Winter holiday time!

School has closed today, for two weeks!

I am rejoicing in the thought of two weeks of not having to get up at 6am to get dressed and prepare a lunchbox and juggle Ella's feeding and awake time with Mia's getting dressed and breakfast time!  I can stay in my pj's and breakfast can be at any time and we can all snuggle together in bed! Yippee!!

I want it to be a special fun time for Mia though, so have planned a few activities and outings:

• We're going to go see Mr Maker at the DSTV Kids Extravaganza at Vodaworld
• A trip to the hairdresser to trim Mia's hair
• Lunch at the dairy farm
• Bake cookies
• Make playdough
• Playdates with a few friends
• Tea parties
• Watch movies in our pajamas
• A sleep-over for Mia at Aunty Boo's house

Yeah, sounds fun. And hopefully after two weeks when I know I'm going to be quite relieved that school is starting again, it won't be quite as dark at 6am anymore! ;-)

xx

Enjoying my gym workouts this week!

I went to the gym on Saturday, and just suddenly found my groove! I initially told Wyn that I'll be back in less than an hour, thinking I wouldn't be inspired to exercise very much... But then while on the treadmill, I decided to jog a lil bit too, and although I couldn't run for more than a minute at a time, I really enjoyed it, and ended up doing twenty minutes instead of my initial plan of only 5 minutes for warm-up.

Same thing happened when I did the weight machines, I just kept thinking, "this feels good!" and did way more than planned.  I felt so exhilerated when I left!

Went to the gym again on Sunday - Wyn really supports me so nicely in this and doesn't mind looking after the girlies while I escape. ;-)

Monday's workout was also fabulous, and only third day of jogging but already managed to do more than I could on Saturday.

I really enjoy the gym, the music gets me amped, the people all on their own mission, the variety of exercises I can choose from.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to go yesterday, and today I had the mirena fitted, so will go again on Friday.

(The mirena appointment went really well! Really love my gynea, dr Jacquie Grassie, she's fantastic.  I love the way she explained to me exactly what she's doing.  It wasn't nearly as painful as I expected it to be, uncomfortable, but over in 60 seconds! She answered all my questions too, put my mind at ease, and I'm happy with the decision so far.)

I heard a good expression this week when chatting to a friend for some weight loss tips, she said, "you can't outrun a bad diet" - and this is seriously the truth.  Diet is definitely the biggest aspect of losing weight - but I do like the way exercise makes me feel stronger and healthier, and the effect of toning muscles just helps weight loss so much too.

I'm down 1.2kg in two weeks - it's slower progress than I was hoping for, but it's progress nonetheless, I'll take it!

I like these Reasons To Be Fit piccies:

Ella is 2 months old today! ♥

Oh how time flies. My tiny baby is getting too big too fast!  She's lifting her head, she's smiling a LOT, she's making the cutest new coo-ing sounds, and she's very interested in her surroundings. 

She's a calm and content baby, mostly.  Feeding time is a bit of a frustration at the moment, not sure if it's a blocked nose or indigestion that worries her, but she cries and refuses to feed, both the breast and the bottle...  After much perseverance and sweet-talking I eventually get her to latch, and then she drinks fine... Bit baffled by this.

Mia just loves her baby sister, it's the sweetest thing to see, makes my heart just burst.

I felt quite sad packing away all Ella's newborn clothes, it really just goes by so quickly.  But I'm looking forward to the next phase of baby girl's growth and development!

I'm not enjoying winter, hate feeling cold and having to dress in so many layers.  Baby is dressed nice and cosy all the time, but when I undress her for nappy changes, I love to massage her little legs and toes, seeing way too little of them and her leggies have gotten so chubby since birth, too cute! ♥

 I dressed Ella in a babygro that had been Mia's - and looked for a photo to show Mia how she looked, and just couldn't believe the resemblance between the two sisters, especially the Mohawk hair!  I took a pic with the same teddy bear, and gosh, I think Ella's hair is even more sticky-up than Mia's was! Love it! ;-)

Father's Day Questionnaire

Happy Father's Day 2014!
With love from Mia

 

My dad’s name is _______Pappa!______________________________________

He is ____three__________ years old.

He is as big as _______Mommy________________________________________

His favourite food is ___Vleisie______________________________________

His favourite colour is ____Blue_____________________________________

My dad likes to wear ___Captain clothes, and boy clothes____________

My daddy always tells me __he loves me______________________________

A present that I want to buy my dad ___Pappa-perfume______________

He likes to go to ____Sun City_______________________________________

My dad makes me laugh when he ____tickles me______________________

His favourite thing to watch on tv is ____Nemo! And boy movies______

My dad helps me ____with stuff that's stuck_________________________

My favourite thing to do with my dad is ___hug him!__________________

I love my dad because ___I say so!  Pappa kisses me!___________________

Just love long weekends!

If only every weekend was a 3-day weekend!

We had a special time filled with snuggles and family. 

Little Ella has been in a good mood lately, so we're enjoying her lots - she's started making some new baby coo-ing sounds which are just too adorable for words, she loves to smile at us, and she's so content most of the time!  Even the night feeds are going so well, she gives me a stretch of about 5 hours the first time, then we're up for about an hour, and then she snoozes another 3-4 hours. Although I usually need to get up halfway through that second stretch to start preparing school lunch box, get dressed, and wake Mia up.

Mia has recovered from all her ailments, including a bout of very bad sleeping last week.  She was crying in her sleep, we would have to physically wake her up and resettle her, and it just escalated from 3-4 times a night to 6 times the one night last week!  I got some Rescue drops and gave it to her from early evening, and put lavender essential oil in her bath and did a massage for her with some of the lavender drops. It worked, since then she's slept fine, only calling us if she's lost her duvet.

Father's Day was special, my family came to us for a braai.  The rest of Sunday was so lazy, first had a snooze on the couch with both girlies, and then we spent the rest of the evening in our room, as it's the warmest place in the house!

 

Monday morning saw me getting up very early, for my first ever 5km fun-run! Well, fun-walk, rather!  I met three of my friends there, and it took us about an hour to walk the 5km, chatting away the whole time, was so nice!  Was so chuffed, we received a medal for taking part, it's my first-ever medal in my life! Yay! ;-) 

 

My shins are a bit sore today, but I really enjoyed this and want to try and do it more often.  A bit of exercise, a bit of socialising - perfect!

 

My weight loss journey's official start

A few weeks ago I got applauded for wanting to get back onto that proverbial weight loss wagon so quickly - but I need to confess, I lasted all of one day of healthy eating and didn't even get around to exercising.

However, my mindset is definitely in the right place now (after wanting to buy a new jersey and the size Large was too small, sob sob!)

This week, I started doing these exercises at home:

I can't even hold the plank for 20 seconds, so this challenge might take me a little bit longer than 30 days!

Every evening while putting Ella to sleep, I've been spending some time doing these exercises, as well as some additional kettlebell exercises.  It only takes me 10-15 minutes, but hey, it's better than nothing!

Our dinners this week have been steak and green beans, chicken coconut curry with sweet potato (my absolute favourite, this is like a comfort food dish!) and last night was savoury mince with baby marrows.  (Wyn and Mia had oven chips with their steak, rice with the chicken curry, and pasta with last night's mince.  It's not really much extra effort, and didn't bug me at all, my plate of food looked and tasted yummier than theirs each time!)

This morning I went to the gym and did a half-hour session (needed to get back home for Ella's feeding time) - but it felt good! I really want to aim to do my home exercises six nights a week, and then get to the gym at least twice a week, hopefully even more, but let's be realistic for now!

I'm already feeling less sluggish, and it's only day 4 of less "bad carbs". 
I'm on a roll, long may it last!
xx

Our 6-week check-ups

I'm a little bit behind with updates, after the rough week we've had.  Ella is 7 weeks old today, but I want to talk about our 6-week check-up appointments that we had.

On Tuesday last week, we went to the paed.  I'm using the paed that assisted with the birth and did Ella's checks in hospital, dr Angela, at Kloof hospital.  She's really sweet and I like her lots.  I really liked dr Marleen Engelbrecht who I took Mia to, but just not keen on Unitas hospital though.

At six weeks, Ella weighs 4.6kg (2.8 at birth), and 55cm long (50cm at birth) - so she's been growing a lot already, gosh!

The paed recommended that we get a nebuliser to help Ella's snotty nose, and she prescribed a 3% saline solution to nebulise with, as well as some Betnusol nose drops to use for a few days to help clear her up.

On Wednesday I took Ella to the baby clinic for her vaccinations.  Poor little one, she was so brave with the first injection and didn't make a sound, but then the nurse said the second one stings, and poor Ella cried and cried.  Luckily my big dose of Rescue Remedy helped me keep it together!  She didn't have any bad side effects from the vacs, in fact, opposite, she slept really well for the two nights following them, giving us a long stretch of 6-7 hours between night feeds!  She was a little bit grumpy on the second day's afternoon and evening, but other than that, no other symptoms. Yay!

Thursday was my turn to see Dr Jacquie Grassie for my check-up.  She prescribed Eglonyl tablets for me to use to up my milk production (although now feeling sceptical about them after reading that many women gained weight while on Eglonyl, eeeek!) and she has also recommended that instead of going back on the pill, I have the mirena put in.  I'm still doing some research to decide yay or nay, but so far I'm thinking yes, going to keep my appointment for the end of the month.

I'm having a tough time putting my weight loss plans into action - there's just no time for me to go to the gym, and why does healthy food take so much longer to plan and prepare!!  I'm working on it though, and feeling positive that I'll get my mind set right soon.

And there's another morning gone by in the blink of an eye, let me get out of my slippers and into my shoes so I can go fetch Mia from school.  So much for having enough time for a gym session before fetching her...

xx

Poor Mia's horrible week!

Gosh, Mia's had a run of bad luck.  Things happen in three's, so I do hope things can get back to normal for her now!

Firstly it was the postnasal infection that had been bugging us all, so much so that Mia and I went to the doctor on Wednesday. We just weren't getting better and both starting to cough, keeping us all up at night.  We got antibiotics, and started dosing ourselves immediately with extra vitamins and probiotics too.

Then on Thursday, Mia was fiddling around in the kitchen while I was making coffee.  She was climbing into Ella's baby car seat - it tipped forward and she fell head first against the door, and cut the side of her head above her ear on the door hinge.  Oh my heart, seeing my hand come away with blood on it! 

Thankfully my sister was there, and she helped me keep calm, we took her to the bathroom, cleaned her up, saw that it stopped bleeding quite quickly, the cut was only about 1cm long, and wouldn't need stitches.  Gave her a big dose of pain meds and a couple of rescue tablets for mommy!  Poor Mia, this was her first big ouch.  Accidents happen so quickly!

Then, on Friday afternoon, Mia was having a nap on my bed, Ella was asleep in the cot, and I was having a little lie-down before a client was due to come for a treatment.  Mia suddenly woke up, looked at me funny, and then proceeded to vomit all over herself, our bed, my pants and her blanket.  It was all bright red, thanks to her having eaten some red velvet cake earlier that day!

Wyn was a star, stripping the bed and taking everything to the laundry room while I cleaned Mia up and dressed her.  She kept saying she feels fine, not sick at all.

Early Friday evening I had given Mia a cup of Oros to drink and a few strawberries... Then she brought all that up again too.  Wyn went to Unitas hospital's chemist, and they gave us one Zofer tablet - we actually need a prescription for it, but the pharmacist was kind enough to give us one tablet.  This suppressed the nausea and vomiting and luckily she slept well, and on Saturday morning she ate half a toast and half an apple... But her tummy was upset and could see she really wasn't feeling herself. Then, sitting on my bed, she vomited again...  Off the sheets came for their second wash of the weekend!

I decided we should rather see a doctor - I phoned both Intercare and Medipark centres, but they could both only help us late afternoon.  Mia was all listless and really not looking good, so we decided to take her to Kloof's emergency rooms and wait for a doc there.  Thankfully the inlaws were visiting, and could stay and look after Ella for us!

The service at Kloof was really good and a doctor saw us within twenty minutes.  He examined Mia's abdomen and listened to her tummy and looked at her mouth.  He said it could possibly be an effect of the Augmentin antibiotics course we started on Wednesday, although not so much an allergic reaction to it, as the effect would have happened sooner, but just that the antibiotics that destroy all the good bacteria in the gut, agitated this virus to cause vomiting and upset tummy.  Her immune system was just really susceptible to this bug. Ai!

The doc said we could do one of two things, we give her some Rehidrate while there in the ER, in small doses every ten minutes and wait to see if she vomits again, if she does, she'll be admitted, if not, he can prescribe meds to take at home.  Other option, that she get admitted to hospital immediately to get hydration on a drip, as she was already busy getting dehydrated.  Obviously we chose to first give her fluids and see how it goes!  Thankfully, she kept it all in, after about 40 minutes of monitoring her, the doc sent us home with prescription for Zofer, and HydraChoice hydration sachets.

She did vomit again on Saturday night though, but then the medicine worked through-out the night, and on Sunday we made sure to give her the medicine at the correct intervals, and she was fine.  Her tummy has just been very gassy, not sure if it's from the medicine.  Finished the course of horrible antibiotics, have made a mental note to not give her Augmentin again in a hurry!!

I kept her home from school today to see how she is.  Luckily not vomiting, but her tummy is still a bit unsettled and gassy, and she didn't sleep well during the night, crying in her sleep and calling me a couple of times.  Poor body.

She's had a rough week, I do hope this is the turning point and that she'll be back to her happy healthy self again!
xx

Snuggles, sniffles and carnival fun!

We're all struggling a bit with sinus post nasal infections. 

On Thursday morning when I dropped Mia off at school, I told her teacher that we're all a little bit congested, but Mia doesn't have any other symptoms, but if she thinks she's sick she must just phone me to fetch her.  Less than two hours later, Mia's teacher phoned and said she's really not herself, not participating, tearful, looks like she doesn't feel nice.  I went to fetch her - and the teacher said as soon as Mia heard I was coming to get her, she was happy, playing, perfectly okay.  I think Mia heard, and understood, when I told her teacher to phone me to fetch her, and decided to make use of the opportunity!!

Nonetheless, I kept her home on Friday too, and giving her medicine to help clear her up again.  I'm also struggling with the silly post nasal drip, my voice is all croaky, and I've been coughing too.  Really don't want to go to the doctor, so hopefully the Sinupret, LocaBiotal and Otrivin nose spray meds fix me up.

Luckily Ella's not as snotty as she had been a while ago.  Sterimar nose spray, NoseFrida sucker, and few drops of breastmilk in her nostrils seems to have helped.

We set up the playmat for Ella - it was super cute, she loved it!

Ella is really starting to become more interested in her surroundings.  This is how she was staring at her big sister who was telling her a story:

On Saturday morning we took Ella to my sister's house, where my mom and sis would look after her while Mia and I spent the day in Joburg with friends.  First we went for a fun breakfast with Rox and Layla, the girlies had a blast, was so cute to see how they interacted and entertained each other, and Rox and I enjoyed catching up on each other's news a bit. 

After that we went to Imke's 5th birthday party - can't believe this little friend is 5 already, how time flies!  The party was a carnival theme, and it was just magical for all the kids.  There was a magician show too, and Mia loved it, laughed and laughed, and has been telling everyone about it - "the man had a lion, and he told the lion, let's meet the children, and the lion said, no, let's eat the children!"

It was fun to see lots of friends, and enjoyed carnival foods - hamburgers, popcorn, toffee apples and candy floss!

Sunday was such a nice lazy day, all of us in our bed in the morning, bliss.

Got a busy week this week - time for Ella's 6-week paed appointment, my 6-week check-up, and Ella's vaccinations, poor body.

Seriously can't believe it's June already, this year is going way too fast.
xx