Random Pictures Of The Girls

Look Who's Smiling?!!

On Tuesday, 31 March, 2009, I was playing with Erika (now 6 weeks, 1 day) on my lap, when I noticed her SMILE at me! I don't know if it's the first time, as I'm often distracted with Kira or other things I'm trying to do. But she doesn't do it all the time, yet, so I don't think she's been doing it for long. It took me a long time to get this picture! Worth the wait though, don't you think?

Picasso Kira

Kira loves to draw. Her favourite subject matter is faces, though fish come a close second. She loves to focus on expressions - happy, sad, angry, sick, silly, sleeping, and her newest favourite, pirate (complete with eye-patch)! She usually asks (demands!) us to draw these faces for her, but now she's learning to draw them herself. Here are her pictures: the top one shows a face (in red), complete with eyes, mouth, and hair.

The bottom one doesn't have hair (though it looks like it might), but does have a rather large nose! She tells us that the first one is a sad face; the second is a happy face. I think she's right!

Dad's 60th

We had our first trip away as a family of four on Friday, 27th March, 2009 - my Dad's 60th birthday! We'd been planning to go to Mildura for it, if we were adjusting to the new baby ok. As the day drew closer, we kept my Mum and sister informed, and somehow we ended up making it a surprise visit for Dad! He was pretty chuffed to see us walking up the driveway!! Unfortunately, Neal and I were crook with colds, but we weren't going to let that slow us down! We're just hoping that we haven't spread the germs.

Anyway, the trip itself went well. Erika slept virtually the whole way, just waking for feeds. Kira travelled well, too, keeping busy with her books, drawing, and her beloved teddy-bear. The trip, which usually takes 4-5hrs, took 6-7hrs as we had to stop a few times for breastfeeds. Kira loved the opportunity to run around, but thankfully she didn't give us too much grief when it was time to get moving again.

We loved catching up with my parents, who got to see little Erika for the first time (at almost 6 weeks), and it was great seeing Jeni and George again. Kira was excited to see her Gran and Gramps, and Aunty Jeni and Uncle George, too. We went out for dinner on Saturday night with the family and some of Dad's closest friends - another surprise for Dad. The kids were well-behaved! Erika slept most of the time, and Kira was quite content to sit at the table and draw. Just as well I came prepared!

Kira, The Big Sister!

Kira seems to be loving her role as Big Sister to Erika. She seems so proud of Erika. When asked who Erika is, she'll reply very excitedly "Baby Eh-kah!" "Baby Sista!" "Mine's Daughter!" She loves to give Erika lots of hugs and kisses, and pats (though sometimes that gets a bit rough, but always done with love!). She doesn't mind when I breast-feed. Kira will do her own thing, or sit next to me and watch Erika "drinking boobies". When Erika cries, Kira puts out her arms, and says "Coming!", or "Eh-kahhh! That's enough! No more! Go to sleep!!" Kira likes to help give Erika her dummy, or pass things to me when I'm not able to get them myself (like Erika's wrap, dummy, etc). We haven't seen any signs of jealousy from Kira. Just the typical 2-year old behaviours (pushing her limits, especially when tired or hungry!). Kira likes to play "Mummy and Baby" with her dolls and teddy bears. She takes them for walks in their pram, gives them their dummy, and feeds them pretend milk and water from a bottle. Although, today as we were driving home from playgroup, I was listening to Kira playing with her teddybear....she was lifting up her top and breastfeeding it!! "Drinking boobies, teddybear!" Very funny!!

Our First Month As A Family Of Four

Wow! I can't believe Erika's over a month old now - and that we survived!! She's now 5 weeks and 1 day old, still technically a newborn, but I think we've just endured the first growth spurt. Ah, the horror!!

Erika has been a frequent feeder since birth. By that, I mean 1.5-3 hourly, day or night! She tends to sleep a little better in the morning, so I tried to shorten her daytime sleeps in the hope that she'd sleep longer at night. That didn't work, though. All it did was teach her to have short sleeps day and night! And I mean SHORT! She would feed for about 10-15mins (couldn't get her to take any more - seems she only has a little tummy!), then play for about half an hour. When she starts to fuss and get sleepy, I'd try to put her down for a sleep, but it would take me about an hour or more, despite wrapping, rocking, patting, etc. Once down, she'd sleep for 5-10mins then wake again - this would go on for ages. By the time she finally conked out, I'd be very tense, wondering how long it'd be before I'd have to resettle her AGAIN. When I realised she's finally out for the count, it'd be just minutes before she's due to wake for the next feed, so why bother going to sleep myself?! As well as being difficult to settle, and keep settled, she has issues with wind/colic. She isn't always able to burp during/after a feed, and the pains always seem lower down, anyway. All we can do is wait for her to pass it out the other end! Cycling her legs seemed to help a bit, and we've also put her onto some medicine, which seems to help too (but even if it's a placebo, it makes me feel better for trying!!).

The first two weeks were managable, as Neal was on holidays from work. But when he went back, it was onto afternoon shift for two weeks - that meant I had to deal with Kira's 5 o'clock horrors, Erika's 2 hour feeds, cook dinner, and do the bath and bedtime routines all on my own. Talk about challenging! Add to that, Erika tends to have two fussy times - around 2pm (Kira's nap time, which means I don't always get to have a Nanna-nap), and around 7pm onwards (this can go on til 2am!). During those two weeks, I took to camping on the couch. Neal snores, and the more tired he is, the worse the snoring gets - he was keeping me awake! So you can see we've been more than a little sleep-deprived!

Things came to a head last week. On Monday (right on the 4 week mark!), Erika started feeding 2 hourly at 10am - you could set your watch by her! I don't mind the frequent feeds during the day, so long as it doesn't go on all night. But it did! Between 6pm and 3am Tuesday morning, Erika did NOT sleep! I'd manage to get her to nod off, but it'd only last 10 mins before she'd wake again. I kept trying to resettle her, but with no luck. I was wrecked by the time Neal got home from work (around midnight). He took over whilst I tried to sleep, but I couldn't, as I could still hear her crying from the other end of the house. At 1.30am he brought her back to me for yet another feed, and she FINALLY crashed at 3.30am. Neal took Tuesday off work so that I could spend the day doing nothing more than feed and sleep. Thankfully, we had a better night that night.

On Wednesday (18.3.09), I got a call from the Child and Youth Health clinic - I'd booked in to the day service for a few weeks' time, but they'd had a cancellation so I got to go in early. The timing couldn't have been better! I spent the day in the clinic with the nurse, who reinforced the routine I'd started, but showed me some alternative settling techniques (which of course worked brilliantly in the clinic, though not so well at home!). As well as learning a few tricks, I really appreciated having that one-on-one time with Erika without any other distractions, as up to that point every time I had to do something for her I felt very tense and anxious (How long would she be up for? How long would it take me to settle her this time? How long would she stay asleep for? etc).

On Friday, I felt pretty good, as I'd managed to get some reasonable chunks of sleep. My friend Sue popped in for a visit. When she asked me how I was, I burst into tears! We ended up having a cry together, as we're in a similar situation (family interstate, husbands work shifts, our kids are the same ages). Later, when I was trying (and failing) to get Erika down for the afternoon, and seeing my much-needed nap-time going out the window again, another friend texted me. Realising that I wasn't having much fun, and in need of sleep, Angie offered to come over to watch the kids for me. I was grateful for that! I tried to sleep, but my brain wouldn't switch off, but the rest still did me good. Later, her husband came around with dinner and chocolate! They both stayed and helped out until Kira was in bed, and I felt more relaxed. It must've done the trick, because Erika went 5-6 hours between feeds that night, and I felt like a whole new woman the next day!

Neal's now working morning shifts for the next 3 months, which I think is great! He's now home in the evenings, and so can help out with the kids. He's not really a morning person, and really needs his sleep since he has to be up early, but it's nice to have that shift continuity, too, instead of the rotating roster, for a while.

Erika is still stretching out her feeds. During the day, she'll feed 2.5-4 hourly, and at night she'll feed 3.5-6hourly. She's getting easier to put down to sleep now, too, though sometimes she still likes to fuss about for a bit. Because we're all sleeping better now, I'm feeling better (less emotionally fragile!), and picking up on her cues/cries better, too. I'm HOPING we're over the worst of it! I know there'll be more tough growth spurts, but hopefully we'll be better prepared, and able to cope.

On a brighter note, Erika is gaining weight - at the clinic last Wednesday she was about 3.9kg. And she's starting to become more interactive! She's starting to hold eye contact, and "talks" - lots of cooing! She's very cute! She's broken out in the lovely 4th week milk spots, and now looks like she's hit her teens prematurely! I think they're slowly starting to fade now, thank goodness.

IT'S A GIRL!!! Erika's Birth Story

On Monday, February 16, I had my usual hydrotherapy class. I didn't want to go, as I had barely slept the night before (insomnia, and up with Kira a few times). But last week's hydro class had been cancelled due to a chemical imbalance, so I was really feeling the need for some weightlessness in my hips! So I got my act together, and went off to the class. In the middle of class (at 10.45), I had my first contraction! It was more painful than my "normal" Braxton Hicks contractions that I'd been getting all throughout the pregnancy - more like the "painful" ones I'd been getting off and on since Friday. I actually thought that Friday (the 13th!) was going to be the day - I'd woken up with frequent, painful tightenings, but when I got up they slowly died off, coming only intermittently over the weekend. So when I had one in the pool on Monday, I just thought it was more of the same. I mentioned it to the physio, who suggested I get out of the pool! I thought I'd be fine, if I just took it easy. But I had another...I wanted to just go sit in the shallow end and enjoy the weightlessness, rather than push on with the exercises. But the physio said "How 'bout you just get out?!" She was worried I'd rupture my membranes in the pool, ruining the day for everyone! So, I got out, and reluctantly got dressed.

I thought I might go off and get a coffee and sit quietly for a few minutes before picking Kira up from the playroom, but by the time I was ready I thought I'd better just get her and go home. I'd had a few more tightenings in the change-room, and again on the way to get Kira - I even had a lady stop and ask me if I needed help, as I had stopped walking and was clutching at the wall! I was ok, though! I got Kira, and slowly made my way to the car. I decided that I needed to stop at the shops to get milk, despite having even more painful tightenings whilst driving!

We finally got home, and had lunch. I found it difficult to do anything whilst having a pain...Kira knew that I wasn't "right", and kept wanting to give me cuddles. I found I was needing to give her lots of reassurance! "Mummy's ok. Mummy has a tummy ache"! I'd sent Neal (who was at work) a text message to tell him what was going on, but that I thought it was more of the false labour - I'd let him know if/when that changes. By the time we were done with lunch, I was texting him to come home. I still wasn't convinced it was labour - the tightenings didn't seem to be regular - but I was too uncomfortable to manage them and Kira on my own.

By the time Neal got home (about 1pm) I knew it was the real deal! I phoned Virginia (our sister-in-law, who was to babysit Kira for us), and she said she was on her way - but would be about an hour! I prayed I could wait that long! I was hurting, but felt I could manage it if only Kira was taken care of. Poor Neal was being torn between the two of us, as we both needed someone to focus on us alone. When I realised that I needed someone here NOW for Kira, we started ringing other people - Neal's parents, our friends...but no-one answered their phone, or were available at such short notice. Finally, I said to Neal "We have to go now - Kira has to come with us!". She wasn't meant to come - wasn't meant to see me in such distress. But I needed my midwife! She could focus on me, and Neal could then focus on Kira until someone could take over from him.

We were at the hospital by 1.40pm. Kira was VERY distressed at all the noise her poor Mummy was making! We got rushed up to the Birth Centre (where my midwife was already on duty - YAY!!), but it wasn't long before I was telling Neal to take Kira out of the room - she was upsetting me as much as I was upsetting her. Apparently, Kira was cared for by no less than 4 midwives and Dr's, all trying to appease her with snacks and nursery rhymes! Neal would stay with me during the contractions, but then would duck out to check on his daughter until he heard me starting to holler again...poor man!

I had an internal check at 2pm - fully dilated!! Soon after that, my water's broke, and at 2.13pm Erika Skye Barber was born! I birthed her whilst kneeling on the bed, holding onto Neal for dear life! I didn't have any drugs - not that there was time, really. My midwife, Helen, had filled the bath for me, but I couldn't quite get there. Kira was outside the room when her sister was born - Neal brought her in straight after the birth, so she got to see Erika whilst she was still attached to me! Virginia had apparently arrived just moments before the birth, too, and our back-up (friend Scott with his mother-in-law) arrived just moments after. Kira went out to be with them whilst I got cleaned up; Neal took Erika out to meet everyone and have cuddles.

Virginia took Kira home for some dinner whilst Neal, Erika and myself rested, and prepared to head home. Erika and I both got a clean bill of health, and were discharged at 6.30pm.

Our first night at home started off fine - Erika ate and slept. But at 2am, Erika decided it was time to party!! Now, at just 4 days old, she has her days and nights a bit mixed, and loves to "snack feed" (giving her tummy pains!), but we're getting there. Kira loves her little sister! She loves to watch her "drinking boobies", and gives her lots of kisses!

Neal and I feel very blessed to have two beautiful girls! And don't they look alike?! But is it asking too much to wish for some sleep, too?!

Erika's stats: wt=3.425kg (300g more than Kira) or 7lb 9oz (Kira was 6lb 14oz); length=50cm (same as Kira); head circumference=34cm (same as Kira)