A month of events (the good, the bad and the ugly!!)

Well we started August off with Dominic's 3rd Birthday. We took the family to Alma Park zoo with my Mum, Col and Sean, Donna, Bethany and Joshua. We had a great day!!! The birthday boy enjoyed the baby crocodile the best. The day after this trip we took the kids to the Brisbane Ekka for our annual trip. The kids had an absolute ball, and wanted to get there specific showbag at the beginning of the day so we told them, they had to carry it all day and they did. Kade got the Barbie Diamond Castle bag, Dominic got the Transformers bag and we got Nate Elmo. They scored more bags later in the day. We saw everything there was to see, Kade and I did the girly thing and went to the fashion parade which i had booked tickets on line so we got front row. We finished the day in the arena watching night events and the fireworks. We figured out a way to get Nic to watch them and took earmuffs for him. I'll post some pics................ We also went for a trip to the Gold Coast and stayed at the Paradise Resort. Great place to stay with kids, very child friendly....Kids went to Kids zone for their free session at dinner till bedtime, so we got dinner without them LOL We had buffet breakfast the next day too.......... I have continued to do more markets.. The headbands and clips have proven popular. My november market will be for dolls clothes only as they are proving popular getting closer to Christmas..............I also HAVE A WEBSITE....... I'm very excited to actually be doing this myself (thanks to my brother-in-laws help, thanks Ant)... my website address is www.flutterbydollcreations.com it is a work in progress but by next year I should have it up and running to start taking orders between markets........................Nate has been growing in length rapidly but not putting on much weight, so we have started him on solids. He is LOVING his vegies for lunch and rice cereal with fruit for dinner. He put on 200gms in one week and can already swallow without problems!!!! Kadence is super keen with learning about calendars, dates etc at the moment and we have a magnet calendar on the fridge we do every morning. She is also learning to write her name..... I have printed out her name to practice in dot and outline font....Thanks for the idea Suzanne!! She is loving it.....We also picked up her school uniforms and had orientation this month too. She will be going to Narangba Valley next year, and looks super cute in her uniform.....especially the formal dress (navy blue with royal blue check (similar to tartan - not small check)..... so cute!!!!! We have added 3 chickens to the Tunney household and they don't mind the kids picking them up, they are from Henny Penny at preschool (we are worried now that one may be a rooster), and Colin has scored a new job YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! he started a fortnight ago, deisel mechanicing for business that has up to 150 trucks in the fleet. It is the same pay as truck driving at this stage but will increase after his probation period.......so in two months time we should be back on track FINALLY!! with my word for 2009 being FAMILY it has been proven to me so much already this year, the importance of good family and friends around you and the importance of my family pulling closer together in times of crisis and getting through it!
Now for the bad,,,,, we have spent the last 7 weeks with illness one after the other. Dominic had ear infections, Kade had a 24 hr bug that returned, then had a diarrheoa bug last week. Nate had a cough for weeks and the doc suspected whooping cough but luckily it wasn't. I have suffered from sinus headaches for 5 weeks and after a fortnight of anti-biotics my headache is finally subsiding. My k9 baby Skye Blue got a paralysis tick when we went camping and almost died, luckily they found it in time and we have now had to change her meds for Addisons disease due to lose of weight, and she has stomach ulcers (so more tablets) from the meds for her AD so now has more tabs to take and they made her throw up for 24 hrs..................Please a month with no illness in the house would be great!!! How can one family all go down in a heap all at once!!!

Now the ugly,,,,, We had our washing machine break last week and the water was flowing for a while and went down the hallway and all through the kids rooms. This ended in 3 children sleeping in our room, the older two on camping mattresses on the floor and the baby in the portacot. The carpets were ripped up and industrial blowers under the carpets for 4 days.........Thank goodness for house insurance........positive thing is I now have a new fisher and paykel 7kg top loader washing machine that works like a front loader and is super cool!!! and the kids carpets are super clean LOL.... The other ugly for the month is Colin's dad has been diagnosed with Bone Cancer. So as he starts the chemo and mountains of meds road, we are helping him and Col's Mum out around the house so he can do the one thing he is allowed to do REST, REST, REST...........If his body responds well to treatment, he will go into remission and be ok........any prayers for him would be appreciated........We pray every night that he will respond well to treatment and be well again.
Well it has been a full on month and I'm hoping that the coming months bring more of the happiness, healthiness and money (rather than the opposite of last month) for my family, immediate and extended.......
I still need to nut out that sling too.........just need the time to get it done HA, HA....3 kids and a hubby on night shift doesn't allow for much Mummy time xxx

To Market, To Market!!!! and water safety week.

The last two weekends have been spent doing my usual market stalls. I have been a stall holder at the Good Buy Baby market at Morayfield and The Baby and Kids Market today, at Nudgee. I am very pleased with the result of selling $150 worth last weekend and $240 at todays market. I am just selling off the kids clothes they have grown out of, unwanted toys, shoes grown out of and dolls clothes. I price everything fairly cheap $5 an outfit or $1 to $3 a piece. The better quality stuff I sell for $10 an outfit or cheaper. I enjoy meeting new people, new babies and chatting with other stallholders. Today I had two lovely ladies next to me that helped hold Nate while I set up and while the market was on. My good friend Jodie booked the stall for me and she did well today too, and her friend Bec was a lifesaver getting me a drink and something to eat halfway through. Thanks Jodie and Bec :)) I managed to score some clothes at the end for Nate from the lovely lady behind me that didn't want to take all her leftovers home LOL;)) I'll upload a photo of my stall. Today I added some girls headbands and hairclips. Inspired by my friend Suzanne, I purchased a yo-yo maker for $9.95 and a six pack of headbands that came with 4 pairs of clips aswell for $2.00. I played last night and used the buttons, material and flowers from Mum for scrapbooking that I got for christmas and this was the result. I was very pleased with how they turned out and might purchase the bigger yo-yo maker as well. The little one is perfect for the clips. I'm not sure what price to put on them????? what do you guys think?? price for headband?? price for pair of clips?? comments appreciated.


My imported dolls clothes from America continue to be very popular and i sold two outfits and 4 pairs of shoes today (and only had a handful of things on display). My next market is in September at Eatons hill (half stall for preloved clothes, half stall of doll clothes). My next challenge is to make a sling like mine before this market.........................I've had quite a few requests for one and I'm hoping to figure it out this week. I'll let u know how I go. Today was also Nate's first time in the walker. He loves sitting up and playing so LOVES the walker and the kids love pushing him around, and he loves watching them play. He still has tummy time and playtime in the jungle tent everyday but cooking dinner is a little easier with him happy in the walker. He's still not keen on the jolly jumper. Nate started the all important swimming lessons last week too. He is the first of my 3 kids not to scream all lesson. He enjoyed it actually :)) Kade and Nic had water safety week last week, so had to do their swimming lesson in their pyjamas. Their teacher suggested getting them to swim at the beginning of each summer with some clothes on. Great idea because the kids realised on Tuesday how much harder it is to swim fully clothed. Enjoy the pics!!!! and comments on prices for headbands and clips appreciated!! Thanks;)

TOY SALE and MOVIES!!!!

Well, we braved the toy sale again for another year and it was all done within an hour. My great friend Katie was my partner in crime again. (Thankyou xxx) While I also had two other wonderful friends Leeann (with Wade (my Godson) and Parker) and Lesley (and her daughter Sally) come to stay at my house for the week from Nanango. to do their toy shopping too. (Thankyou xxx) Lesley was kind enough to offer to look after Nate for me while we shopped. We have secrets to our madness which I'm not sharing (Sorry;(( but our military mission toy sale begins on Wednesday and finishes an hour after the shops open on Thursday. I dropped the kids off super early (6:30am) at kindy and preschool with their breakfast in hand, and proceeded to the shops by 7am to be lined up first at the door at 7:15am. We knew what we wanted and grabbed everything by 8:15am (thanks to Sally who was our bodyguard for the toys), after the shop opened at 8am. Luckily, Katie my speedy gonzales grabbed the only two plug and play cars games in the shop or we would have missed out as all K-marts didn't get many. After K-mart we proceeded to Big W for the rest of the list then we enjoyed a well earned cooked breakfast and large coffee!!!! All birthdays and Christmas pressies done for another 12 months. It sounds like a military mission to do every year but secretly we all enjoy the thrill of it:)) and the bargains are way TOO GOOD to pass up - only way we afford all the pressies;-)
I have also been shopping the Winter clearance sales and have picked up some bargains for neices- Jayda and Ruby aswell as Nate. Myer were having 25% off the marked down price and Target have some great bargains at the moment too.
Our other big event this month was taking the kids on a Surprise!!!! We took them to the shopping centre telling them we were going to a surprise. We got about 5 metres from the cinema entrance before Kadence clicked and said "Are we going to the movies????" when we said yes and we thought you'd like to see Ice Age 3 we had 2 verrrry excited children jumping up and down in the trolley. They were awesome in the movie and enjoyed the whole thing. We shared a large popcorn together and had water bottles. It was cheap Tuesday so cost $30 all up with popcorn. We usually have "movie" night together on Saturday night with the family movie on TV, we dim the lights and have popcorn after dinner, the kids will understand our family movie experience at home a lot more now. Nate continues to grow and has grown out of the 000 sleep suits I have borrowed for him. My good friend, Suzanne, has suggested a heater in his room instead of laying out more money for sleep suits or sleeping bags, so I will try that tonight. Nate has started waking up every night around 2am only once a night and feeds then goes back to sleep. But I'm thinking he is getting cold!!!! Our beautiful daughter Kadence also competed in her first Eisteddford. She got wonderful comments, danced a solo by herself on stage, some girls in her competition were 6years old (Kade is 4years old), she got 67 points and 1st place got 82 so she did really well. Some updated pics of the kids................and our movie adventure. Mummy is hoping Nate will LOVE the jolly jumper because preparing dinner will be so much easier then ;) The one of Nate falling is a classic shot of his fear face LOL

Biggest morning tea and Photos!!!

On Wednesday I went to the Biggest morning tea with Suzanne and her sister Nicole and met their Mum there (and Nate of course, who follows his milkbar LOL). It cost $5 to get in and was a great morning of coffee, treats and a huge auction. There was also a raffle which we all won a prize or two (Lucky Suzanne and me!!). I won a $40 meat voucher which was such a blessing. I got a whole frozen chicken, steak/cheese wraps, marinated lamb chops, mince, chuck meat for casseroles and gourmet rissoles for my vouchers. This will save us money in the groceries this week. Thanks for a wonderful morning Nola and girls:))
I spent yesterday with my great friend, Suzanne, who took some wonderful photos of me 38 weeks pregnant with Nate. She then followed up by taking some photos of Nate at 4 weeks. I went to her house yesterday morning to edit some to send to a newsletter for publishing, and to finally get Nate's birth announcement underway. Well, her sister Nicole was really sick (hope u feel better soon Nic!!!). So Suzanne had her son Carter and neice Lucy, then I had Nate and Dominic joined us after doing gymnastics with Daddy in the morning. So by lunchtime we had 4 kids under roof and still nothing done LOL We do chat way too much when we are together though!!! Not a good productive combination but I loved catching up. So after lunch they all went down for a sleep and we had Nate's birth announcement almost complete, then Suzanne went to pick Mackenna up from school. I rang my Mum and she picked up Kadence for me on her way home from work and dropped her off to Suzanne's house so I could keep working on the photos. (Thanks Mum:)) So now we have 6 children in the house and not being very productive still around food, toilet trips and nappy changes. We took the kids to Maccas for dinner and they were playing in the playground (getting rid of some energy;) when it started pouring rain! so after they got a little stir crazy in the restaurant we took them home and 40 minutes later, my two were picked up by Colin, cause work was cancelled for him when it started raining, and Suzanne's neices and son went to bed. Child free finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After we got rid of all the children it only took 3 hours to complete what we had tried to accomplish in 8 hours LOL. Here is some of our all day work yesterday! I can take NO CREDIT for these shots or editing, it is all the wonderful work of Suzanne. (I hope u don't mind me sharing some Suz!)

****The *MAGIC* six week mark****

We have made that *magic* six week mark third time (and last time) around with a newborn in the house. I'm feeling great. Had my six week check up today and my tummy muscles have almost completely meshed together which means NO OPERATION!!!! yeah!! I have to wear my belly band thing for another 4 weeks and get my muscles checked in 3 months. Nate had his 6 week pead check up and he is all good too!! He marked his 6 weeks with a gift for us all.
He started smiling at 4 weeks but now we see it almost daily. He cracks the kids up with his cheeky smiles. It was kinda sad to say goodbye to Dr Vilaseri Tuicolo today, after he has looked after me through 3 pregnancies. I got photos of him with the kids for Nate's journal which one day I will get time to do. Dominic has started to toilet train and is already trained for nights but not for days. He tells me as its running down his legs at the moment but we are getting there. He sleeps all night without an accident and goes to the toilet first thing in the morning. Dominic has also blessed me with his first "boy bug" moment. I came home last night to a gecko in an insect catcher and he was very excited to show me, before we let his little friend go again outside. LOL. All these moments I have to look forward to with two boys in the house!!!!

Returning to normality finally:))

Well after my baby boy turns 5 weeks and my daughter suffered with the MEASLES for a week. Yes she has been immunised but she got a strand of measles that isn't, a fever and rash and gone in 4 days. Lucky for everyone we hadn't gone anywhere for those 4 days and stayed at home. Lucky for Nate he is breastfed and didn't get them either. I had a wonderful friend come and capture my baby boy in some gorgeous photos, Thanks Suzanne ;)) I now have to pick some for her to edit and everyone will finally receive a birth announcement photo. We had our first BBQ get together on May long weekend and it went really well - 10 adults and 6 kids and we fit perfect under the patio area. Nate has grown 3cm in length and 2cm in head circumference but only 500gms in weight. He is definately going to be the BIG little brother LOL!! I have to find time this week to get a photo scrapbooked for Dr Tuicolo for our 6 week check up next week. The three kids are getting their hands moulded next week too. I had a lovely first mothers day of THREE munchkins. They were soooo cute running to me with their smiley faces and HAPPY MUMMY'S DAY!! I scored chocolate, Ronan keating cd, DVD, new nickers (I requested for after pregnancy LOL), and a new bead for my pandora bracelet. We had lunch with Col's Mum and Dad which was lovely and great to spend some time with them and Col's Aunty Lesley. Then home for my Mum and Col to come over for dinner, while colin went to work. I actually got to eat dinner at the dining room table with my children and at the same time as them. Thanks Col for holding my baby boy!!! He loves his cuddles. Nate is a snuggle bunny. Then my wonderful Mummy washed up for me as our kitchen tap needs a plumber to look at it to fix it, and no tap means no dishwasher. So Thanks MUM!! you know how much I love to handwash things (not!).
Nate has also started sleeping for a 5-6 hour stretch at night so I'm feeling rather Human! I'm surprised by how easy the third one fits in. He is awesome and Kade and Nic are awesome with their patience and easy going attitude to Mummy having a baby to look after. My finger has an awesome scar on it now and is almost feeling 100%. I had my friend Karen come to visit yesterday and stayed for dinner then helped me get the kids to bed, washed up after dinner and made me a cup of tea so I could feed Nate. WOW!! I'm sooo lucky to have such lovely friends and family and you all need to know that I feel very appreciative. :))
I have a baby and kids market this weekend at Nudgee College and I'm selling last winters clothes on Ebay, and purchasing kids clothes for winter next year for all three of them. This is my way of helping out with the budget. I recycle the money from the stall and ebay sales to buy the clothes etc for the kids that we need and usually at BARGAIN prices.
So next week is our magic 6 week mark for Nate and I and we are all doing really well. FINALLY!! I'll include some pics of the Easter presents i made teachers - the last chance I've had to do anything arty/crafty.

My horrible first weeks home from hospital continues

I just want to go back to my wonderful hospital stay and start again I think.....Well, the thrush is gone and breastfeeding is going really well and Dominic finally is over his mouth ulcers when Kadence wakes up this morning with............. you guessed it mouth ulcers, so now she is on antibiotics for the week and another week of no preschool. Nate continues to be a perfect baby whisperer book baby and is on a 3 hour Eat, Activity, Sleep, You time routine, with his big sleep being after lunch same time as Nic's big sleep and I am going to start dream feeding him tonight as he has started doing a 5 or 6 hour stretch at night already, so Mummy is going to move it to a bit later so it coincides with me going to bed. Nic has finally taken notice that there is a baby in the house and gave Nate his first cuddles and kiss this morning. Not the best pics yet but I got some. Col is fine and is back at work. He is on night shift this week which means I have him home in the afternoons which gives me time to prepare dinner and he baths kids before work. NOW for me, well the breastfeeding is fine, still that first couple of sucks is tender but the nipples will toughen up eventually. I have almost mastered feeding Nate laying down already and he is only 2 weeks old. But last Thursday was my first day home with 3 children and I thought i'd be really clever and put the slow cooker on at lunch so Col got home to dinner cooked at six and me and the kids coping fine together. Well, our day was going really well until I chopped the cauliflower and the knife slipped. I had cut the top of my pointer finger on my left hand in a big v cut on the top section and it bled profusely. While i held pressure on it and called Col to come home from work and the ambulance to come get me as I was feeling really dizzy, the kids offering me water and asking "are you ok mummy?" Luckily Nate was in his long sleep and not demanding a feed. The ambulance took me and Nate to hospital and I got 6 stitches in my finger. The locals hurt more then the actual cut. When the doctor told me that it is going to hurt for the coming week but I could safely take panadeine for the pain, I asked how much it would hurt compared to birthing a 9 pound baby last week and 4 stitches in my bits. He told me it wouldn't hurt THAT much. WEll, it hasn't and I have managed to look after the kids with it and lots of surgical gloves to keep it clean and dry. Stitches come out on Thursday. Ok, I have prayed now and told God that I am done with doctors, chemists and hospitals I will promise to slow down and please get Kade better so we can just start again next week on a normal schedule. I have to laugh at the last two weeks since I got home because if I don't i'll just cry!!!:)) On a happier note I have managed to figure out how Nate fit in my belly - check out the belly mask photos!!:)) even though he was actually head down, bum up but he wouldn't lay still for those photos and his legs weren't tucked in.

Introducing Nate!! Long post

Well, I type this as my baby boy turns 1 week old already and I can't believe I was in labour this time last week. Last Sunday after two lots of accupuncture and still no movement in the station I was discussing my concerns with Col about having to be induced if I made it to Wednesday. I had an appointment booked with my ob who came back from Hong Kong, on Monday 6th April. He had told the baby to wait till he got back to be born but I never expected the baby to be LATE, after one being on the day and the other being a week early. But to my relief my baby boy decided at 3:15am to start his move, I had a "show". I woke Colin up and told him he wasn't going to work cause we were going to have a baby in the next 24 hours. My contractions were all over the place all morning and by 11am I'd had enough of them not progressing. So Col and I got the kids and dogs and walked to the BP service station for milk and back home. It worked!! after lunch my contractions were 9 minutes apart for an hour I was sitting on the pilates ball and leaning onto a chair, so I rang Dr Tuicolo and asked him if I needed to still see him. He said to stay at home and he'll see me in the labour suite later that night. At 3:30pm I asked Colin to call his Mum and Dad to come look after the kids. I was now in the bedroom leaning onto pillows on the bed watching TV. My contractions were 5 minutes apart when they arrived at 4:30pm but if I got up and walked around they got to 3 minutes apart. They were still manageable but were getting closer. We left for NorthWest Private Hospital and I arrived just after 5pm telling my midwife Tracey that I wasn't sure if we were too early. She checked me and I was 4 1/2 cm dilated so I was staying. Colin rang Mum to come to the hospital as she was videotaping the birth for me. I laboured mostly in the shower sitting on a pilates ball and having one nozzle on my back and one on my belly, but standing and swaying my hips for the contractions. After the shower just wasn't comfy anymore I moved to kneeling on foam at Col's feet. Tracey kept coming to check on me. I then moved to leaning on the bed where my legs became jelly so Tracey and Col helped me onto the bed. I resumed the all four position which I used for Nic and found it easier to deliver. Tracey was an AWESOME midwife and told me to push when my body told me to. So that is what I did. But after 15mins of pushing this bubba just wasn't moving. I was in labour land oblivious to everyone around me and completely fell asleep between pushes. BIZARRE feeling! Tracey felt the side lateral position was perfect for this bubba so we tried it and 2 pushes and his head was there. Dr T came in to help with the delivery and got me to stop pushing and huff/puff and little pushes when the head crowned. I then had to wait for another contraction to push the body out, the pain had gone and it felt like I was waiting for ever but at 8:24pm my baby boy was born. He was passed straight up to me and my first glance of him was amazing, I said"He's bigger then the others" He looked chubbier but sooo cute. We all took bets on how big he was, even Dr T, but we were all shocked to find I had delivered a healthy 9 pound 2 baby boy with a 37cm head. No wonder he was harder to push out!! Great labour but hard work. and perfect timing my little man due to it being Easter Daddy has managed to have Thursday through to Tuesday off work at his new job!
This week has been a challenge for us. My milk started coming in the night of day 3 along with contracting ductal thrush by day 3 from the antibiotics during labour for my heart condition and breastfeeding. I have used a combination of doctors drugs and naturopath herbal remedies to finally be almost free of it a week later. I rang my lactation consultant by day 4 who gave me a phone consultation on what to do. Thanks Jan!! Colin has done a mad dash to Woolies for cabbage leaves on day 5 for engorgement. I got a urinary tract infection on day 6 and had to send Colin for a mad dash to the chemist for Ural. Nate has had 1 night of feeding every 2 hours. 2 nights of cluster feeding from around 4 till 8pm. But last night he slept 9pm till 3am after his cluster feed, then slept from his 3am feed through to 7am. I don't mind cluster feeding if it means sleep!!!!! And worst of all my Cheeky monkey Dominic has been really sick since I got out of hospital on Thursday with a throat/mouth infection and ulcers all through his mouth.
But here we are a week later and almost have the breastfeeding sorted and I am suprisingly very calm and patient with the frequent feeding and suprisingly coping with the lack of sleep third time round, better then any other time. Maybe because I really wanted the third baby to complete my family and knew what I was getting myself into.
Nathaniel Benjamin Tunney or Nate for short
Born 6th April at 8:24pm
9 pound 2
37cm head
52cm length
5 hour natural labour