Over a year ago

I was a fully working woman. Gainfully employed and trying to make a difference for young people in Australia. Now I am a SAHM (stay at home mum for those who don't follow mommy blogs) and trying to make a difference in the life of one young person in particular. I suppose that if I do a good enough job she won't end up needing the services of my old oganisation so there is some synergy. I do miss the mental stimulation, especially when we are having a bit of a difficult day.

Yesterday was a difficult day, for example, with little Miss Z being upset if I walked into the next room, and generally being very grumpy and whingy all day. And she woke up at 4.30am. At least at work if things were going badly I knew how to fix them. I couldn't do anything for Miss Z aside from carry her around and take her for lots of walks. Really with all this baby related exercise I should be a lot more yummy mummy, rather than tummy mummy. Today is going well though and to celebrate I am going for a picnic and maybe going to buy myself a new bra. I have been breastfeeding for over a year now and I brought myself two nursing bras when she was a month or so and they have seen a bit of use in the past year. Maybe with my new bras I will be much more yummy mummy.










I call it the power of hot lingerie.

Getting my work on

Well it has been getting pretty good around here. Miss Z is still sleeping through, I can't believe it. All those people who said that you have to teach them how to self settle were right, damn them. I also can't believe that I spent a whole year being woken up every hour or two when she just needed her own room. She is a much happier baby with all the sleep that she is getting and her under eye circles are gone, so she is much prettier as well.

I am looking at starting my own business after my return from maternity leave went so poorly. I am hoping that someone out there will want to employ me for my mad skillz. Hey I haven't spent 9 very successful years fundraising for nothing. I have now a business name, a web domain and an ABN. Now I just need a client or two.

Life but not as we know it

Well now Miss Z is sleeping through the night, and taking nice long day naps I'm not too sure what to do with myself. I am getting really bored just hanging around the house doing housework and don't really have loads of money now I am not working. It is so hard to find things to do everyday that don't involve spending heaps of filthy lucre. As I don't have loads of mum friends in Melbourne there are large parts of most days where it is just Miss Z and me. While she is the sweetest thing her conversation, which consists of Mama, what's dat and dog, isn't really very edifying. I can't really blog very much as Miss Z loves to bang on the laptop, or just hover very close. What do other Mothers do with their time?

Miss Z's new favourite thing is getting her food and rubbing it in her hair.

Also I thought breast feeding was meant to help me loose weight, I am eating normally and walking for at least half an hour everyday but my post baby weight loss has stopped at 20 kgs. I need to loose another 5 at least. What else should I do?

Guess who is sleeping through the night! For the past five nights. Clever clever girl

Somebody in the house turns one today

My little girl is now one! I can't believe how fast (and slow) the past year has gone. She has grown from a squinty blob to a walking, talking little girl. The milestones that we were so excited about at the time, rolling over, sitting up, first smile are now vauge blurs. I can't even remember the month that she did these things. I should have written them down. I can remember days of incredible love, where I thought that I would explode from the strength of my feelings, to days where I would have happily traded her in for another baby. Preferably one that sleeps.

Our sleep training is moving along. She is in her own room now and in her cot. She is now sleeping for hours at a time and last night she settled herself twice after a brief awakening. But she is also still waking up screaming sometimes and won't go back to sleep for hours. Everything I read about sleep training they certainly never said that it would take a month and the crying has not stopped yet. But I can see that she is feeling much brighter during the day with quality sleep at night. The best feeling is when I put her to bed, with lots of love and cuddles and she just settles herself down and falls asleep. Less fun is 2.30 - 4.30 am standing on the edge of her cot, screaming her head off. I think that this time of night is hard for her because she is still tired, but has just had eight hours uninterupted sleep which is the longest she has slept since birth.

I must go and take birthday girl out for a walk. I am going to get her her first baby chino as well.