Friday 29 August 2014

The godfather

Master S and L were baptised last weekend and their godparents officially appointed. It was a beautiful day with a simple ceremony and little party back at our house.  Everyone brought a plate of food, the sun was shining, the children were happy...all stress free fun.

Having just had to choose four new godparents, I've been thinking a lot about what this means. For me, regardless of religion, I think the beauty of godparents is that they provide an alternate adult for children to bond with.  I don't have any parenting expertise but I definitely believe that it is important for children to have adults in their life who they respect and who influence them, besides their parents.  

During the party on Sunday, I happened to notice Miss 2 in her room playing catch with her godfather.  She was loving the individual attention and whilst as a good friend, he would always be a part of her life, if he wasn't the official godfather I don't know whether he would have made the effort to play with her like this.  I think by appointing the godparents, it sort of gives permission to make a real effort.

It's a bit like having a mentor programme in the workplace.  Ideally, a young professional will create their own networks and mentoring type relationships will just develop organically. However, there's no guarantee this will happen and there's certainly no harm trying to match people up to give them a head start.



Wednesday 20 August 2014

Pay it forward chocolate cake

Don't worry, I'm not becoming a food blogger as well as a mummy blogger. I just wanted to say I have a new found respect for people with dietary requirements. I've always been somebody who will eat most things and I feel very lucky to not have any intolerance or allergies as I now know that I would not cope very well.

When Master S and L were very little, the paediatrician diagnosed them with a cow's milk protein intolerance - basically a dairy intolerance.  Apparently pretty common in premature babies.  This meant if I wanted to breastfeed I had to cut all dairy out of my diet.  At first I didn't think it was too big a deal as I don't drink a heap of milk but then I realised this included cheese and I love cheese and had just foregone all the good ones during pregnancy.  Plus dairy is in almost every yummy baked good - cakes, croissants, biscuits, everything.  Not to mention lots of pasta sauces and of course lasagne is out.  This wiped out many of the frozen meals I had cooked up for us prior to arrival of the babies.  Next I realise that even straight up chocolate has dairy in it.  I'm not really sure what milk solids are but they're in a lot of good things.

Now I must add that breastfeeding makes you hungry and breastfeeding twins makes you ravenous.  Also when you are sleep deprived, you kind of just want your comfort foods, so it's fair to say that at this stage I was pretty miserable.  

Then my friend Katherine knocked on the door one evening and like some kind of food angel produced a dairy free chocolate cake for me.  I can't thank Katherine enough for this but when I found out that one of the girls I met in the neonatal unit is still having to forego dairy, I got the recipe from Katherine and whipped up some chocolate cake for her too. Everybody needs cake.








Sunday 17 August 2014

One at a time

The babies continue to only sleep for about forty minutes at a time during the day.  It is absolutely driving me insane but I'm trying to roll with it and not let it get us all down.

This morning when they woke up clearly still in need of sleep, we just embraced it - whacked them in the pram and off we went for a morning coffee.  There aren't too many places around here open on a Sunday morning so everywhere that is open is packed and no chance of fitting in the road train. That's ok. Takeaway for us and off to the park.

Best decision ever. I sat on a bench and fed the babies one at a time while Ed and Miss 2 ran around chasing a honky nut. I can't believe I'm saying this but I love breastfeeding one baby at a time. I always dual feed because it's much more efficient so taking the time to do it one at a time felt extremely decadent. I think I'll do it more often.


Tuesday 12 August 2014

Just a great day

I had the best Saturday morning!  As soon as Miss 2 and Ed got back from swimming lessons we piled everyone and everything into the road train and walked up to our local farmers market. The sun was shining and the babies were smiling so we put down the rug and all sat down together just watching the world go by.  I even made a new friend - someone who it turns out had her baby in the neonatal unit at the same time as Master S and L.  We just got talking and in the end exchanged numbers.  I love being part of a community!

We bought some beautiful bread and some mussels, went home, cooked them up and sat down to a lovely lunch with some white wine.  It was like an eclipse into some kind of world where rest and relaxation exists.

It wasn't long before the babies woke up crying and it was back to reality, but that little snippet of time was just perfect.

Thursday 7 August 2014

Perth > Ballarat > Melbourne > Perth

Two planes, one bus, one train, one tram, one taxi turning up extremely late. Turns out that is just about the perfect recipe to tip me over the edge of crazy. However, we did it and I'm really glad we did.  The wedding was one of the best I've been to.  I genuinely had a really fun time and I am so happy to have been there to see my friends skip down the aisle together.

One thing I learnt is that getting on aeroplanes and other forms of transport really does require one adult per child.  I originally recruited my sister to come with us so that she could babysit while we were at the actual wedding.  This of course was necessary but what I hadn't realised was that we would need her throughout the journey.  No matter how great a day Miss 2 is having, I can't really expect a toddler to carry her own bags and put her own seatbelt on. Well not when time is limited.  Thank you Claire!

The journey over actually went really well.  Both babies slept almost all of the way in the plane, pram hire lady met us at the baggage claim area and we were even running early so able to quickly jump on an earlier bus to avoid the expected hour and a half wait.  It was absolutely pelting with sideways rain as we ran from the terminal to the bus and I must admit that I did curse those who had decided to have a wedding in Ballarat in August.  Then I turned on my phone to find reports of snow which just made the situation somewhat laughable. 

The beatiful sun came out on the wedding day, I was able to walk between the wedding venue and our accommodation and the order of proceedings was casual so I just nipped back to help get everyone to bed.  It all came together super well on the day. Yay for us!

Now I need a holiday.