Whitbourn.net

To assist in trying to get Maisie to re like pizza (she had it once about 2 years ago and was sick, and hasnt eaten it since), I decided to make some home made ones tonight. We chopped everything up and then the girls put what THEY wanted onto their own pizzas.

They really didnt eat very much of them – but it was fun anyway.

Alice Joy Whitbourn knocked one of her bottom teeth out last night. We are waiting to go to the dentist at lunch time today, but after speaking with one last night, we are pretty sure that there is nothing that can be done and she will just have a gap until her adult teeth come thru. Here are the before and after shots…

Two big chompers

Ouchies

She is fine now – and was pretty good last night. She keeps putting her fingers in there and doing weird things with her tongue. We know that this is just the start of injuries that will happen to the girls over the next 20 years, but it does take you by surprise when something happens.

I really dont know what to put into her baby book now – there is no page for “tooth fell out on this day”.

Here is the pictures of the tooth – just in case you were wondering what a 9 month old tooth looks like out of the mouth…

Today I sat in my bible study group and listened to our Growth Works DVD about idle moments that we have every day that we could be doing so much more with.

Spending the day thinking about it further, I realised I do have many idle moments throughout the day that I could be using better – like reading, writing, talking and just being with God.

Changes need to be made, I know it wont happen overnight, but it will happen.

He will order my days from now on.

I spent New Years day in bed quite ill and by late afternoon when I still could not drag myself out of bed I decided it was time to call some people to get some info on what I should do. The outcome was to head over to the emergancy dept to get a script and get to the chemist to get some medication.

In my head I was just going to die by spending the rest of my life in bed in pain. I felt like I would never ever be well enough to remove myself from my room. The night before was bad – I was hot and cold and didnt sleep well. I could hear Cade and the girls playing and having breakfast in the morning but it was all blurry and weird. I sent them off to Grandma and Grandpas house so they could hang out with their cousins for a bit whilst I slept the morning away.

Today is a much better day, the medication has started to work and I have been up for most of the day and feel a lot better. It has made me very thankful for all of the doctors and nurses and chemists and other health care professionals that work on public holidays to help look after those who are sick and are in hospitals and nursing homes.

Today we headed off to Church for the first time as a family of five. We were all organised and ready to go and got there early! All the girls behaved well and we headed home for lunch time sleep time. Naa and Poppy Phil were awaiting us when we got home and Alice was presented with gifts bath related just in time!

The girls then all had a sleep and then we had a visit from Grandma and Grandpa before Maisie went off to help Great Grandparents Bert & Mary put up their Christmas tree and have a swim whilst Cade and Tali went to get the shopping done. When everyone got home it was dinner time so we ate and then woke up Alice for her dinner and then Maisie and Tali went to get ready for their bath.

I havent had the conversation with Cade yet, but I did hear him say to Tali from the bathroom “this is the wettest nappy I have ever seen Talia Mersey”… which got me thinking about Tali and if she had been changed at all today.

This is to say I am very sorry Tali. It will never happen again.

has been the question that I have asked myself on a number of occasions about topics regarding personal issues and things that the kids do or my wonderings about certain things. What will people say or think about what is written is the first thing that comes to my mind – which after 28 years, I really shouldnt worry about. So, this is a part of what has been going on with us over the past few months..

After our 20 week ultrasound that sounded and looked fine, we were told that #3 had “delayed growth of the femur and humerus bones”. I learnt this as I was leaving a clinic appointment by the midwife announcing in front of a full waiting room of people that “there is a problem with the scan”. I, naturally being dramatic, went straight home and “googled” what she had told me. Every single listing came up with reference to Down Syndrome with the short bones being a soft marker. To say I was shocked is an understatement. I sat on the floor and cried for my baby and more selfishly cried for myself.

The hospital said that we needed to see a specialist, which we drove to Canberra for. They confirmed the growth was delayed – it was measuring 4 weeks behind the rest of the measurements of the baby. The professor told us that it could be 1 of 6 different things – some bone problems, it would just resolve itself, down syndrome or it could just be a short baby. They offered for us to have an amnio test done, which would determine if the baby had down syndrome or not – but we declined. There was no other testing that they could do to figure out what the problem might be, so we began a waiting game that has seen some days become a lot longer than other days.

It has taken me almost 20 weeks to try and get my head around what will happen if the baby is born with anything “different” from all the other babies born every day. The pressure that society puts on babies being “healthy & perfect” is unfair and this is really the first time I have ever thought about it. I always just assumed that everything would be fine. The unknown stuff is the hardest stuff to try and get your head around – because we feel that we have the right and the power to be able to “know” everything and try and correct it if it seems like its not “normal”.

I have always found it hard to leave things in Gods perfect hands – but this last 20 weeks has really taught me that there is nothing that I can do and whatever the outcome, it doesnt matter. Everyone is born differently, raised differently, taught differently and loved differently. All that we can do is pray for the strength to be the best parents that we can be and pray for and love all of our children unconditionally.

Our baby will be born in a few weeks time and will be a precious gift from God no matter what.

I am not one that really understands all the carbon footprints that we are making and the positions our country on global warming or how driving greener cars really makes a difference and all these “new ways” of trying to make the world a better cleaner safer place.

I signed up to get our electricity turned on at the new house and the company offered a special deal of using “green power” instead of “black power” at only a $1.00 more a week in which I would be saving the environment by using the “green power” and somehow offsetting  70% of my carbon footprint.

So, I thought about it and said yes, I would be happy to sorce my “green power” from windmills and other environmentally friendly things and then when she was done connecting both the gas and electricity I said “So, will my gas and electricity bill come on the same bill because they are now both thru the same company” and she said “umm, no they wont they will come as separate bills”. So I asked “Well, can I have them emailed to me” and she said “ummm, no, they will come in the mail”.

Back in my day saving the amount of paper that we used seemed like an important thing to do and recycle recycle recycle was the message that we got drummed into us, but now it looks like there are “better” ways of making the world a better place – and it comes at a cost of $1.00 per week…

So, a little while ago someone told me that their sister (or sister in law or cousins sister or someones sister) had trouble fitting three baby car seats across the back seat of their car.

I took that information on board, told Cade that we should measure it up, and then didnt do much else about it until last weekend when Cade washed the car and we thought – what a great time to trial the 3 seats across the back seat. What we learnt was that there was no way that we were getting three car seats across the back seat of our car.

So, we did a bit of researching and what we found was basically you have to buy special slim line car seats (which lets just say are not very cheap and we would have had to buy three of them) OR get a car that does fit three car seats across the back seat.

So – introducing new/old car that does successfully fit three normal car seats across the back seat and has other cool things like auto windows and cruise control. Its a 2006 Holden Commodore VZ Wagon that has 10cm more back seat than our old car – yes thats right 1o whole centimetres.

Special shout out to Kenny the car guy from Hillis Ford Wagga Wagga who helped us out with the purchase and trade in. He will ever be remembered as the man who “took” our old car and gave Maisie a blue balloon. Special times.

This morning the girls woke each other up at about 6:20, which is the earliest either of them have been awake in a very long time. Its also the earliest that I have had to get up in a long time.

Whats weird is that Cade gets up at 6 every morning, and has been telling me how light it is getting and I smile and agree – as I know I dont ever want to see it- but this morning I finally know what he is talking about. Not that it makes it any easier to get out of bed!

Usually (this is most, not all) we Whitbourn girls get up around 7:00-8:00am. Now, there are occasions when its both of them up early or both of them up late, but more recently it is one or the other up so I can get away with staying in bed longer with one of them by my side having a snuggle time.

I have never been a morning person, I dont think I ever will be. I got Cade to “drop” Maisie into our bed this morning as she had woken up at 7:20am and I couldnt pull myself out into the cold morning air. As we lay together snuggled under a pile of blankets I was telling her about when she was a little baby and I used to bring her into Mummys bed in the morning after Daddy had gone to work and we would play and sing and then have another sleep before getting up for breakfast. She lay there listening to me with a tiny little grin on her face – and I couldnt help but wonder what she was thinking about… We lasted in bed until 7:50am, when she sat up and announced that it was “time to get out”, so my morning then finally had to start.

Now – I am not complaning at all – as I am very well aware of children (im talking about you Eli!) that feel the need to wake BEFORE 7am – which is really just punishment! I am thankful for any extra sleep that I can squeeze into my mornings and I do enjoy having a snuggle with my precious girls – as I know that it has a limited time frame!