Well we didn't find out anything about Josie at the ultrasound with the technicians refusing to give out any information. We have another appointment with the paediatrician tomorrow though and I'm assuming that if anything serious was wrong that they would have called us in earlier?

Atticus spent the day at the beach with his Nana & Great Nana & Pa rather than tagging along to the Doctors and had an amazing time. Unfortunately as I was putting away one of his dinosaurs I gave him a bit of a flick (as he was wet from playing in the beach with Atti) and managed to cop an eye full of sand. After repeated rinsing I decided that I just couldn't get it all out myself and had to head off to the Doctors the next day to have it removed. Unfortunately he couldn't get it all out either and my next step was an ophthalmologist who peeled back my eyelid and explained that the sand was gone but I'd have limited vision in my eye for the next couple of days while the scratches healed. This for a lady who can't even bear to wear eye liner as I'm so freaked by having anything near my eye balls! It was a very distressing day to say the least ... and lets hope I never need contacts.

After much moping about the house lately I decided yesterday afternoon to put Justin out of his misery and to agree to leave the kids with the outlaws and to see Spiderman 3. He was delirious with happiness and the kids behaved pretty well for their babysitters. Josie didn't drink a whole of her milk though (about 25mls) and demanded I feed her again when we returned home. I finished at 10.30pm and resigned myself to an unsettled night only to have her finally wake up for breakfast at 8.30am!!!

I've attached a pic of Atticus and his friend Carlyn taken from a play date on Friday. Seems that Atticus is now somewhat of an authority on toilet training and he was offering Carlyn some tips (and some light reading material) ;-)

A hole lot of heart ache

Had Josie's paediatrician appointment today and the Doc thinks she definitely has a hole in her heart (although he thinks it's probably an 'innocent' one) and we're off to have an echo cardiogram on Monday. The sooner that's over and we know exactly what we're up against the happier I'll be I can tell you!

Not much to report otherwise. She's officially a world champion sleeper. The last couple of nights she's slept until 8.30am!!

The bond between Atticus and Josephine continues to grow with the love between them being mutual. Atti's obsession with Dinosaurs is also reaching fever pitch. Actually it's hard to have a normal conversation with him these days as he's more often than not 'in character'. Just this morning he told me "I love you Mummy Brontosaurus". Perhaps this is a compliment? FYI - He's currently an Ankylosaurus ;-)

A bit of turbulence

Josephine had her six week check up on Tuesday and it's probably just as well that she's now on a schedule as far as her feeds go as she's put on over a kilogram in the past four weeks! She's now 4.65kgs.

The Maternal Health Child Nurse also picked up that she has a heart mumour and referred us to see our GP. Our GP confirmed this (even gave me a listen as it's quite obvious) and we're booked in to see a paeditrician about it on Tuesday. They suspect she may have a hole in there somewhere (which is a little on the terrifying side) and our GP suggested we head into the Royal Children's Hospital to get an echocardiogram and to find out for sure. Hopefully it's something that she'll grow out of but I'll certainly be breathing a huge sigh of relief when we find out exactly what's going on. Ignorance certainly isn't bliss in this case.

Just Magic!

After surviving for over a month on an average of 3 hours sleep a night we were beginning to think that the bassinette was just something to hold teddy bears. One day in the last week she only slept a total of an hour and fifteen minutes between 9am and 11pm! In desperation we finally called in the big guns! My girlfriend Vikki's Mum is a Mother Craft Nurse and she spent the afternoon with us on Monday setting up a routine, teaching us some settling techniques and basically teaching us what we'd been doing wrong.

After two days of solid crying (both from Josie, Atticus and myself) things started to change on the Thursday. All of a sudden things were very quiet ... and she was sleeping ... a lot ... like a newborn is supposed too!

I can't tell you how magic the Mothercraft Nurse's gift to us has been! Josephine now sleeps around 8-9 hours at night (with a dream feed in the middle to tide her over). Goes down at the same time as Atti at night and during the day so I'm actually getting a rest myself in the middle of the day. I can't tell you how relieved/shocked I am. It's almost too good to be true!

The result is a much happier household. It's amazing what a difference some sleep can make ;-)

The many faces of Justin ...

Like many men before him Justin used his annual leave to grow his first ever beard. The beard by itself would have been ok without the constant mutations it went through towards it's inevitable demise. Please feel free to vote for your favourite. It's now a memory ... not one I'd like to revisit again any time soon!







Please note that unfortunately it was the Mutton Chops look (last pic) that was captured forever in our Easter Sunday family photos!

Happy Easter!

4 weeks old today

Well Josephine is four weeks old today ... time really is passing in the blink of an eye. Justin and I have somehow learnt to live on little over three hours of sleep a night ... yes two kids is definitely it for us! There's been lots of coo-ing from Josie in the past week, she's obsessed with mobiles and is even able to aim for and whack them with her hands which is much more advanced than I remember Atti being at the same age. No smiles just yet but I'm sure those are just around the corner.