5 Weeks: screaming matches, lack of sleep and the introduction of formulae as well as bike mania.
Emma’s “nightmare” times are 4 pm and 4 am, she gets really hungry and grumpy as she is really tired but will not sleep. I decided to try formulae and as some of you will know there are as many formulas as there are colddrinks. I tried S26 after a really good screaming match (how mothers of colicky babies cope I do not know!) and she gulped it all down – so much for introduce new tastes slowly! Then the fun began, as the week progressed she yelled more got more cranky and windy and need to be burped often, she also spent a lot of time awake needing to be burped. After a week of no sleep and a few 2 and 3 hour screaming and howling sessions it dawned on me that it might be the formula, we have now changed to Nan and things are much better. She is now happy and burps easily – I think the S26 may have been too rich for her breastfed tummy. I am still breastfeeding her but she does get 1 bottle of formulae a day to get her ready for the big back to work thing.
On the feeding note she has taken to vomiting in the middle of the night after feeds – I think it might be because we are both tired so she overeats and I may not burp her properly – anybody got any ideas?
Well it is official I am back and driving again. The next official thing is that I am going to be working part time for the rest of the year. Bridget (a mom from school with a 5 month old boy) has organised for the geography post to be split into two teachers so I will be working on a Thursday and Friday teaching geography. Emma will be babysat at school and I do not have to do any extra murals which means I get to go home at 2:15 pm and 1 pm respectively. It does mean that I go back on the 17th of July but it does mean that I get to spend more time with Emma in the long run as I will not have the hectic English load which (no offence to geography) is a lot more work with afternoon meetings, group marking sessions and marking books with about 24 marks needed for each term. Geography is geography and my first love, it is also a lot less background work (only 3 or 4 marks a term!) Bridget has also offered to help me with the prep which will make a huge difference. Ten out of ten to Bridget for this one as I was going to go back on October under sufferance and get a new job for next year but I am really looking forward to this – a whole new adventure. Now I need to clean out my classroom, I think I will enlist Vaughn’s help for that!
Vaughn and Josh had their first ride, the rode in the Melville Koppies and then finished at the Mugg and Bean (a coffee shop in Melville) where the girls (Sue, Emma and I) many cups of coffee later were dutifully waiting for breakfast. Cavan met us for breakies and the topic of bicycle buying was hotly discussed – everyone is now getting bikes. It was really great for Vaughn to go riding, he has been working late a lot (not really appreciated when Emma is being cranky, but necessary I suppose) so it was nice for him to get a break and relax. He is also now looking after Emma for the early morning shift 4am to 7am so that I can feed her and then try and get some sleep. What a hero!
Week 6: 6 week check-up, squeals of excitement, holiday lists, Sunday rides and fixing lily (AGAIN)
Emma is much more aware of her surroundings each day and has now started making squeals of excitement. These are related to her play gym the most exciting things being snake (a long yellow and red snake with a rattle in) anything to kick especially if she has her rattle cow shoes on and her frog wrist rattle that has now also been upgraded to licking status (apparently really cool). She will play for about 20 minutes and then gives up by howling.
Howling is also a way of telling all the toys to move!!!!! She gets really excited when she randomly hits something and it moves. This notion has now extended to her car seat ladybirds. She is a happy little person while the bugs are moving but heaven forbid they stop then all hell breaks loose. I went to pick up Sue and Josh for the Sunday Morning ride and she woke up, fine, then she noticed the bugs had stopped – OUCH. Sue had to drive so that I could try and console her. Strong willed little people!
On the Sunday ride topic we now all have bikes. Cavan, Vaughn, Sue and I went to the bike shop – Cavan got a very cool blue bike (fire mountain?), I got a trek (with front shocks for sandy roads), Sue is borrowing Simone’s bike. We also got the ultra trendy helmets to go with so now we are all kited out for a biking holiday to Swaziland in July. Cavan came over to let me try my bike, Emma is way too small for the bike chairs and will have to be about a year and a half before she even gets near them so we are going to try and get a back pack for her to cycle in. I tried with her little soft back pack, she is a hazard on my tummy so I tried her on my back – I think it was all very strange for her but we will persevere – if she can handle the landrover she can handle the sedate sand roads I will drive on!
Sunday was also spent fixing Lily again! This time Cavan helped Vaughn to fix the speedometer (which surreptitiously stopped working just after we fixed the engine – Murphy again). They also attached the bike rack attachment (which Dad Clem bought for us) to the landrover so that we can now transport bikes on the golf or the Lily. They still have not fixed the doors and one lives in the constant knowledge the passenger front and back doors will fly open especially on the highway or bumpy sand roads (keeps your calorie consumption up). Lily was one week away from her first holiday with her new engine! In the whole build up to the holiday we also made a camping list for Emma – her list is longer than ours but luckily we have a really big car!
Emma continued her bad week by going to the doctor for her 6 week check-up. She is on the normal growth chart for everything but is still a little underweight which is not a major problem as she was so small when she was born. She now weighs 3.97 kg. The Doctor did the smile test and confirmed that Emma can really smile on her own, and here we thought they were all wind! She also confirmed Emma’s cold and gave us drops for her nose before every feed – Emma really love that – NOT! The final insult in our daughters life was the immunisations. The Doctor gave her, her 6 and 8 week injections in one go and Emma thought the world was going to end, luckily someone invented Panado Baby Drops to zonk her out for the next couple of days.
7 weeks: Sleep?, Accidents, internet shopping, dinner, Pilanesburg, more doctors and father’s day shopping
Well the lack of sleep continues but now it is the cold and immunisations fault. She is still being dosed with Panado (3 days worth) and nosedrops (5 days) which makes every nappy change a bundle of fun as I try to inject .5 of a cc of saline down each nostril. Surprisingly she does not really object to drinking her syrup.
Thursday was a day filled with excitement. Vaughn was driven over by a Putco bus, filled with passengers, on Thursday morning. The bus did not stop and drove straight into the back of the Beetle and pushed him over the DF Malan island and into the oncoming traffic (luckily there were no cars!). He is a little stiff and has made a few trips to the physio, the car on the other hand did not get off as well. It is now sitting at a panelbeater in Brixton waiting for the insurance to be sorted out. Vaughn has to phone Pucto and sort out the insurance himself even though we pay insurance on the car. So the result is that we are a one car family again and have to juggle who gets the car when.
Cavan bought golf clubs over the internet and had them delivered to our house, this sparked off an outing to megashopper which is an internet shopping site where you can buy your groceries and get them delivered to your house at a minimal service fee. The site still needs work but they were very good about checking the order and delivering it when they said they would. The best part was that I did not have to push a trolley around with 50 kg of dog food, a baby and another trolley of goodies (an impossible task on your own!), the even better bit was the fact that the man carries all your groceries and unpacks them on the table for you -really cool! We will definitely be doing our big monthly shop via the internet (the grocery prices are pretty competitive as well!) The groceries arrived on Thursday along with all those going to the Pilanesburg. Cavan supplied dinner, Keith supplied drinks and we supplied the house! A fun evening was had by all and there was much bantering and discussion about a strip club called “titty twisters” that one of the guys had visited for a farewell party (they will remain nameless to protect their image).
Friday brought the weekend away. Vaughn had to do much more of the packing this trip as Emma was still niggly from her injections and spent a lot of time feeding but we did eventually get everything into the car and set off on Emma’s first holiday. She was a real Gem and seemed to enjoy herself immensely. We took the little dome tent which worked much better than we thought – the main reason for the little tent was that we thought it would be warmer than a big tent. In retrospect I am glad we took it as Vaughn landed up pitching the tent himself as Emma was eating again! We only had two little crying sessions which woke Sue and Josh, the others slept through! The days were warm so we let Emma lie around in her vest and aired her bottom a little, she really seemed to like that and played happily. We also went on some game drives were Emma perfected the art of Game sleeping – this involves sleeping when the car is moving and waking up briefly when it stops – wouldn’t it be nice if it worked like that for all of us. I think she was really miserable to go home after all the love and attention she received from everyone, mom and dad are quite boring you know!
Dani we tried your duck babygro on her, her feet do not even reach the legs! Angie we tried your snow suit on with the same result (I will forward photo’s as soon as I get them developed). On the subject of clothes, Sue and I went shopping for some 0-3 month babygros for Emma. She is finally filling out the newborns but her 3-6 month babygros are enormous (they are the same size as the 0-3 month British clothes) so we decided to splash out and get some 0-3 month gros for her. She should be in them for at least 7 weeks if not more, we also bought a few short sleeve suits for her trip in July. (two weekends to go!)
On the more mundane side, I went for my 6 week check-up and I am all fine, fit and healthy. I have sorted out my Unemployment Insurance fund and I should get my first cheque from them in two weeks time (that is apparently really fast!)
Other than that not much to report. As this is such a long mail I will send it and then start on the next one ASAP.
love
Vaughn, Carrie and Emma