Our Sweet Boy

Here are a few pictures of Charlie I took the other day. I probably should have taken off his wet bib but oh well.

Barney is in Melbourne visiting a friend for 5 days so I'm flying solo. I have also come down with a head cold so that is fun! Thankfully the boys are at day care today so I have just been resting all day. Tomorrow I will take them for a visit to Nan and Pops house and on Sunday we have a birthday party and church so at least we will keep busy.

Studying is going pretty good. I have been going to the library to study so I am not distracted by things to do around the house and it seems to be working well. Plus the library is air conditioned which has been nice since it has been very hot here lately.

The boys are doing good. Charlie has been cutting teeth and is sleeping horribly! He was up 9 times before 2:30am last night then slept until 6. Myles slept until 7 but was crying around 4am and needed a drink of water and some cuddles. Come on boys... sleep!!

Myles is also come to a challenging age where he doesn't want to listen. We are cracking down on the discipline so hopefully that will help in understand its important to listen to us. Otherwise, he is as sweet as can be. He is still obsessed with numbers and now spelling as well. He combined the two loves and now wants to know how every number is spelled. Funny boy.

Charlie is always playing with his tongue and can twist it upside down.

We are excited to go on holidays in a month! Well, not looking forward to the flight but once we are there I'm sure everything will be all good. We are going for 10 days and don't really plan to leave the resort much as we've been to Bali before and just want to relax (as much as we can with two boys!). I have some lovely colleagues (twin sisters) coming to stay at our place and take care of the house and Jessie which we are super grateful for.

That's the latest from here! Sorry for the lack of posts... life gets busy! Plus, we don't live very exciting lives :)

6 Months

Our Charlie Bear is 6 months old!

Weight: 9.7kg (Over the 100th percentile)
Height: 69cm (75th percentile)
Head: 48cm (Over the 100th percentile)

Charlie is literally off the charts with his weight. He is a big boy! He drinks the recommended amount of formula most of the time, unless he is extra fussy then will have a little more, but nothing extreme. The doctor has requested we come back at 9 months for a weight check because if the numbers keep going up really fast, it could indicate a thyroid problem.

We have tried starting solids but he isn't too excited about it. Today was probably our best day yet. He ate a couple tablespoons of pureed pear for lunch and a tablespoon of sweet potato for dinner. He loves to chew on a teething rusk and will eat some of our dinner here and there if we mash it up and give him little bites. He clearly doesn't need it but it is good to get him used to it.

He is sitting up on his own and generally a happy boy. He loves his big brother so much and is always watching Myles to see what is up to. Myles adores Charlie and their developing relationship is beautiful to watch.

We just went through a horrible week of sleeping. He did 5 nights in a row of waking up every hour, one night of sleeping good, then the worst night ever. He was up probably 30 times and Barney and I both got next to no sleep. He would resettle quickly, but wake up minutes later screaming again. Not fun at all! He was also vomiting up every feed so on Christmas eve morning we took him to the doctor and found out his throat was red and swollen. We finally managed to keep some Tylenol in him and he felt better soon after thankfully!

We had a lovely Christmas morning. We opened presents at home then headed to Barney's parents for a swim in the pool and lunch. Barney's aunty and partner were there and his step sisters came as well. We had a lovely time together until we put Myles down for a nap and he vomited all over the bed. We took him home and he was sick until about dinner time then started to perk up a bit.

Today both boys were so much better and back to their normal selves! Hooray! They both even slept through the night last night which was so refreshing. I woke up with motivation to exercise so went for a big walk with them.

I get a little sad once we hit the 6 month mark as he is now closer to being one than a newborn. Our baby is growing quickly and I need to make sure to cherish these early days.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends!

Picture Update

Here are some pictures of what we have been up to....

Charlie is 5 months old and getting close to sitting up... he prefers to sit up so he can see what's going on around him.

Jessie and Charlie having a play on the bed.... she is still fond of Charlie but not so much of Myles as Myles is mobile.

Myles had his end of year day care disco/Christmas party. There were a lot of people there and he was shy to start, but warmed up after a while and did some dancing.

Charlie at the disco

"Myles, stand by your brother so I can take a picture" - like that was going to happen.

And the rest of the pictures of our Sunday afternoon at the beach. Dogs are allowed off leash after 5pm so we headed there and everyone had a good time. Myles loves the water and thankfully is more cautious this year and doesn't walk in very far.

My Health Journey

Now that my baby growing days are over, it is time to get my body back! Since I am not breastfeeding I feel like I have my body freedom back and it feels good.

My pre-baby weight was 65kg or 143lbs.
When I was full term with Myles I was 80kg or 176lbs.
Full term with Charlie: 92kg or 200lbs.. Yikes!

After Myles I didn't really focus on my weight loss as I knew I wanted back to back babies and didn't want to put all the effort in, only to gain it again. Looking back this probably wasn't a great decision as now I have much more to lose. I can't change the past so now I just have to work extra hard to get where I want to be which would be back around 65kg, although I am building more muscle so I'll give myself some leeway.

I didn't weigh myself until Charlie was 10 weeks old as this is when I really started to transform my diet and pick up my exercising.

So 10 weeks post partum I was 84kg or 185lbs. My goal is to lose about a kilo a week.

The first four weeks I was on track and was down to 80kg 14 weeks pp. This is when my family arrived and I plateaued staying the same weight until they left. It was then that my friend challenged me to do a month of going refined sugar free with her so we could keep each other accountable. In the first 10 days, I dropped another 2kg! I'm currently sitting at 78kg.

It was shocking to see how much sugar is in everything and scary that this is what the food industry is becoming. Thankfully, Barney and I are both good enough in the kitchen that we can make our own delicious meals, sauces, dressings etc and eliminate a lot of processed food where the sugar usually is found.

My diet now is mostly made up of salads, smoothies, fresh fruit, fish, meat and steamed veggies. If we make a pasta dish, we always make the sauces from scratch and pack them full of veggies. I also gave up coffee when I had Charlie which was a hard adjustment at first, but I feel much better for now. My go to treat are cacao bliss balls which I will share the recipe for as they are delicious and curb my chocolate cravings. I also made sugar free banana bread the other day and it turned out great too.

Going sugar free has really forced me to be most creative and actually hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be, even though I have a huge sweet tooth!

Last night was my first shift back to work and boy am I tired now. I worked 4-1130pm so by the time I was home, showered and sleeping, it was close to 12:30. Both boys were up at 6am but Barney got up with them and let me sleep until 7:30. Going to bed that late really hit me hard and today I was exhausted and unmotivated all day.

Speaking of work, my incredibly awesome bosses have hired a personal trained for all the staff! We will have 3 weekly drop in sessions that last an hour each. All for free. I will only be able to make 2 of them and will have Charlie along, but hopefully he will just sleep in the pram. This gift seriously couldn't come at a better time and I think it is just what I need to push myself that little bit harder.

That is my journey so far! My goal is to be bikini body ready by my 30th birthday trip to Bali in March. If I keep making good choices and work hard, I know I can get there!


(I debated putting up pictures of my results so far but I don't think I am ready yet, although, the results are very visable!)

The Boys

It's been a while between posts but for good reason! My parents, brother Matthew, his wife Heather and their gorgeous one year old Gabrielle came to visit and we had a lovely time together. Myles adored them all and it was very special to watch Gabrielle and Myles play so nicely together.

I have another post brewing in my head but thought I would do a little update on the boys first.

Myles:

He's great! I am really enjoying this age and for the most part he is an easy child. He definitely has his moments but now that he talks more, we can communicate our feelings etc a lot better which has led to less tantrums and crying. Yay!

He is a little smarty pants. He loves learning so we try our best to keep him stimulated. He is still obsessed with numbers. He can count forwards and backwards to one hundred, count by twos in odds and evens up to twenty. He can count by 5's and 10's up to one hundred as well. I'm pretty sure he just sees his world in numbers. In the grocery store, we have to make sure we walk by all the aisles to see the numbers otherwise he gets upset.

He loves to help out around the house and sit down and look through books. He is a gorgeous boy and I love him to bits!

Charlie:

Charlie is 4 months old! He weights 7.76kg, is 65cm long and his head is 44cm. He is sitting around the 85 percentile and is a big boy. He is rolling from back to front and is trying hard to sit up on his own but isn't quite strong enough. Just like his brother, he prefers to be outside. Today he laid on his toy mat under the tree in the front yard for nearly two hours without a peep! He was just so happy.

He started sleeping through the night at 12 weeks old, sleeping 8:30-530/630 which was so nice! Then we hit the 4 month sleep regression and he was getting up a few times a night. Two nights he was up every hour, just needing to be resettled. He still only would have a feed once, maximum twice. Two nights ago he slept through again and last night he was up just once. Let's hope he is transitioning back to sleeping through because it was sure great!

I can't even describe how blessed I feel. I have two gorgeous boys, a wonderful husband and an adorable puppy! Life is busy, but great.

(My mom took most of the pictures as I wanted some nicely family pictures now that Charlie is here)

Back to School

It is official... I am heading back to school!

I have enrolled to study online to receive my Certificate 3 in Early Childhood Education and Care. This is equivalent to a diploma and will allow me to work in a day care centre.

I have always enjoyed working with young children and have been taking care of them since I was 12. Even though I have always worked in retail/hospitality as well as studied to achieve a diploma in Hospitality Management, I feel that I need a change and to work in an industry that has more family friendly working hours. I also need to think of a long term career and this seems more suitable.

If I were to continue in hospitality, I would be expected to work nights and weekends and that just isn't achievable with two young children. Myles is currently in day care 3 days a week and Charlie will start as well in January so this will allow me to work on those days.

At this stage I only want to work part time but once they are both in school full time, I hope to start working full time as well. My ideal job would be working at the day care centre they attend but I will have to wait and see how I go.

The course I am taking allows you to finish it in 18 months but I am being ambitious and hope to finish it in 6 months. Also, I will be going back to my restaurant job 1-2 shifts per week to help with the income. Somewhere between being a wife, mom of two young boys and working part time, I will find time to study. Thankfully Charlie is an easy baby and sleeps well so this will allow me time to study while Myles is at day care, until Charlie starts.

Wish me luck!

Fathers Day and Such

Sunday was Father's Day here down under and it was also Barney's birthday!

Barney's mum invited us over for lunch so we headed there in the morning so Myles could play before lunch. Barney's aunt and her partner also came over and we had a lovely time together! We left shortly after lunch so Myles could sleep in the car on the way home but he didn't and was so overtired when we got home that he just screamed and cried for about 10 minutes before crashing for a couple hours.

Since Charlie will be our last baby, I've decided to do a lifestyle overhaul and work really hard on losing all the weight I've gained over the last few years. Three pregnancies and two babies have done my body no favours!

I've been eating really well and exercising a lot. I have also given up coffee which has made me feel a lot better. Every morning I get out and go power walking, usually pushing two kids in the pram up some hills. It is hard work but it feels so good to sweat. I climbed our local mountain on Wednesday and hope to do it weekly as it is such a good work out, especially carrying Charlie up there too.

Most days I also get on the exercise bike and do 15 minutes on the bike, then do squats, push ups, sit ups, lunges and a few other exercises. My body is sore but I am very determined! As I am not breastfeeding, I feel freedom in my body which is a driving force for me. It could be seen as being selfish for making that choice but it was the best one for the both of us this time around.

(Grilled chicken, avocado, corn and capsicum salsa, a standard lunch for me these days.. yum!)

Charlie is wonderful. He is a relatively easy baby and doesn't cry much. He is sleeping great, only getting up once through the night for a feed. He also naps really well which is something Myles never did as a baby.

I feel so blessed that he is a good baby as I really wanted to cherish these early days as I know it's our last baby. I am really enjoying him, as is Barney and Myles. Myles adores him and Charlie gives him the best smiles! I love watching their relationship develop, even at this age.

My brother, his wife, their daughter and my parents arrive in a few weeks and I am excited to see them and have them meet Charlie!

We have just begun spring and I am excited to see what this new season brings.

I hope you are having a great week!