Summary of the last Year

I was wondering if people could write a short undate to catch me up with what has happened in the last year.  With so many new people and not being able to get on here very much I've completly lost track.

 

My update - A Bit long sorry

The end of January saw the arrival of Ephraim, nine days early and weighing 9lbs10.  Ephraim proved to be another challenging baby with reflux adding to his unsettledness.  On the upside I developed good arm muscles rocking the buggy.  It’s so amazing watching them develop in the first year, then go through so many changes.  First smile, sitting, rolling, first word, crawling, walking.  Ephraim loves his big sister.  He loves watching her and she is the one that makes him laugh the most.  Being a ‘good’ brother, he also likes to pick on her and pulls her hair at every opportunity.  We keep telling Sophie that she is bigger than him and to stand up for herself.

 

  Sophie has had a good year too.  She has coped really well with everything that has happened this year.  She now goes to preschool 3 ½ days a week and really enjoys it.  Sophie can write her name and is getting very good with her drawing.  Sophie is also very good with her numbers – she gets this off her Dad.  With a massive word allowance to get through each day, Sophie talks non stop all day, or at least that’s what it feels like.  If there is no one to talk to she talks to herself or to one of her imaginary friends.  As Ephraim gets older she is really going to enjoy including him in her games.  She has already had him wearing ear rings.

   For me this has been a very hard year with many elements of it I hope never to repeat.  Though having Ephraim was a joyous occasion with it came severe postnatal depression.  I am lucky being in chch as I have been able to be linked in with the Mothers and Babies unit at Princess Margaret Hospital, which is the only unit of its kind in NZ.  In total I have spent about 10 weeks in hospital because of it.  Recovery has been a slow process, but I am hopefully through the worst of it now, and learning to look after myself and manage the lows a lot better.  What I have been through this year, and what we have struggled with as a family, is something that you can never fully understand unless you have been through it yourself.  At the same time it is something you would not wish on your worst enemies.  As crappy as it has been, there are some positives.  I wouldn’t change having Ephraim for anything.  Also I have learnt a lot about myself this year and grown a lot as a person.  Hopefully my experience will help me to help others. 

 

Outside of the PND I have started a second company – Be Innovative.  It has been a nice distraction for me. 

 

Now your turn

 

 

 

Wow lou, full on year for you. I didnt realise you are in chch too. The health department here is pretty good aye.
We have had a busy year, started building a house, which i might add is still being built. Had our wee girl and she has been fantastic. Kobe has taken to being a big brother like a duck to water, he is great and is also now toilet trained completely night and day so that is even better. Only one lot of nappies to buy. I went back to work and then have just resigned again, hated Addison being in daycare. I have had a huge amount of friends have babies recently, 1 new neice and a nephew who was born at 27 weeks so thats meant a lot of time babysitting and also hospital visiting. Plus about 5 other friends also having babies in the last couple of months. Biggest news of my own really is Im finally doing something proactive about my weight. Im doing the sarah ulmer sub challenge this weekend, 10km walk but i have actually really gotten into it and have been training pretty much everyday and eating healthy and am finally starting to see some results, slowly but i guess its still something.
So thats my years news!

Hi Lou! wow sounds like you have had really roller coaster of a year.. IM glad they have a great support system you were able to link into.

 Well Im Keli and new to this site, only joined late last year when I was preg with my third child. I just found it surfing the net one day at work...lol. My son Alize was due on 07/12/06  but came early on 26/11/06 only giving me a week from when I left work till I had him (i was hoping for more rest) I also have an 11yr old and 6yr old both girls and they just adore their baby brother.

Alize is now 7wks weeks old and finally we seem to be winning the battle of reflux that has been causing havoc since he was 2wks old. He is settled finaly and sleeping thru the night.....not sure how long it will last.

I love the site and it has also became like an online bible to me!!!! The information is just out of this world and this best part is it comes from regular mums just like me. We all have information, advice, support and our own experiences to share with each other.

I worked fulltime last year up till 17/11/06. I also spent my weekends taking my kids to their marching and rock n roll competitions which keep my extremely busy for the year.

I am finaly SAHM which I never was with my other 2children and Im loving it. Im a registered nurse and have taken maternity leave for 12month from my Practice nurse position YIPPEE!!!!

hi lou so glad you have gotta help for your pnd and have found the streghth as a famili and as a person
anyways i joind this site when james was just 8 months old and now hes 19 months have had a up and down year my mother had a mild heart attack which frighted the bejesses out of us and my father hurt his back my best friend has left to go and in live in oz and we are going over to see her at the end of this year my sister and my newphew have move in with us as her releship broke down and as with nikki i,m still waiting for prince craming to come and sweep me off my feet

Hi Lou

Welcome back....I always remember you because for some strange reason a long while back when I logged in and did posts it came up under your log in..weird but after about a month it went back to normal.

Great that you've posted an update...sometimes you worry when you don't hear from someone thinking something might be wrong and even though it sounds like you have had a hard year you now sound like things are on the mend

Wow what a big year for you Lou, Sad that you have gone through so much but well done on having such wonderful kids and being a great mum!

Paris is about the same age as Sophie i think.. She'll be 4 in August. She's getting bigger and bossier by the day, very lanky-legged. Her eyes are still big and blue but she's growing into them. Her hair is down to her bottom and still curly. (she had a pirate dress up day at daycare today and we sent her off with a pirate hat that said "captain curly-locks" on it!)   We found out this year that she has a bicuspid aortic valve that leaks, that was a bit of a shocker but she's doing pretty good. Is arty and crafty and .. have i mentioned bossy? she is still perfectionist and particular and articulates words that sounds like she's been reading the dictionary. cycles between loving daycare and hating it and now that' i'm working really knows how to tug the heart-strings with "but i don't like daycare mummy, i miss you" in the next sentence talks all about the fun stuff she did with her pack of girls that she hangs out with. She's getting good at working out the harder puzzles and writing now and hopefully soon will ride the damn bike we got her at xmas! (despite actually tying her feet to the pedals she still hasn't got it.. we tied them cos her feet kept slipping off, not cos we are nasty.. lol really)

Ayja, I cannot remember how old she was when you were on here last, is still a tiny girl, nearly 20 months old, but a shorty, and only weighs around 9 kilos i think she's got more of mikes genes. still has the red hair, curls are coming in nicely although definately not as thick and much slower growing that Paris's. She's a monkey, micheiveious and accident prone - i think we are on to our 4th acc claim for head injury - this one was when she was running away from me and tripped and smashed her bottom tooth (she only had 4 teeth at the time!), hopefully there won't be any more acc claims, but i really can't guarantee that and she's just so fast moving she doesn't stop for a second. I think we'll have to watch her, she's the fiesty one.. who like your wee boy likes to pull older sister's hair.. and take away her dollies. The two girls are so different.

We moved out of our tiny upstiars 2 bedroom flat last april and Me and Mike are finally on the road to our wedding in a year's time... Today is our 7 yr anniversary of the day we met, so we'll have been together 8 yrs when we get married. He's got a few med probs etc, and has cataracts so might be blind in 2 yrs time until he gets surgery, but has decided what the heck and has resigned from his job and starts a 4 yr degree in I.T in a couple of weeks.

I finished my bachelor of nursing last august - i ACTUALLY made it, finally, and now work in neonates in Palmy which is awesome, very busy and tiring sometimes, but great to nurse tiny bubs.. feels special that I get to watch something that should be private, baby shouldn't be on the outside, it should be developing safe in mums tummy, but ours aren't, so we get to watch them turn into beautiful bonny babies in front of us instead - very rewarding.

It's so good to hear from you Lou, weve all been wondering where you were and miss you. Thank you for the update. Your business sounds good - bet that would keep you very busy with the kiddies too.



Edited by mum2paris

Welcome back Lou! So glad to hear that the positive shift has continued for you and you are well and truly on the track to recovery. Congrats on the new business!

2006 was a biggie for us too. I had a miscarriage on the 2nd Jan , found out I was preg again on 25 Feb , and a few weeks after that found out that my baby was actually plural!

I think the last time I emailed you I was sitting at home on my butt too many months pregnant with the gremlins. Well as you can see they did finally arrive, dragged out by induction at 37w2d, Sienna Marie (6lb8oz) and Mercedes kailah (7lb1oz). Have had a few (ok, a lot) of health issues with them but won't go into that too much as I have already bored everyone else to tears with my countless tales of trips to Starship. Sienna had kidney surgery in Dec and is on meds for that, and Mercedes is on Losec for reflux and I had to wean them onto an allergy formula coz they seem to have inherited Maya's allergies, but *touches wood* they have been well and happy since the week before Xmas - long may it continue!

Miss Maya is about to turn 4 in a couple of weeks, she is at Montessori and loving it, coming ahead in leaps and bounds and a really lovely, sweet-hearted, creative lil Miss (with one heck of a stubborn streak and her mothers evil Irish temper ). She loves her baby sisters to bits (love Liz's description of the year of "Jake be gentle" - could be my house too!) and has become really independent. Has outgrown most of her allergies, still allergic to peanuts and we are retrialling a dairy free diet to see ifw e can get her exczema under control but at least she doesn't go into anaphalaxis like she used to!

And Willie and I are just plodding along. I figure if we survived last year with all the dramas it brought then we can survive anything. Wedding plans are on hold now that we have THREE KIDS and ONE income, but we'll get there I'm sure.

And that's us. Bring on 2007!

Thanks for all your replies.  I feel more in the loop now, though I know I'm not going to be able to keep up with everything on here.