I don't care that I'm an adult - it's a bouncy castle!!!

Seriously - who the hell designed this as a "fun clown to decorate a bouncy castle"??

Really I have not much else to say. I had a lovely weekend - house stuff, hanging out with friends, going to the Indofest here in Adelaide to eat delicious Indonesian food. Funny how you can get a lot of your culture across solely from the food you eat. I had a delicious lamb curry soup with rice and thoroughly enjoyed it as well as the company of Alice and Chris and Jon and Cassia. I didn't catch up the Kate though which put a downer on the weekend but there's this week I guess!

1 month round up!

Yup it's been a whole month since Sally joined and completely upended our world!

We have something of a routine. We get up about 7am, not willingly on my behalf, and TheHusband changes her while I wake up. Then we feed, both sides so a FULL breakfast, while I eat toast and tea made by TheHusband as he gets ready for work. We take him to work if it's miserable or cold, as he otherwise rides, and check the mail. Come home, Sally has a bath in the laundry trough if required, fresh clothes are applied, more boob and then into the sling for a sleep by 9am. I put washing on, tidy up the house, make the bed - which is WAY more domestic than I usually am! - and generally hang out.

Sally wakes up about midday. We feed again, change nappy, and then she hangs out on a mat while I shower and dress. More feeding, then settle by 1pm ish for another sleep. Awake at 3pm ish, more boob and changing, then a play until about 5pm. Then more boob, and sleep til 7pm. Wake up, boob, play and change nappy and we settle into bed by 9pm ish. Feed to sleep and wake up about 1am. Feed and resettle til 4am ish. Sleepy feeding and back to sleep til 7am.

Cosleeping is the best thing, especially when it was 7C last night and I didn't have to get out of bed to feed! It is so nice to have a bubba just cuddled up to me and safe, and so easy for her to feed, which keeps me awake, and then fall asleep there and me too.

I have a long list of things to do this month:

* Finish sorting Sally's clothes
* Dye the baby clothes I don't love - black, green/blue
* Buy quinoa, virgin coconut oil, steel cut oats - from Goodies and Grains
* Make biscuits
* Cut nails
* Target voucher $50
* New jeans
* Tattoo design - engagement/marriage, and Sally
* Organise wall decoration
* File last 2 boxes in sally's room
* Sort out pay
* Do a freezer audit
* Osk's birthday present
* Book car in for service
* Sort out mobile phone
* Sell maternity clothes
* Sort out life insurance
* Replace Osk's ring (damaged at work)
* Pick up portfolio from uni
* Find Studio Oat print and hang
* ING pin

Right now, time for some tea and baking I think!

What I see first thing in the morning...

What I see first thing in the morning is… my family in our bed. My husband and my babe daughter. That's about as far as I can see without my glasses on!

The moment that changed me forever was… when I felt that first weight of my babe in my arms when I picked her up out of the water.

The most amazing thing I ever made was... the babe I am nursing at the moment.

My favourite book is… Bake by Woman's Weekly. Awesome history of cooking in Australia and great recipes.

I adore being… whole.

My perfect date would be… 8 hours of sleep.

As a blind date, I would be… overwhelming and amazing, but confident and sexy

When my style is in fashion, it will be… socks and skirts, and berets.

Yesterday I… hung out with my women friends and enjoyed being a mama.

Ads and campaigns and ignorance

I have a baby. As far as I can tell, she is perfect. She is growing, is complete and whole, and apart from the usual baby challenges (oooh boy - like "Mama should not eat peanuts or else I have an entire day of unhappies") she is normal. Whatever that means.

And I am finding it hard in some ways. It's isolating to be a new mama. I am so lucky to have an awesome community that I can draw on when I'm having the need, and that I can give back to when others need support. It's expensive with me not working, obviously, but as we're breastfeeding and cloth nappying ongoing costs are minimal.

But what if she wasn't? I don't even want to contemplate what life would be like if she had special needs at this stage. From what I know - which is very little - it is a difficult and stupidly expensive situation to be in. And to make it worse, there sometimes just aren't any answers or services or support.

All Consuming wrote about this just the other day. That some days are hard because she wants everything for her son and that's hard, and other days are hard because she wants for something little and that's hard. That is just wrong and it makes me SO angry. And so aware of the priveledge I have in creating a babe that is perfect.

But amazingly, perhaps things are changing here. South Australia State Parliament has gotten its first disabled politician and nation's youngest parliamentarian and she is one of the few to hold the balance of power!

But of course, the article missed the point. We are all disabled in comparison to the perfection that no one can be, and THAT is why disability rights and services are so important! I doubt that Kelly Vincent is the first disabled politician to sit in those seats. Disability comes in lots of forms and yes, she is perhaps the most openly identifying as disabled politician out there but mental illness, injuries, etc all affect all of us and need to be acknowledged so it stops being an "us" and "them" situation.

10 things no one told me about labour

This one is just about labour - not birth per se. But here we go!

1. It does get harder but by the time you need to focus on it being hard, you're there in the zone of labour and as long as no one points it out to you, it doesn't get Too Hard. You hardly notice that it is getting harder.
2. It doesn't just get harder. It changes. The hard bits pass. So if this moment is hard, doesn't mean the next one will be.
   
3. So it really helps to take 1 contraction at a time. And one breath at a time for that matter. Because you don't know what the next one will be like.
4. Being curious about the next one keeps you sane.
5. You may hit the point of saying "I can't do this any more". What you probably mean is that you don't want to do it any more. Which is a valid point! But you will keep going.
   
6. You will be amazed at what you can do in hindsight but at the time you won't believe that you're doing it. Go for hours without sleep. Make a lot of noise. Stand up for 12+ hours.
7. You will spend most of labour with your eyes closed so make what you can see when you open your eyes worth it. Inspirational words and poems, pictures, a candles, charms etc.
8. AND make your support people count. Only have people around who inspire love in you when you look at them.
9. You'll be down to monosyllabic conversations by the end of it, so make them count. "Water", "ice", "hot", "cold" etc etc. Your support people should know how to interpret these things and respond to you.
   
10. Your brain slows down so small conversations will take a few contractions. If that conversation is with yourself, you can take hours to make a decision. Which is great!