More Nappy Chronicles

We bought a bunch of newborn cloth nappies at the end of last week.  Snappies (based here in Darwin) came highly recommended to me from some mums at our steiner group and while they are very reasonably priced normally ($10, as opposed to the $30 a nappy we paid for Baby Beehinds), they have been having a sale.

With Ginger we used traditional terry toweling nappies until she was about 5 months old and big enough to fit into our supposedly one-size-fits-all Baby Beehinds.  The photo below shows why I will not be subjecting another newborn to this.  Additionally, modern cloth nappies are so much less work.  Lifting buckets of soaking nappies because your husband goes out field two weeks post c/section is not a good idea if you want to heal rapidly.  Just a heads up.  Lastly, we have rarely had a modern cloth leak.  Not so, with the traditional nappies.  

Perhaps it was our folding technique - though it was one suggested for newborns upwards but poor Ginger was swamped by her nappies.

These new cloth nappies are the sweetest and tiniest things you ever saw.  I tried one on my old baby doll (now adopted by Ginger) and it fit perfectly on its smallest setting.  Excuse the photo though, I had to do it before Ginger got up at the risk of her absconding with the nappies for her dolls.

Also excuse the doll's look - she was my childhood baby doll and is a little worse for wear.

Lots of bright baby heralding bunting on the line.  Tomorrow I am 39 weeks and my Mum arrives to look after Ginger so baby boy I give you carte blanche to arrive anytime you want to:) 

Ginger got a couple of gender neutral cuties as well - I love the owl print.

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to pop in for a few minutes and wish you all a belated Merry Christmas.


We are having a lovely, if unexpectedly damp, time in Singapore.  Probably not as damp as if we had stayed in Darwin though with the cyclone hitting on boxing day.


We went to the Christmas eve crib service at St Michael's, along with a goodly portion of the Singapore ex-pat community of the under-10s!


We are eating ourselves silly on local foods, and enjoying taking Ginger to some of our favourite attractions.


Thank you all for your blog visits.  I love hearing from you.  I hope to be back here more regularly at the start of the new year.  Theoretically our internet should be up and running in our Darwin house  as of 4 January, but no other transition to phone and internet installation has ever gone smoothly so I just have my fingers crossed.


Oh, and did I mention that our 20 week scan ( a few weeks ago now) showed a bouncing baby boy.  To be honest the bouncing part would be preferable in daylight hours.  This little bump is keeping Mummy up much of the early hours of the morning with his daily exercise session.


Have a safe and restful start to the new year and I look forward to catching up with you soon.

A New Mum's lifesavers

While not yet ready to be dispensing sage advice like a seasoned mother, 2 months of being a mum seems an appropriate juncture to identify my current baby sanity savers!

If you are traditional cloth nappying......the snappi-nappy. It replaces the nappy pin and is so easy to apply. About, $5 at Coles.

If your baby insists on being held....all the time....the ergo baby carrier. It leaves your hands free to get on with some of the necessities of life. Mommy Coddle brought them to my attention. And they are brilliant. I can highly recommend the Australian stockists Babes in Arms. They got it to me overnight, and we are out in the country. If you purchase the insert for it you can use it with a newborn. Baby girl always looks so snug cocooned in it and settles almost immediatly.

If, like baby girl, your baby wants to sit up and see everything....the Mother's Choice BabyCino bouncer. Target has these marked down at the moment.

And, if you want to get smiles out of your baby....a $1.50 bottle of bubble blowing formula.

Welcome to the World Baby Girl!

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.

1 Samuel 1:27

Well, we can't believe we have had baby girl with us for just over two weeks. She was not the delivery from the Easter Bunny we were expecting but was the very best we could have asked for!

After just 2 weeks, it feels like we have never been without her. It also feels like I have never had a full nights sleep:) DH finishes his paternity leave in the middle of next week and I can't believe I will be wholly and solely responsible for her during the day. We are still feeling our way forward with tentative toes, learning as we go and it has been a joint effort attending to her thus far.

It truly is possible for there to be love at first sight because I have loved baby girl from the moment I saw her. And, there is that feeling of fierce protection because I want to protect her from everything that could ever hurt her, always. Baby girl, at two weeks old, I love:

• the way your downy hair feels under my chin when I nurse you.
• that you sometimes grip my finger with your hand while you feed.
• the little smile of contentment you give when you wake up and find that you are being held.
• your perfectly formed finger and toes - I can't believe your big toe is the same size as my pinky fingernail.
• observing you watch the light bounce off the wall.
• the little squeaks and squeals you make while you are sleeping.
• watching you enjoy your bath, bouncing off the sides just like we saw you doing in the 12 week scan.
• the little owl like expression you give when you are being burped.
• watching your little cheeks and arms and legs getting chubbier.
• the way you open just one eye to check out the world while you are dozing.

What Ya Readin Junior: Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes

As we continue to be lashed by wind and rain, and surrounded by fog here in south-east Queensland......five days and counting..... the dogs and my existence has taken on a cabin-feverish aspect. I have only been out for food and community commitments. And, the dogs are desperate for a walk....but I am not braving the driving rain. We even had to debate whether we could make it to church on Sunday the fog was so thick. We did in the end, but after one aborted early attempt.

Fortunately today something to break the monotony of the days- a parcel arrived from my mother-in-law in the UK. Mostly, it contained the makings for baby girl's nursery curtains but there was also the most delightful book. I just have to rave about it in case anyone else has a baby they are buying for!

Well known Australian author Mem Fox has teamed up with UK Illustrator Helen Oxenbury in '10 Little Fingers and 10 Little Toes". The words are gloriously simple, but the sentiment is beautiful. There is lots of repetition of words - so perfect for young listeners. The Penguin Books Australian website has a sample of the illustrations. I hadn't heard of the book before but it turns out it was on the New York Times bestseller list for 18 weeks.

The premise is every child around the world has, " as everyone knows" , "10 little fingers and 10 little toes"; and your own special child also has "3 little kisses on the tip of their nose". Too lovely.

Here is Mem Fox singing it!.... http://www.memfox.com/mem-sings-a-book.html

Long Time.....some news

(Image courtesy of eatlocal.org)

How does one start a blog post after an absence of 3 months. Hmmm....

I am officially reinvigorated about blogging. Browsing through my Persephone Biannual which arrived on Monday I got to the 'Our Bloggers Write' page. There was a post from Simon (of Stuck in a Book) at the top of the second column, oh and down at the bottom a post from little old me. That was the point I let out the yelp that made my husband jump and ask what was wrong. You see, if you actually were one to check the statistics on my archive page you would notice I have posted just 11 times this year. Shame cries the gallery! So for an excerpt from those slim pickings to make the pages of the Persphone Biannual I was pretty chuffed!

Trouble is I don't have many books to write about at present. We have a wonderful blessing on its way (due mid April 2010). We are so happy and all seems to be well with the little one - it was so cute when we had a scan a while back; it was bouncing! But, the little darling has been making Mummy rather sick for the last few months and reading on the train has definitely not been a possibility!

But, I have been officially nausea free for 6 days and counting (it probably has something to do with the fact that I finally got a script from the Obs for anti-nausea medication - and Murphy's law would say once you fill said script, the nausea will stop).

So I am reading once again, Persephone books as it happens. Reviews on "The Making of a Marchioness" and "Greenery Street" to come shortly.
Very little crafting has been done by yours truly, but lots of knitting being done for baby by others. Much of that is now sitting in our cradle awaiting the little one's arrival, so perhaps I can show that off over the coming weeks. And there is the possibility, with the bloom of my middle pregnancy I might slowly get my crafting mojo back and do some myself. First thing to tackle, though, is the pile of mending sitting by the sewing machine. One does need a clean slate to work:)