Cool Stuff About Lachlan

Our baby boy changes everyday and I don't want to forget what he's like now at nearly seven weeks old. Here's a list of a couple things we've noticed:

Lachie in his striped cardi from Nani and red recliner

• He likes to raise one fist in what I call his 'power to the people right on' move. When he does this while feeding, I kiss his fist and congratulate him on fist bumping Mama's lips.
• He doesn't always take long daytime naps. We're okay with this because he gets a couple of good stretches at night.
• I believe that the cuter someone is and the more you love them, the more nicknames you create for them. I wish there was a nerdy graph for this theory! Here is a list of Lachlan's nicknames organized by the person who calls him each one:
• Papa calls him - chubba, chubby, chubbawumba, bubba
• Mama calls him - the Lachster my rock star (almost rhymes), pudding, puddingtons, sausage, possum, little bear, little person, my love
• Nani calls him - angel, precious, darling, sweetheart
• He can smile! As he becomes more aware and alert, he smiles at us more often. Of course these smiles melt our hearts. He's also begun cooing; it's terribly sweet.
• He "chuckles" in his sleep. Of course he cannot really chuckle, but he makes this cry/whimper noise that sounds like 'heh heh,' so we call it his chuckle and it's adorable.
• He likes hanging out in his red recliner (borrowed from Ken and Meaghan) and his swing (borrowed from Adam and Elise). He used to tolerate these for just minutes, but he can go for longer stretches in both now. This is extremely helpful because it frees up our hands and bodies to do other things. 
• If well fed and not overtired, he also likes taking a bath.

Hopefully pictures and video will help remind me of everything else that Lachie's up to.

Pregnant No Longer

When Lachie arrived, I experienced a lot of new feelings physically and emotionally. One of them was a sense of disbelief that the pregnancy was really over. There were times during my pregnancy when I felt like it would never end and then suddenly it had.

I don't miss the backaches, my slow waddle or the inability to lie on my back, but I almost miss the feeling of being special in the eyes of the general public. The first time I walked around town without Lachie a strange thought occurred to me as I passed strangers on the street, 'they don't know that I just had a baby!' Somehow, I had gotten used to my big belly alerting the world as to what was going on with me.

Likewise when I rode the bus for the first time without the babe, I thought 'people don't know that I need a handicapped seat because I don't have a belly anymore.' It took me a moment to realize that I actually don't need a handicapped seat.

With Lachlan, though, I feel just as special as I used to when walking around in public in the sense that strangers smile and strike up a conversation just as often as they did when I was pregnant. People comment on his sweet looks, mention the age of their own children and remark on how fast the time goes by.

Lachie's First Weeks

I don't know how new mums find the time to update their blogs! I have a tremendous amount of help from my mom and Mickey and still I've neglected my blog during Lachie's first weeks.

The Lachster in his tiki shirt from Papa and mittens from Steph

I'm determined to fire out a couple of ineloquent lines so that I don't forget the roller coaster ride that has been Lachie's first weeks, aka parenting boot camp for Alane and Mickey. Lachlan grows and changes just as quickly as my moods so I need to take a moment to record what's going on.

It seems like ages ago that we spent two nights at the Prince of Wales Private Hospital and two nights at the Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach, but of course it was only last month. On the whole, the care we received was excellent, but I remember being shocked by how inconsistent the midwives' advice seemed to be. Some would tell us to wake Lachie in the night to feed him while others weren't bothered by the fact that he was a little sleepy in his first two days of life. As a new mom, you just want to be told the right answer in regard to your new baby and that was tough when it seemed like none of the hospital staff were on the same page.

Lacho in his playsuit from Jennie

It's delightful that breastfeeding women are encouraged to eat 300 - 500 calories above their normal pre-pregnancy daily intake and both the hospital and hotel take that into account when preparing meals.  Hospital food wasn't great, but there was so much of it that you could pick and choose what you wanted to eat. Likewise at the hotel, new mums in the Little Luxuries program were covered for an entree, main, side, dessert and drink, basically enough food for three people.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Little Luxuries program. The hotel was far more peaceful than the hotel because you could (try) to fall asleep to the sound of crashing ocean waves instead of the nurses' call button.

Birth Announcement

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.