need to "talk" about my day.

I am not sure how he will go tonight but I am mentally preparing myself to just hold him all night if necessary.

Tomorrow is our 6 week check up ... mine to see if everything has healed and is generally back to normal after the birth and R to check he is growing and make sure his heart is fine and there are no other problems.

Up until this week I would have fairly confidently have said I was handling things pretty well ... but very little time to myself and interrupted sleep and clothes and ironing and mess piling up and uni having just started afternoon shift (leaving me to look after kt from school pick up time right through to bed time) have pushed me close to the edge.

I still have another 3 days on antibiotics so hopefully this will not last for the whole of that time.

Kt starts holidays from tomorrow as well so everything is happening at once... and uni has had to spend more time at work for the past 2 weeks and also during the upcoming school holidays while another shift is on their annual holidays.

Feeling better now that I have written it all down.

Blogging is very cathartic.

Bats and school fetes.

Well time is just flying by and there are so many things I want to write.

Yesterday uni noticed a bat hanging upside down sleeping in our mango tree.

We (especially Kt) spent plenty of time checking him out. Apparently a bat will turn itself right way up, open out its wings and do a poo, then he turns himself upside down again, wraps himself up with his wings and goes back to sleep.

I missed this amazing sight ... but Kt saw it happen several times. I meant to take a photo of it but am having hassles with my camera battery at the moment. I have to buy a new one.

He came back again and was in the tree early this morning before school, much to our surprise! When I went to hang washing out later in the day I could no longer see him.

I hope Kt is not too dissapointed that he is gone when she returns home this afternoon.

This weekend just gone I took Kt and baby moo to her school's 50th anniversary fete.

I was hoping not to have to do it alone, but everyone I could ask to come along was working. Any thoughts of missing out on it were banished when I realized how keen Kt was to go along.

I decided I would go for as long as we could and return home when moo needed a feed. I took the pram so I would not have to carry him for any length of time.

He woke for a feed at 8am which meant that I expected he would need to be fed again at 1pm. The fete started at 10am and was to go until 3pm.

After his feed, moo settled into his bouncer quietly while I went around in a rush assembling everything I thought I would need.

This included 4 nappies, a full change of clothes, one blanket for in the pram and one blanket to cover the pram, wipes, nappy sacks, a bag for kt to use to carry her loot and a handbag for me (with additional nappies, wipes, tissues, wallet,keys etc).

Everything had to fit either in my handbag or in the storage compartment under the pram ... and of course we had to leave space for whatever treasures kt wanted to purchase from the fete.

We headed off and arrived a bit after 10am. First stop was the year one craft stall, so that kt could see her teacher and buy a pet rock. She also got a dreamcatcher and then did a collage.

Next we went and got her face painted and then my beautiful butterfly got a purple helium balloon.

After that we decided to check out the rides and pick up her armband which we had prepurchased for $25 and would allow her to go on all the rides as many times as she wanted to.

I had debated whether to buy one of these because I worried she would not go on the rides on her own. Luckily uni convinced me to get one. Each ride individually costs $4 and over the course of the day she went on her favourite ride ... the big slide 15 times!!!!!

There was also a jumping castle, a ball crawl, and a spinning chair ride.

Once she was away on the rides it was virtually impossible for me to get her attention, and she was having such a great time I didn't really mind.

R slept for the first hour and then once we got to the noisy rides he woke up and would not go back to sleep.

While I waited for Kt to tire of any rides and return to me (LOL) I ended up having to carry moo and push the pram at the same time. It was too early for a feed and I was sure he really just needed to sleep but I could not calm him.

I put him back in the pram and picked him up and walked him around numerous times and started to stress a bit about him being in the sun and also not settling.

I ended up looking for shady and quiet spots and tried to keep an eye on Kt at the same time.

Eventually I decided to cover the pram with the big blanket and walk it around. This worked a treat and I was able to observe kt in peace and enjoy her enthusiasm and excitement.

As it got closer to 1pm I suggested to kt that we have some lunch and went in search of a quiet unpopulated place to eat it. We stopped at the year 1 undercover eating area which was deserted and I had got half way through my pie when moo woke up and yelled for his lunch too.

I wolfed down my pie, and gave him my first ever outdoor breastfeed. It went remarkably well, was fairly quick, and I used the pram in front of me as a bit of a privacy shield as well as the pram covering blanket which I rested under his head and had it sticking up behind and also above his head to provide additional privacy screening. I had his head in the crook of my right arm, feeding from my right breast, while I held it near his mouth with my left hand.

I had my right leg raised up onto the pram('s storage compartment) in front of me to give his body a bit of a lift (as I usually have him lying on a pillow to raise him to the level of my breast).

I had tried lying him on top of my handbag but he didn't find that very comfortable.

I was going to give him a nappy change in the pram too, but he fell asleep immediately after the feed and I didn't really want to disturb him.

He then slept peacefully for the rest of the fete and we stayed right until the end.

While I fed him I had kt stocked up with lunch, a drink and snacks to keep her busy and close by. She ended up playing with her helium balloon and letting it go and of course we were unable to retrieve it.

There were many tears and the butterfly on her face started to melt. Meanwhile I managed to keep feeding moo, and pretty much held it together despite the high level of demand on my attention from each.

Kt ended up heading over to get another purple balloon herself, with me trying desperately to call her back and try and catch up!

After that we did a lucky dip, had a few goes on the laughing clown, went on many more rides, had some 50th anniversary cake ... ended up serving a wave of other people some anniversary cake while waiting for kt to finish her icy pole and chocolate milk. We were sitting near the cake cutting area and the lady who was doing the job dissapeared when we were not looking and rather than leaving the knife in the hands of primary school kids I took over for the last quarter of the cake until it was all gone!!!!

We just made it back to the stall which had a bracelet that kt particularly wanted, as they were getting ready to take their gear back to the car. I had hesitated on buying it for her because the price on the rack was $15 and I thought that was a bit much, but she kept returning to the stall and asking me whether I had decided if she could buy it and eventually I said that she could.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually only $5!!! and also very relieved that we had caught them before they left.

Kt offloaded most of a very full bag of piggy bank money and one of my $20 notes also completely dissappeared on the day too. Most of the money will go to the school so it was a worthy cause.