Sunday Slugs!

So, as I've shared with you before dear stalkers, hubby works night shift over a 6 day week, making Sunday our only full day together as a family.

I spend all week hanging for our special day. I think of it as a special day because one day out of six makes it seem such a rare event, that I really want that precious time together to be special.

Unfortunately though, a combination of things have made Sundays, for the majority, sluggy days. We sleep lots! Which of course we do, it's hubby's first day off night shift and he's buggered, I'm buggered from a weeks worth of solo parenting during his work hours, so we tend to spend a lot of the morning tag teaming snoozing and parenting our energetic tot.

When we do drag our lazy butt's outa bed, it's more of just a relocation to the lounge room. Muma tries to do as little as possible, Daddy tries to get away with falling back asleep in the chair, buba plays with his cars, only braking for booby every now and then.

This day SHOULD be enough for me. We're in each others company. We're resting and recharging for the new week to come.

But, we never DO anything! I wanna DO something! ANYTHING! I wanna leave the house! The only leaving of the house on Sunday is when hubby drives down to the shops for take-away for dinner. Again, I should be grateful, nice brake from the cooked dinners during the week.

I know my husband is tired from his weeks work. I'm tired from my week of parenting too you know! I REALLY want more outta our Sundays. I want our time together to be quality time!

Prior to being parents, we DID things on our weekends, a lot of them kid friendly when I think about it. We went for drives and picnicked where ever we ended up. We went for walks. We went mini-golfing, ten pin bowling, saw movies, saw friends, checked out markets, swam at the beach, window shopped.

Not everything cost money back then, not everything needs to cost money now, just time, good quality time with my little family.

Award Winning Hippy!

Thanks to my gorgeous mate Kint, over at Domestic Delusions blog, I got an award!! I'm excited ;-D Ok, the rules are to share 10 honest facts about myself then give the award to 7 other bloggers who inspire me.......

1. I'm not very computer savy, infact any technology in general I take a while to embrace and master

2. I am my own biggest critic. It really is something I'm working hard to stop, it's very self sabataging.

3. My son has taught me more then I'm sure I've taught him.....through his eyes, my world is all fresh and new and I'm rediscovering the simple pleasures.....nature, how things move, how things work, etc

4. I'm not ashamed to admit, and it has never been a secret, that I have been on anti-depressents for going on 4yrs now. I don't feel shame in that, I feel pride in being able to seek and receive the help I desperately needed to find my way back to life ;)

5. I am "touch sensitive". Everyone used to think I was just a big woose, but then the chiro I was seeing said that people can be "touch sensitive", meaning you may have MORE nerves at the surface then the norm, making even lighter touches(play fighting for example) still hurt! Which makes for a pretty low pain threshold :( (yet my son was born without pain relief, go me!!)

6. Internally, I am also sensitive, feeling far beyond what most concider the norm. Those anti-depressents are a result of a mental break down that resulted after miscarrying twins. Yes, miscarried, not still born, not neonatelly dead. But yet I was already so very attached to these two little beings, had already planned what life would be with them, that it hit me extremely hard to loose them, and still think of what they might have been like in our lives often. I DON'T believe I need to tone down my feelings, it is them that makes me who I am ;)

7. I set lots of reminders in my mobile phone, but the alarm noise annoys me so much I often turn it off without having read it, and miss or forget the things I was trying to remember!

8. I like watching digital clocks turn over a new hour. If I look at the time and it's 1 minute to the hour, I'll watch it til it turns over.....not sure why, have done it since I was a kid.

9. The 1st thing I often notice about a person is their teeth.....but don't be embarrassed and cover your mouth, I would never critisise ;) Maybe it's a trade thing, life before kids I was a Dental Assistant. Teeth fasinate me. I especially find crooked teeth fasinating, but not in a "you're a freak" kinda way, I like to imagine how they must of been positioned in the gums and the journey they took to grow at that angle.

10. My son has given me the besy social life! I was never a social butterfly in school, and didn't go through the nightclub faise of life, so wanting my son to get out and interact with the world has actually been very beneficial to me, and I've gained a lot of lovely friends through this.

Umm, as for passing this on.....I think most of my public "followers" have already done this!

Oh and, more blogs to come....I havent had the lapi home much lately ;)

Rainbow's first roadtrip, aka The Sarah's 52nd Birthday! Part two :)

NIGHT TIME SHENANIGANS......

After we arrived and unpacked at our hotels in Geelong, we all had dinner at the McLeans apartment. The kids got to playing as dinner was prepared, with some "parent condoned violence", lol, playing with foam swords.

Left pic: Harri "I shell knight you, Sir Jack!" Right pic: Jack "Watch me Muma as I attempt to swallow this sword whole!"

Top pic: "On guard!" Bottom pic: "oOo Caaarrr!!" Jack discovered a view of the car park and street, out of the stairway window....he pretty much stayed glued to here the whole time we spent at this apartment!

Top pic: Ealsey cooked up pasta for our dinner, unfortunately it didn't turn out so good and JackJack summed it up with his new word...."shit!" lol

bottom pic: So I went upstairs to check out the sleep area of the apartment the McLeans were staying in, and golly gosh do I need to wear my specs.....what do you see in this pic? Coz I saw a doorway to a second room, and only stopped myself from walking into the mirrored wardrobe door when "another person" aka-my own reflection almost walked into me! lmao silly me ;-D

Top pic: Jack and Harri were super excited to wake up to each other! Laughing and saying "Hawy!" and "Yacky!" back and forth, until Jack broke that up with "Caaarrrr!!", and with that they both got off the beds and got the toy cars out to begin their day of play 8)

Bottom pic: Brush brush brush, Muma and JackJack getting ready

This day was the day of our BIG adventure at Adventure Park Geelong.....stay tuned for further blog..... ;)

Rainbow's first roadtrip, aka The Sarah's 52nd Birthday! Part one :)

Jack and I are truly blessed. We have, through our local ABA, made some seriously awesome mates. People that get just as excited to be in our company, as we are in theirs. When I announced that we couldn't afford to go to the birthday party for Sazz and Sarah, they both, along with Kint, played a part in us being able to go. Awesome friendships here!

Jack and I set off together on Monday morning to go pick-up Sazz, Ealsey and Harri. Neither parent drives, but it's more a blessing for me coz it gives perfect excuse to have great travelling company! We met up with Sarah, Iris and Lou, in Mornington and had our first pit stop at the delish Tutti Fruity, yum yum!

Jack, Harriet and IrisJack enjoying his bubblegum ice cream :)

We then began our journey in convoy! Following Sarah's family's car who guided the way. Our destination was Geelong, we got there via the ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliffe, the first time for all our kidlets! Another pit stop first, lunch time! We all bought some pies and sausage rolls to munch on, as we watched the scenery. "oooOOOOoooo Caaaarrrr!!!!" says Jack, spying this truck Sarah & Sazz watching Iris & Harri run around,

while Ealsey & Jack munch down lunch As has been the trend lately, Jack favoured some milk over his sausage roll

After lunch we all piled back into the cars and got ready to board the ferry, my first time driving a car onto it, which made me feel thoroughly gown up! lol

Waiting to drive onto the ferry

Jack was all "ooOOOOoooo Caaarrrrr!"

when he saw we were parked with a motor home and a boat!

Once parked on board, we all got out and ventured up to the top deck, where we had some very excited tots exploring their surroundings. We took some pics(which is when Jacks special hat blew overboard....a surprisingly emotional event that deserves it's own blog...stay tuned).Jack was busy here pointing at the boats "oooOOOooo Caaarrrrr!"

After the family pics, we went inside, out of the wind. Harri, Iris and Jack looking out the window of the ferry. This was the 40deg day, and as you can see, the kids are all hot and sweatyHot days always means lots of feeds :)

Before long all the kidlets were feeding the heat away...

Everyone else went back out onto the deck, but before long I was very glad I hadn't followed, we hit some choppy water and I looked out the side window to see the sea raising and falling dramatically....trying to keep a brave face for Jack, I was petrified! Seems I'm the woose of the group coz when the others came back to sit with us they said the tots were laughing and loved the boat rocking :-0 lol

Arriving at Queenscliffe

The trip was over pretty quickly, faster then I remember as a kid, and we continued our drive from Queenscliffe to our destination, Geelong..........

Getting the hatred out.....

AGGGGHHHHHHHHH............................... Why are people so hell bent on trying to make my friends and I feel BAD for our behaviour? It's a question I have struggled with. It's the reason this blog has laid dormant. But it's surely time to move on folks, I've removed myself from your lives, time to back off out of mine!!! As followers, public and private(get that haters....I actually DON'T just have a hand full of people reading this, as you have seen yourselves by finding my blog, you CAN read this and NOT publicly follow it!) would know, myself and my friends have created, stumbled, found ourselves, in a cross-nursing/wet-nursing community. Something that SHOULD be completely NORMAL, but western societies sexualisation of breasts have tainted that. Let me just start with telling you further how I found myself involved in the cross-nursing. It is true, when first exposed to my friends feeding each others kids, I was fascinated at the need for it, perhaps a little weirded out by it, and questioned myself whether I would do it, and the initial answer was NO. But then there I was in the situation that one of the Mumas was not with us, leaving three children that were keen for a latch, and one cross-nursing Muma with two boobs. One child would have to miss out. One child was left upset. Yet in the room with them was another lactating Muma, with two extra boobs to add into the mix. Perhaps you have to be in this sort of situation to understand, to appreciate the moment that your heart opens up and tells your brain to get passed the weird feelings you have at the thought of a child, not of your own making, latching onto your breast to suckle the much appreciated breast milk. It sure was an eye opening moment for me, prejudice melted away, and I felt not unlike the kind of warm fuzzy feeling you get if you've managed to be in a situation that another human being requires the type of assistance that only you can provide....perhaps the type of feelings you would get if you found yourself performing CPR on a person. NO folks, I'm not comparing cross-nursing with CPR, untwist your knickers! I'm simply TRYING to find an example of how the cross-nursing made me feel :) Ok, so there it is, I've acknowledged my initial uneasiness. What we do not understand, we fear. I didn't understand it when I first witnessed it, but once I got it, my fear melted away. I would also like to address formula, and MY personal views on it. When I was pregnant with my son, I feared I was going to have trouble with breastfeeding. I had seen my sister with her two children have oodles of problems, which led to early weaning. I had seen my SiL having trouble with her first child gaining weight and being advised to formula feed, and then going on to have a longer bf relationship her her second child. I also knew that with all three of my Mum's children, the bf story was very different. Perhaps it was for this reason my Mum advised me to join the Australian Breastfeeding Association, as she had when we were babes. When Jack came to us prematurely, he spent time in the special care nursery, something I absolutely credit to the successful start to our bf journey. I too had the horrible experiences with the staff on the ward of the hospital and the hospital provided lactation consultants(which are actually NOT from the ABA, yet manage to give the ABA the bad rep), grabbing my breasts without consent, tweaking my nipples, milking me like a farm animal. Not at all pleasant for a first time Muma who's just getting over the shock of a bunch of strangers looking/poking and prodding her vagina. I also found myself on several occasions where the ward staff were almost working against the special care staff. I would be on my way to the nursery, expected for my sons next feed, and be stopped by staff wanting me to wait and have a consult with a doctor or physio and my own after birth issues, which were the least on my mind. These healthcare providers made me feel my body was no longer my own, but it was not my sons either, it was theirs. They made me feel my son was not my own either, that he and my body was their property, and it was their doing that was the sole reason he was alive and well. Luckily for my son's need for being in special care, I was able to have some lovely chats with the wonderful staff in there through his every feed, as they would come and sit with me while they tube fed ebm to a baby, while I stumbled through feeding my son. My self esteem got a much needed boost by the ladies in there, who exclaimed shock that I was in fact a first time Muma. They loved the things I was doing that were coming naturally to me, yet already seemed odd to our visitors. Most feeds I took my top off, rather then just finding a way to get one boob out, initially it was simply I didn't want to stretch my tops as I pulled them aside. I also unwrapped my son from the layers of blankets til his belly was laying on mine. Again, initially this was simply that the blankets were so thick I couldn't tell which direction his body was facing, but these two things I was doing was aiding our bonding.....skin to skin contact. I also loved unwrapping his feet and touching his tiny toes, though our visitors were concerned I was going to make him cold and should cover them back up. We also had another silver lining in a cloud, when we were transferred to another hospital for my son's operation(born with ingroinial hernia, operated on day 5). We were lucky enough to have some wonderful staff around us at this hospital, we were in a room with two other babies having the same operation, and some lovely nurses with time on their hands to sit and chat as we all fed our bubs. By the time we were discharged, not only was I very comfortable with bf, but another Muma who had been feeding her 3mth old via a nipple shield or ebm, had actually achieved many successful feeds without the shield. I know I've digressed a fair bit here, but I'm sharing this to show that I too had the bad hospital experience many of you feel was yours alone, it's just thanks to special care and the second hospital that I was able to overlook so much of the bad. I truly believe if it weren't for the extra time my son and I got with the helpful staff, we may well have ended up down the path of formula. My own feelings of formula is mixed. I am not completely apposed to the use of it, but I do wish today's western society were more informed of healthier options. As our bf journey ticks over each month, my feelings of formula for my own child got stronger, I was dead against it being introduced to him, because there was absolutely no need. My son is extremely lucky I have chosen to educate myself in the benefits of bf. When he was barely a few hours old, we were coerced by the hospital to allow him to be formula fed, their reasoning was that if they got us on the operating list he needed an empty tummy( Muma now does not understand that at all, given that formula is heavier then breast milk, and that any Muma's milk had not come in by that time, not just mine!). Along the way we've also had well meant but misplaced advice to top up or night feed with formula, something I fought because I feared my milk supply dwindling. I've had close to ten cases of mastitis, always in the right side and twice bordering on an abscess that would have required draining. The area of my breast never fully recovered between each bout, and I feared going out in the cold air unless well rugged up because it was extremely cold sensitive, not to mention that side was always tender to feed from(if only I had my cross-nursing friends back then!). Thankfully, my GP had heard of some women having success with taking Evening Primrose Oil, and I rushed out to buy it and have never looked back! No more mastitis since, and the cold sensitivity is gone, feeding is comfortable, bliss. As my son was premi, when we first came home from hospital we were advised a routine of a breastfeed followed by Muma expressing milk, while Daddy fed bub the ebm from the last round, all on a 3hr cycle. It was gruelling. The 3hr cycle was timed from the start of the breastfeed to the start of the next breastfeed, not unlike how us women calculate our menstrual cycles! Those of you that have had premi babies will appreciate how full on this routine was. Premi's are sleepy, you are constantly stroking them and gently poking them to stay awake long enough to take in their feed. The breastfeed was going for an hour, followed by the same of pumping, which left Muma with one hour out of three without something or someone latched to my breast. I can appreciate why many Muma's give up in situations such as this, but it is because of my perseverance through all this, that my opinion is pretty strong on no formula for my son. We've gone through all the hard yards and we made it, it would completely defeat all of that if I lead our weaning. This is why I have always stuck to the philosophy that our son will wean himself when he is ready. Even on the days where I feel he barely does anything but feed, like in the last few days where he has barely eaten solids but upped his feeds due to teething discomfort, it drains me to the point where I feel physically ill, but I will NOT deny him. It is also because of our journey that I personally feel saddened for the children of parents who give up so easily. The child who got put onto formula weeks before Muma returned to work, without even attempting ebm feeding through work hours. The child whose parents were so ill informed of the nature of the breast and the babies ability to feed that Muma expressed EVERY feed, just to be able to measure how much baby was consuming. The child whose mother was so embarrassed to publicly feed that she expressed her milk to feed her child via bottle in public, yet then was concerned of people thinking the bottle contained formula, and not her lovingly pumped breast milk. The child whose mother made a conscious decision, while pregnant, to take medication to dry up her supply without even attempting to breastfeed. On the flip side, there are some lovely stories of Muma's trying very hard to provide for their child. I was humbled to know of the child who was still able to receive it's Muma's colostrum and first few weeks of breast milk, despite low supply due to previous mastectomy for breast cancer, good on this Muma for giving what little she could. The second child of a Muma who had not succeeded in a continued bf relationship with her first child, was lucky enough that her Muma sought help and with medication and determination that child is about to celebrate 12mths of breast milk. The infant who is super lucky that it's Muma is so dedicated to giving the breast milk it deserves that she has a list of awesomeMuma's who send her ebm from all over our country, to help her with her own low supply. And the most recent story that melted my heart, the lucky little bub whose Muma decided she and her child were missing out on something as she watched her friends bf while her bub had been weaned due to trouble and lack of support, the Muma sought help and re-lactated!! Awesome efforts, lucky bubs ;) It is worth noting the World Health Organisation lists breast milk from another Muma as safer then formula(check it out yourself if you feel I'm talking crap), and that formula companies themselves have restrictions on marketing formula to babes under 6mths old. Has it ever occurred to you, dear reader, why? Formula is designed as a last resort. Breastfeeding v formula feeding should not, and isn't personally in my mind, be a choice. Plenty of technologies have evolved to allow a man-made "back-up", ie pace makers, oxygen masks, but it doesn't mean that they are a choice of natural versus these "back-ups". It is not like looking at clothes lines versus clothes dryers or hand washing versus dishwashers. Western societies thinking is ruining breastfeeding. Breasts are designed to nurture children, that's what they are for! Not for your lovers enjoyment. It saddens me that when I nurse my son in public, I get more looks then a girl who is skimpily dressed. We could both be showing the same amount of breast, my nipple covered by baby, hers covered by clothing, but it is me who draws more negative attention. Why? It really is a sad situation. I've never loved my boobs more then right now, this time of my life when they are nurturing my son. My son now feeds rather acrobatically, drawing laughs from some while "time to wean" comments from others. I have often joked that he owes me a boob job when he's older! But when I think of the Muma who didn't even allow her child the gift of breast milk, I picture us both as elderly women.....she may have perky boobs still, but as I role mine up from my knees to tuck them into my waist band, they will always bring me joy and happy memories of the wonderful gift I provided my son ;-D Finally, I would like to address the hate campaign stemmed from me sharing my cross-nursing experience. Whatever your reaction to our community, it is NEVER ok to behave the way you all have. Your behaviour has shocked me that I was ever considering some of you in my friends circle. Online your behaviour has equated to cyber stalking, through continuing to text message my mobile it is harassment, and as for the three(maybe more?) of you who directly told MY MUM that she ought to be ashamed of her daughter.....I don't even know where to begin in how wrong that is. Perhaps in hindsight one day you may take a step back and realise how ugly your treatment of us has been. Perhaps you may one day feel remorse for how wrong and disgraceful you telling my Mum she should feel shame of me really is. But in the mean time, back off, move on, get a life!!!!! My dear friend Sazz has been an absolute eye opener in my life, and especially in educating me in the downside of blogging, that people feel it's their duty to tell you how wrong you are, how freaky you are. She's put this in beautiful perspective for me, and you DON'T bother me haters. I now see it's just your own issues, not mine, that you react in this way. It has been mostly a great laugh for us to watch all of this unfold, to see just how uneducated some of you are that your vocabulary is reduced to a whole lot of swearing as a way of expressing yourself, to see the extent you have gone to to follow the cyber trail of what you consider "weird, freaky, nutty" is just incredible, if only you had put the same energy into educating yourself as to why these things are NOT abnormal, but just taken that way in modern western society. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for stepping aside, out of my life, and creating a situation for which the universe attracted to me more suitable friends, many of which I look forward to learning their ways of life that you again may take as "freaky", but is simply living closer to nature. As a last note to all who rejoiced in ME deleting YOU off facebook.....hmmm I never pinned you to your computer and insisted you read all that comes from me, ever thought to NOT read it? HIDE it? DELETE me? It made me realise that the girl never leaves the woman, when some of this immaturity came from a woman of my Mums age, the convo's I read seemed more like high school girl fights. Anyway, this is hopefully the last I'll put on my blog......to be clear, I mean addressing you haters, I sure don't mean the last mention of breastfeeding/cross-nursing or pictures of these. I am an extremely proud breast feeder, I'm in constant awe of the fact that my body alone sustained my son for his first 6mths and still assists his well being. All I really want, is for the ugliness to stop, all this hatred must be consuming you, it's sad that you've let it get to you like this. For your own childs sake, let it go, move on.

Saturday Nights Alright!

Tyler works a 6 day a week roster, Monday-Saturday night shift. He has done since before we were parents, and I fought with him many a times to try and get him to change to day shift. Though in his current job, working in the city, day shift actually worse because he isn't home in the mornings like he would be on night shift, and he doesn't get home til near 8pm due to traffic, virtually completely missing our sons whole day!

As a family, for us, nights work best. It means Daddy's home in the mornings to help Muma get Jack ready if we're going out for the day, or if we're home he gets to have lunch with his son and a play before heading off to work. What also works out great for our family, is that Papa(Muma's Dad) also works a similar shift to Daddy, which has allowed for some salvation from lonely nights for both Muma and Nanny as we spend many weekday evenings at each others houses.

My worst day of the week though, has to be Saturday. Tyler often does a swing shift this day, which can mean he's gone by 11am, yet doesn't come home til after midnight still. Papa doesn't work Saturdays, and Saturday night has long been "date night" aka "do not disturb" in their house, so my usual company is not there. TV shows on Saturday are often re-runs of crap, so there goes a mindless night of being a couch potato! And our computer is actually Tyler's work laptop, which I rarely get to have at home(like I do tonight!!).

As it turns out, I finally have a friend who is in the same boat. Sarah also has a boring night at home alone while her husband Steven works nights, and also like me, often finds her evenings turning into horrid little pity parties. So to combat this, we are now spending our Saturday nights together!

Saturday nights are now a favourite part of my week!

Sarah doesn't drive, and also has two kids, where as I drive and Jack is used to being sleepily transported due to the evenings we spend at Nannies house, so Jack and I have been going to Sarah's house. Sazz and her hubby Ealsey, along with daughter Harri, have also joined us for a night of great company and joint child rangling.

The kids had a ball tonight admiring and chatting to Sarah's new family member, Nando the Cockatiel(so named coz he might taste like chicken! lol)

Iris and Harri talking to Nando through her cage

Harri and Jack, with me in the background, watching Nando perched outside of her cage. Jack was especially excited and not at all timmed to be near the uncaged bird!

Some confusing times have been had of late with Buba Lou and Jack being mixed up at quick glance! As you can see, Lou is a fellow baldy, and on several occasions now one of the adults has had a quick glance at Jack and exclaimed shock at seeing "Lou" walking or standing....when infact it was her older buddy, Jack :)

Following yesterdays milk bar, Iris and Harri now have a very open relationship with all the breast milk around them! When Iris asked for "side" and her Muma felt tired from feeding Lou, she then was very happy at her Muma's suggestion that she could have "Jack side"(my milk)

Not long after, Harri decide to cruise the room and excitedly came to me asking for "Yucky boo bee" lol, "yucky" is the way Harri says "Jack"

Harri, having "Yucky boo bee" Jack sharing his milk with his buddy Harri

Milk Siblings for JackJack

Yesterday, Friday the 8th of January 2010, JackJack became a Milk Brother!

Ok all you main streamers, buckle down and enjoy the read into freaky hippy shit as I share with you our story :)

Two of my friends, who are both named Sarah and we collectively call "The Sarah's", have little people that spend a fare bit of time with us these days. Sazz has a daughter Harriet, 22mths and counting being breastfed. Sarah has Iris, 30mths and struggling a little with breastfeeding, since her Muma also had Eloise, 7mths and counting breastfeeding. Jack himself is almost 19mths and counting with our breastfeeding.

The Sarah's have always had an open milk bar relationship with each others daughters, which makes it a lot easier to be able to be absent or help out when one another may need a booby break. Before I met these wonderful women, I hadn't really even thought about wet nursing, or giving out EBM to another Muma(which Sazz has very admirably done via courier to an interstate Muma in need). I had heard stories my Dad or Grandma told of wet nursing in the days of old, so it wasn't a completely new concept to me, but as Jack and I enjoyed a continued flow of mummy milk, I had had no cause to consider any alternative.

Sarah is finding lately though that as Eloise wants for milk more, there is less opportunity for Iris to enjoy her milk, largely due to Buba Lou's demand making muma sore :( and feeling like she needs her boobs to herself in the rare times Lou lets go of them!

The picture below shows Iris's 1st time of actually excepting Sazzie milk, while Harri latched on to her Muma, right beside her best friend.....the girls thought it was the most hilarious thing ever to be able to share a feed, breaking off and giggling milky laughs!

This feed to place late last year, at our Franga Muma's Christmas party.

So, although they had always had the option there of each others Muma's milk, it took a while to want it, Iris had by this stage not been able to have her "side" for a few days as her sister had been busy making their Muma's boobs sore.

There we were yesterday, at Sazz's house, playing with Harri while her Muma was at the osteo, and both girls were starting to fret for "side" as Iris calls it (her Muma habitually offered "other side now" so that is what Iris came to know it as), and "booby" as Harri calls it.

Sarah was busy trying to feeding Buba Lou, and so I thought, my boobs are here and they're cool with it, I don't see anything weird in it either, and I offered Sarah for Iris to have a feed from me. This 1st offer got as far as mouth on boob, which drew best friend Harri in for a try too, but then I was met with what you may think was "Yucky milk!" *giggles and then they both went off to play! Lol, how rejected I may have felt, had we not already worked out that Harri, in trying to say Jack's name, calls him "Yacky" or "Yucky"!! lol The girls must have found it funny to be able to try Jack's milk too.

Later on in the afternoon, Sazz had not yet returned, and as Sarah was feeding Lou, Harri asked her for booby. Unfortunately for Iris, Harri has a softer suckle then Iris, and Sarah was less reluctant to let her latch on along side Buba Lou.

Iris of course wanted some "side" herself after seeing Harri have some from her Muma, so she got to have some too. It all became a bit much for Sarah then, as Lou wanted her milk again, and the two older girls were both sharing her Muma!! I picked up Lou and offered her my boob, she had a few goes of it in her mouth, but kept looking over at the girls who were hogging her Muma!Sarah was joking she needed three boobs! I passed Lou over to Sarah as the girls came away.

I called Jack over to have a feed, along side Iris, and when Jack went off for a play, Harri decided she'd like the spare boob! lol This time both girls were keen!

As this was taking place, Sazz arrived home, to find some musical boobing going on! (bit jealous she missed it all! lol)

In the pic below is Jack, with his new milk sister, Iris

It felt so different looking down into Iris and Harri's blue eyes.....next time I'd like a blue eye'd baby please stalk!

For both girls, at first, I barely felt them feeding. Jack has a much stronger suckle, and I was just exclaiming that as, suddenly, my golly Iris went into turbo mode!! No wonder poor Sarah has sore boobs, Iris made sure she got every last drop as her feeds a not as often these days. For the first time in a long time, my boob trully felt empty after Iris fed. Often I feel like Jack has fed so long there surely isn't anymore to suck out, but for a good half hour after Iris fed I really felt that boob had just about been sucked inside out!

It was a true pleasure to be able to assist these two girls in their want for breast milk :)

Do You Hear What I Hear?

On Thursday, 7th January 2010, I got my 1st hearing aide!

I had to have a long session with the audiologist, in which he measured what my ear could hear on it's own, and what it could hear through the hearing aide. This was done with a wire put down my ear canal, as tiny as a piece of hair, and tickled creepily as it went in and came back out!

At first, voices sounded as if everyone were talking through a microphone, I don't mean just loud, but sort of that altered sound your voice gets through a mic, slightly echoed. Many adjustments, rustling of paper, clapping hands, clicking fingers, was almost amusing all the things my audiologist did to get me to the best hearing level.

See this nifty little device in the palm of my hand in the pic below?

It's my new hearing aide!

Tiny huh ;)

The pink part sits behind my ear, while the clear wire wraps around and goes into my ear canal.

The mike is actually on the top of the pink part, then travel down through the wire, and into my ear, which means I can now even hear my hair, lol!

It feels odd in my ear canal. Imagine, or even try, having a cotton stick in your ear......swallow, talk, eat, yawn, with it in there.....your ear actually moves, constricts as all these functions take place. I almoss]t feel as if I could squeeze the aide back out of my ear! Hopefully after a little wearing, I won't so much notice this.

This pic below is what you can see of the hearing aide, behind my ear, with my hair out of the way. Small compared to all those skin coloured aides you'd see on kids in our primary school days!

The next pic is a side/back view, without pulling my hair away(but my hair is half pinned up)

The next pic is a side on view.....you gotta really look to see anything huh!

I said to Tyler I look like a cool secret agent with an ear piece, but he shot me down and said you can't see it ENOUGH for that! lol

So here I am, all audible, it will take some getting used to. Te audiologist said my brain will adjust to what I should be noticing and what I don't need to notice so much. The walk out from the rooms to Tyler and Jack waiting in the car was freaky! I walked across a gravel car park *CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH* went my feet! The breeze picked up and *RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE* went the leaves and branches in the trees, *CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP* went the birds. As I neared the car I could hear the engine revving away.

As I got in the car, Tyler was laughing, I became aware of the faces I was pulling as I heard every new noise, it really was a funny experience!

And then, the most delishes sound in the world came from the back seat.........

"Muma! Muma! Muma!"

Oooh my darling boy, JackJack, you sound even more sweet!!

I CAN hear you!

Mr Noisy!

Obsessions of JackJack

This is the view we have over our neighbours fence, from our lounge room window.....

It excites JackJack, as if it's the first time he's laid eyes on it, every time he spots it! This window is behind Muma's chair and Jack will come and climb up onto my lap and frantically push my head to the window shouting "There! There!" pointing at the truck.

Our little man is a real car boy, any vehicle in fact. He is mad for tractor picture books from the library. His Papa, who works for GMH, gave him a Holden Racing poster, which he has taken to carrying around the house and gets Muma and Daddy to hold it as he sits and points and giggles at each car! Nanny and Papa have some awesome large play cars at their house and Jack likes to pick them up by the spoiler and walk them vertically(which is almost his height!) to one of us for us to hold it on our lap as he inspects the underside, giggling and saying "Car! Car!".

For the son of a deaf Muma, his hearing seems exceptional. He was napping on his Nannys chest recently, as a motorbike rode past her house, Jack suddenly sprung to life, pushing Nannys face to the window exclaiming "There! There!". It was the funniest sight, but just as quickly as he woke, he was back on Nannys chest fast asleep!

I've noticed lately that, although Jack can now say "car", he often calls them "toot toot", which Nanny realised is because when I lock our car, who we call Tessie, I always say "Toot Toot Tessie!" to Jack, as a way of saying we're locking her up now coz she toots as she's locked.

Funny fella our JackJack :)

Do your ears hear low?

Today we went to pick a colour for my hearing aide, very exciting!

Mid last year I had a hearing test, after much prompting from hubby and Mum, and discovered that I had equal mid to high hearing loss in both ears. This type of loss is most likely genetic(thanks Mum and Dad!), and is likely to slowly progress with age.

At the time of the hearing test, which was performed at a hearing clinic in Casey, we couldn't afford the quotes they gave us, which they expected in lump sum payment. So, when a local hearing clinic advertised free hearing aide trials in the local paper, I jumped at the chance to see what the fuss was about!

At this clinic I was freshly tested, same results though, so I got to test out this hearing aide- www.resound.com/dot2 which is the model I am getting.

When it was first turned on, all the noise it was hearing echoed in my ear, but with an adjustment it started to sound normal, but amplified to what my own hearing is. I could have cried! The noises I could now hear, that I didn't even realise I was missing. The audiologist tapping his fingers on the keyboard of his computer, the birds in the russling trees outside, kids playing in the waiting room. My golly, it was amazing, to say the least. I didn't have Jack with me at that appointment, but I can't wait to have my hearing aide on with him, I'm sure he sounds even more lovely then I already know! ;-D

So, today Tyler and Jack came with me and I got to choose the colour of the aide while Tyler discussed the payment plan. As we waitied in the waiting room, I noticed something ironic and absolutely funny.....I had dressed Jack in a MrMen t-shirt with a slogan "I can't hear you, Mr Noisy!" lol how very appropriate :)

In the first appointment, the audiologist showed me the colour chart and said that you would generally match the aide to your hair colour.....but then I noticed on the colour chart some bright colours - pink, green, blue and red. He said that he hadn't had anyone order those colours yet......well, now you have coz I chose pink!! If you're gonna have a hearing aide that people will see, you may as well make a feature of it, rather then try to hide it!

Another great thing is that Tyler told the audiologist that he couldn't make the first payment for 2 weeks. Not only is this clinic letting us pay it off over 6 months, but he is also letting me pick it up this week, before any payments!

This thursday, Jen will be able to hear!!!!!!!!!!!

Loosing my blogging vaginity

Hello out there in blog land! This is my maiden voyage, popping my blog cherry...... So, many of my mates are bloggers, and I've been enjoying reading along, so I thought it high time to offer up something in return.....hope it doesn't bore you to tears ;-P My name is Jen. Officially it's Jennifer, but it sounds so umm, formal(?) long (?). I barely use it. I loathe being called Jenni, after the whole Forest Gump movie "I love you Jen-ni" said in that rather mentally challenged sorta way....it haunted the end of my high school days, eek! So, it's Jen, or JenJen...which is my fave and what most of my family call me. With the exception of my Grandma, who will never get her poor dementia mind around not calling me Jenni, so I let it slip. And my Dad, who often calls me by my whole name, Jennifer Elizabeth. I love my middle name, I used to wish it were my first name. Growing up my Mum sometimes called me Bethy, then Libby and my bro changed that to Jibby(J from Jennifer + ibby from Libby), and this stuck as a family nickname. Tyler and I have been married since 2006, together since 2002. We met through SES, in 2000, he a cadet through his school and me a farely new member. It was not love at first sight, not the slightest. He very much was a "class clown" and our first few joint ventures involved him picking on me, and he thought I was too shy and stuck up! By the time he joined as a full member in 2002, we had both grown up a bit, and saw each other differently. We got pushed together by a mate, and started dating 3 days after my 20th birthday, Tyler was 2mths off turning 19yo....yep I got me a youngin ;-P We have had many ups and downs together, but in the here and now, our life is trotting along nicely. We were blessed with our son, Jack Leo, born 4wks early on the 20th of June 2008. He is the absolute light of our lives, and has awakened our souls. We are also pet parents to a maltese poodle dog, Polly, a cat, Sophie, and a budgie, Belle. So, there's the basics......I'm officially a blogger!!!!