Hobbiton

"hi-ho, hi-ho, its off to Hobbiton we go!!"

Wait, that's not right... oh well. We took a day trip to Middle earth the other day. After all, what else do you do in New Zealand??

So.. we drove 3.5 hours on a slightly wet and dreary day.. to take a tour of Hobbiton in Matamata, NZ
the tour company supplied umbrellas :)

even Owen got to wear a little hat :) 

he's such a little old man!

 So, we heard lots of interesting stories and saw all the little hobbit homes! It was really cool!!  And, of course, we all turned into geeky tourists with the cameras clicking and the rest of us posing!

Jeanette posing in one of the only hollowed out houses

Jeanette & I posing.
The guy in front wrecking our shot was our guide. Had he been a wee bit shorter with hairy feet, I'd have thought he was a hobbit!! :)

Marco, Owen & I posing. 

Jeanette & I posing by the lake with the pub in the background

Marco and I wishing we could go have a drink in the pub! :)

Marco & I being tools pretending we owned a hobbit house!

The day was really fun, despite the weather. But, as you can see, it didn't rain the whole tour, so it was lovely.
I was well and truly tired of driving by the end of the day.. but it was loads of fun. 

Owen did great.. except at the first stop of the night... 

Ok, so we drove for an hour and half and then had our first stop. Marco and Jeanette went to use the loo while I fed Owen in the truck. As I burped him he spit up all done my shoulder. It dripped down my arm, onto my leg and onto the seat. And, as any good wife of Marco should do, I quickly wiped up the seat first, then my clothing. :)

Then, as Marco & Jeanette went to get us some coffee & hot chocolates, I decided to change his bum. Seeing as it was raining outside and I am in fact made completely of sugar, I opted to change him on my lap, using a technique I'd seen a few weeks earlier, which looked SUPER easy. 

Simply place baby on your lap, insert new diaper under old diaper, whip off old diaper using a quick one - two wipe, and voila, new diaper is on.
Reality, is often different for me. 

So, I placed Owen on my lap, took off his dirty diaper. Proceeded to wipe up the poo as quickly as possible. At which point, he proceeded to poo all over my t-shirt. As I began to wipe it up, Owen decided that now would be a good time to pee. He then proceeded to allow his pee to spray all over my t-shirt and the seat of the car. I threw the wipe over his "spout", pulled up my t-shirt (which now has both pee & poo on it), and tried to wipe up the pee on the car seats. 

At this point, Owen decides that he wasn't quite finished. He pooed again. This time all over my nursing tank. 

Packing for our excursion, I had brought 3 changes of clothes for Owen, and 2 full changes of clothes for me. But, alas, I did not bring an extra nursing tank, or even an extra bra. Therefore, I could not change. All my careful packing had been for naught. 

Note to self: its a lot more difficult to change a baby on your lap than it looks!!

Creativity

I am not artsy. 

I am not musical. 

I cannot sew, knit, or paint. 

I can barely cut a straight line with scissors. 

These are facts. 

And no, it would not be any better if I tried harder. 

I would not learn these things if I tried longer. 

For 30 years, I have tried harder. 

For 30 years, I have tried longer. 

But, these are the facts about myself that I must face. 

Once and for all. 

however, time and time again.. I see something, and I think:

"I could do that." 

Then I try. (I try really hard, sometimes too). 

Wanna guess how it turns out??

Following are a few examples, of my "extra special" creativity in the photography department, as of late. 

First, I saw this picture:

 

Cute, eh?! Yeah.. so, I thought, "that doesn't look that hard.. I can do that!"

Sure.. 

Here's how MINE turned out! 

Whoops! Don't Fall off!! 

So.. then there was this one: (and I'm sorry, but whoever I pinned it from, didn't have it pinned from the right source - sorry)

But SO cute! right?!

So.. I tried this one too... 

I'm not sure which one is worse..

Anyway.. so, then I spotted these last 2:

http://blog.weathershenker.com/ 

And this one:

http://lindseyagoddardphotography.wordpress.com/

Both of which, I thought were gorgeous since they used the baby's daddy's pilot's hat. 

Well.. can you guess how MINE turned out?

Firstly, I'm not sure how the first photographer got the baby INSIDE the hat.. there's no way, mine would do that!! So, after that.. I think they just go from bad to worse.. I even tried some with both the hat AND the tie.. Shockingly bad!! 

So, there you have it. I am NOT a photographer. At least not of newborns in awesome poses. Strike off one more thing from the vast array of creative choices. Some day, I will be ok with having no creative talents. But until that day comes, I will continue to try my talents against professionals and I will continue to fall short and hard!

Hope you had a bit of a laugh at my expense.. :)

Feet

I have the worlds ugliest feet.
I know this.
Those who know me know this.
And yet, here's some pics of them. :)

yucky swollen pregnant feet

back to normal !! Woohoo!!

Obligatory Owen pictures

Ok, so here's some Owen pics from my phone from the first 2 weeks...

sleeping baby.. 

Morgan holding Owen

newborn pic :)

Kelsey holding Owen

Aww

Mommy & Owen self portrait

Bad, Sad days

So, I had a bad day today.
Yep, they happen.
I've always been told something about "3 day baby blues", this however, is more like "day 12 baby blues". Ugh.

So, I woke up crying. And cried everytime anyone said anything to me. Wow. Such fun.

So, there I am on the couch, feeding Owen and years are escaping silently down my cheeks. My ever curious 4 year old approaches.

"mommy? Why are your eyes wet?"

"mommy's just tired, Kelsey"

"oh. Mom? Why don't you cry like me?"

"what do you mean, Kels?"

"well mom, I cry really loud but you cry really quietly."

I smile.

Curious, talkative children are good for something I guess. At least she can get me to smile. And tomorrow I may even laugh!

Owen's first 2 weeks

So, here we are, quickly approaching Owen's due date - Feb 13th. 

How's it going?

Well.. Owen is doing great. He is so sweet and little and cute. And, I have been just thoroughly enjoying him. That is made easier due to the huge amounts of help that we've been getting. Marco had the whole first week off. Then, he needed to work for 3 days during the second week, so his mum decided to fly up and stay for 4 days. The church has been bringing us meals almost every other day - although they are due to stop today. And, my sister arrives in 3 days, when Marco goes back to work again!! Honestly, every way I look at it, the timing of Owen's birth has been most excellent. It is so rare for Marco to have so much time off... 

Anyway, thanks to so much help, I have been just taking care of myself and Owen. Sounds a bit selfish, perhaps, but I know the exhaustion will come. I know the endless days of being on my own with 3 kids will come. And, I'm not in a hurry for them.

And, since Owen was born early and small, he's being a bit spoiled. When he wakes, I feed him, I burp him, I change him, I feed him some more, then I cuddle him. If I want to shower or eat (or blog), I put him in his bed, but otherwise he's been sleeping on me. And I've been laying on the couch. 

Every day at 1pm, I go to bed to try to sleep. So far, that hasn't been too difficult - when you're up every 2-4 hours all day and night, your body sleeps when you lay in vertical!! The plan was to sleep from 1-3 every day, but lately, Owen's been a bit sneaky, and decided to want to eat at 2pm every day. Not very nice, little boy. He's been a bit cheeky about family dinners too. For the last 3 days, as soon as dinner is announced, the little booger decides he wants some food. I suppose I should take this as a sign that it might be time to start finding a better routine for him - perhaps one set out by his mommy, who can tell time!! Especially since starting next week I'll have to do the preschool run by myself! Yikes!

Unfortunately, things aren't completely roses and butterflies around here. I've been doing great. I've been chipper. I've been up and doing stuff (but not too much). Until this past Wednesday (10 days postpartum) I had a bad day. Weepy, hormonal, and a bit sore. I figured that's all it was. Unfortunately, my bleeding which had tapered off, started back up with a vengeance. And then, after a restless sleep, when I got up to the 4am feeding, I found myself almost unable to walk because of serious stomach pains. So, as I lay on the couch in the lounge feeding Owen, I writhed and cried out in pain. Until finally, Marco woke from his sleep to see what the matter was. Frankly, it was a bit scary. The pain was WAY worse than anything labor brought - or probably just felt that way because it was so constant and without any cause or reason (that we knew of anyway). We contemplated going to the hospital - at least mum was still here, so we wouldn't have to wake up the girls. But, in the end, decided to wait till morning and make some decisions then. Around 8:30am, I called my midwife and let her know what was going on. She presumed it was "product" needing to be expelled. But, she called back in 15 minutes with an appointment for an ultrasound for later that afternoon. She also, dropped by around 10:30 to have a look and feel for herself and gave us a prescription for some antibiotics. The fear, at this point, is that somehow some placenta was left behind, which, in my understanding, would require a trip to the hospital. Not something you want to do with a newborn...
Anyway, Marco drove me to my ultrasound appointment that afternoon with all the kids, as he'd dropped off mum at the airport a few hours earlier. The technician didn't say much as she looked around, and in the end, told me she'd send off the pictures to a doctor for a diagnosis who'd then be in touch with my midwife. So, another long night of painful waiting.
By morning, the pain has subsided greatly. My stomach is still sore to the touch, and standing tall and straight is almost impossible. But I can sit upright (with a hunched back) and I can move without crying out in pain. 

My midwife called first thing this morning to pass along the diagnosis. Its not placenta remaining. Its just a blood clot working its way to be expelled. Time, she said. Time is what it would take. Ugh. Oddly, a surgery sounded more appealing.
But, hopefully, the antibiotics will do their thing and the ibuprofen will do its thing and I can start functioning again soon. Preferably by tomorrow... (patience is not one of my strong points!!)

So.. Owen is doing well. Me.. not so much, but should be better soon.