Special Moments: Calling Yaya

A was playing with my cell phone and tried to call grandma "Yaya", twice. I caught him the first but he succeeded the second time. Now Yaya things he is the smartest 6 month old ever.

Tough Moments in Motherhood

I feel blessed to be A's mom. And I am lucky to be able to to stay home with him. Although I am busy 24/7 I am so much happier than when I was working.

However, there are moments that are tough. In the beginning there was constant feeding, stomach cramps (luckily they resolved when I changed my diet) as well as adjusting from being my own person to having someone depend on me pretty much 24/7. Now it's growth spurts, development leaps and teething. Sometimes I do feel overwhelmed, and frustrated, but the difficult times pass and I have a happy baby again.

In those times I have learned to tell myself the following:

1. This too shall pass
   It will, eventually he will stop crying fall asleep/ stop feeding. It will not carry on forever.
2. Live in the moment
   I used to stress about the things I can't get to because I've been holding/feeding the baby for so long. But I see how quickly he is growing up and one day he will not need me. So I want to enjoy holding him while he does need me. And if sometimes the dishes have to wait till morning, that's ok.
3. His need is real
   Sometimes, especially in the middle of the night, I might feel a bit frustrated and think "Oh come on, what is it now?" and secretly wish I could just cry it out. But he is just a baby and what he is feeling is real and so is his need for me. I am the adult and I can suck it up.
4. Don't sweat the small stuff
   Like I mentioned before dishes can wait. If I need to have a pajama day so be it. Nurturing my baby is the most important task. And to add to that "Those who mind don't matter, those who matter don't mind."
5. Relax and be positive
   Naturally I do worry if my baby is sick and about general safety. But I don't want to stress about every little thing. There is no perfect parent or the perfect way to parent. Homo sapiens have been around for 200 000 years, civilisation for 50 000 and we have got this far. 

Becomming a Mother - the First 5 Months

Wow can't believe how fast time has gone. I want to write some things down before the next 5 months wiz pass again.

I found on the one hand there was an instinct that kicked in, on the other hand it has been such a learning experience. It took A and I just under a week to learn to breastfeed, it wasn't instinctive and the midwives at the hospital had to help me. But at 5 months are still going strong!
My postpartum hospital experience was mixed. During delivery I had a wonderful midwife who was supporting and caring and helped me get breast feeding on the right track but after that the midwives wanted to do things their own way. On the second night at the hospital the midwives brought A to me to feed him. He wasn't feeding right so I started to burp him. The midwife appeared and told me he doesn't need to be burped, he needs to be fed. On cue A let out a lovely loud burp.

I fell in love with A as soon as they put him on me, but I feel that I truly bonded with him after about 6 weeks. Early on I struggled changing from a structured, in control life to give over myself completely to the needs of a little baby. At about 8 weeks I thought I needed to be in control so I read about a routine and tried to put it in place on day 2 we both ended up crying. I decided to just go with it and give him what he needs when he needs it and we've never looked back. Our routine developed naturally and we're both happy.

The biggest leasons that I learned so far:

Patience and Acceptance
Staying at home is the best decision I made.
Babies change quickly. Being a first time mom I thought A would be stuck to my breast 6 hours a day, now I have trouble getting him to stay on for 6 minutes straight. He gets so distracted.
I am used to interrupted sleep. Twice a night is nothing for me, but more then 3 is tough!
Since they grow so quickly I am living in the moment more, trying to take things more slowly. I love having A on my lap and we just hang out for the better part of the day.
I was too hard on myself in the beginning. It's okay to stay home some days!
Becoming a mother takes vanity out the window.
No one will ever love A as much as I do.
I think to have  the best motherhood experience one needs to know who you are, and know what your child needs.

Special Moments: The Origin of Pillows

I loved it when A was a couple of weeks old, he would use my bare breast as a pillow after feeding.

Broccoli Soup

I must admit, I'm a big Gordon Ramsay fan. I discovered him in the UK Nightmare Kitchen series during my marathon nursing sessions with A. I watched him make this soup on youtube and couldn't believe how easy it is. It is a great summer soup full of flavour.

Who knew broccoli soup could be so simple and delicious!

Ingredients:
Head of Broccoli
2 liters water
salt and pepper to taste.

Chop one head of broccoli into florets.
Bring pot of water to boil.
Place in rapidly boiling water. Add salt, close lid. Let it cook for 4:00-4:30min.
Place florets in blender, add salt and pepper to taste.
Add about 2 ladles (about a cup) of the water the broccoli was boiled in.
Blend until smooth.

See Ramsay make the recipe here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvc8Au4YO60

Special Moments: The Look of Love

We were driving somewhere and I was sitting in the back seat with A. I was a long day so I was looking at him, smiling and singing "You are my sunshine" (his favourite song). He was looking back at me smiling with a look of love in his eyes.

My Garden

I'm a total noob when it comes to gardening. When we moved to our house 3 years ago it was the first time I would have a garden. Sadly the only plants I could identify were the roses (and the lawn LOL). Yes, I had to learn from scratch! The garden was also very neglected and required a lot of work. It was neglected again when I became pregnant.

Now I hope to work on the garden during nap times. I plan on bringing in more indigenous plants since I figure they will be easier to care for and won't require so much watering. I also hope to start a herb garden.

I can actually identify a few plants now!

Front garden:
Delicious Monster
Aztec Grass
Mondo Grass
Agapanthus (white)
Wild Iris
Jasmine
Strelizia
Wild Garlic
Cat's Tail
Hibiscus
Hydrangea
Beetroot

The back garden has two flower beds. One in front of the house, the other is near the boundry wall.
In front of the house I have:
a pond:
yesterday-today-tomorrow
Stinkwood
Cannas
Irises
Lavender
Roses
Gardenia


By the boundry wall I have:
Karee Tree
Bouganvillias
Agapanthas
Clivias
Bamboo
Arum Lilies
Mondo Grass
Clivias