........we wish you a......

Its 6:35am, the house is quiet and I'm the only one up! Think I might go back to bed......

Some progress made!

Firstly I finally got some pencil cases (kinda) finished as presents for Ashlee's school friends. I still need to embroider some birdies on the front but other then that they are ready to go.


Mum - don't read from here on...........





































I was able to complete a zippered travel pouch for Mum. These pouches only take about 10 minutes and are super easy!


Lastly, nearly completed some appliquéd t-shirts for Zach and Anna. I might get around to making matching shorts/skirt but I doubt it, we will see.

Ok, kids call better go......Merry Christmas

I'm sooo ready for bed!

Up at 4am to feed Zach then back up again at 6:20am to be ready to go to the hospital. Zach was extremely hungry on rising so it was almost impossible to get anything done (while still holding him) and I ended up going to the hospital without brushing my teeth - yuck! Self conscious all day about it. Anyway, we got there about 7:30am and waited, played, got hospital tags on, blood pressure taken, temp taken, talked with the anaesthetist (sp?), played some more, got into some super trendy hospital jammies and waited some more. Went into the MRI about 9:30am. Zach didn't like the idea of laying on the MRI bed so I cuddled him while they gave him some laughing gas and he drifted off. Out I went to get something to eat as I hadn't eaten breakfast yet. Just wouldn't do it to the poor boy. I was also able to pickup my very first copy of Frankie Magazine! In the hospital store! More on that later.....

Lovely food, some time sitting in the sun and at 10:45am Zach is done and heading to recovery. Poor little man looked so small laying on that big hospital bed, oxygen mask on, fast asleep. He took a bit to wake up but when he finally came around he was fine. Had a breastfeed and was a little unhappy but after we headed up to the ward he had some juice, biscuits and a sandwich and was laughing and smiling like the old Zachary again. Bruised hands from the half dozen tries they had at finding a vein for the drip. (Apparently he has what's known as NICU veins - his veins are well prodded from his time in NICU at birth.) They ended up finding a vein in his foot so he has a little bruised foot too. All the staff were lovely but I'm glad that is over. Watching him go off to sleep against his will was a little hard. We will have to wait for the results now until after christmas and probably new years. Bad timing I guess but at least its done.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This afternoon was spent at DFO. Went there to buy christmas presents and came away with heaps of stuff but unfortunately not much of it was for christmas. By the time we got home I was ready to curl up on the couch and sleep. My back was killing me and my feet hurt. I spent most of the time carrying Zach - boy he gets heavy! Mum pushed the pram and I ended up strapping Mitch in bedside Anna just to keep him still. Didn't come away with anything for me now I think of it - out of all the 'stuff' we got! Tomorrow will be spent braving the shops again to pick up some more things for christmas. Kids in toe - maybe. Man I'm a brave woman!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On to other stuff. Thanks to Claire over at Loobylu & MixTape Zine I have discovered Frankie Magazine and I'm in love!

Photos originally uploaded by Loobylu

I spent an hour reading it while sitting in the sun outside the hospital and I must say I am hooked! Brilliant articles and bright cheery photos. Very addictive, so much so that I am even considering a subscription to this awesome mag (scrap that - I just did). Its the only way I would be able to access it - living in a VERY small town. See you all tomorrow folks!

No witty title right now

Things are a bit slow here at the moment - sorry. We are heading off to Canberra on Thursday (via Cooma for Zach's Physio appointment. We are also picking up his standing frame and a few other items) because he has his MRI on Friday (please keep us in your prayers). We - or should I say I need to be packed and ready to leave the house by 12:30pm at the latest on Thursday - I feel sooo rushed even though I started packing yesterday! I need to pick Ashlee up from school in Bombala on the way and be in Cooma by 2pm. Thankfully its only another hour or so to Canberra from there. We will be staying until about December 28th too! Looking forward to spending some time with my Mum and family without being rushed and needing to head home. Also if anyone is in Canberra and would like to catch up while we are there please feel free to drop me a line! FYI - this will be the first year we will be celebrating with Daddy......he is staying home this year.

I will have plenty of time to play some bloggy catch up, sew, craft and even get some digi scrapping done while I am away so watch out!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other news.....I have recently discovered this...

Graco Quattro Tour Duo Stroller

And quite frankly I {love} it! - It is only marginly longer then our current model, which is this one....

Steelcraft Enigma Twin 3 Wheeler Pram

And as you can probably guess is definitely narrower! I hate (with a passion!) pushing a twin pram around a shopping centre - you would not believe how many inconsiderate people there are out there! I don't really need it but it doesn't make me want it any less! I would have to sell my Steelcraft first before I would even consider buying it though.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am currently preparing for a 150th post give away too! Not long to go now!

Signing off at 11:13pm - tired, looking forward to preschool tomorrow and also doing a HUGE suck up for yelling at my dear sweet little boy tonight (feeling so guilty!). He did wake Zach up and then proceeded to make things worse - my yelling how ever woke up Anna and Daddy too! Things were settled down with in half an hour and Mitchell is now sleeping soundly snuggled up with.....Daddy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh and before I forget - Nicole - just wanted to let you know that I did get your message through facebook. Thank you for your kind words and great advice. I will get back to you very soon - things are a bit hectic. But again thank you.

Night!

Oh and ......

You can pass over this post if you want

I just wanted to put a few of my feelings down in writing and what better place then this?!

As you know we have now had our appointments with Dr Rosier (Our Paed) , Dr Lowe (Our Rehab Specialist) and most recently (On Monday) Hilary (Our new Physio from DADHC). These have all happened quite fast in the scheme of things, people usually wait 4 - 6 months plus to see these people . We have been very fortunate in that respect. Today I got the phone call from The Canberra Hospital that Zachary will now have his MRI on Friday December 19th. I guess with everything moving along and with Christmas etc I haven't really taken much time to sit and ponder but after the call today I think things started to sink in and really hit home.

'My gorgeous little boy has Cerebral Palsy'

Things started going through my mind.....'Why him?!' 'How will this effect our life?' 'How will this effect his life?' 'What would have things been like if.......'. You know those questions that we all ask ourselves at times. I know no one really has any answers to any of these at this time. Being only 18 months old it is still quite hard to predict how life is going to go and how things will pan out. After seeing Dr Lowe the feeling is that he may be 3 or more before he can walk on his own and he will have life long problems with co-ordination. This makes me sad and if I sit and think about it for to long it makes me very sad. I am now adding to the stress by thinking about the MRI. Zachary has to go under a general for the MRI because he stay very still - try asking an 18 month old to 'stay very still' at any time! I really don't like the thought of him 'going under' even for the short time it will be - what if he has a reaction? Silly I know but the thoughts are still there. What if they don't find anything? Then what? At least if they find anything then we will sort of have a concrete answer and more of an idea of the severity of things (or mildness I hope!). I have to wake him up at 4:30am and feed him because he can only have breast milk after 2am and nothing after 5am. We have to be at the hospital by 7am for admission and hopefully they get the MRI done soon after as I can imagine he is going to be very hungry! Ashlee, Mitchell and Anna will stay at my mum's as I'm not sure how long we will be there. This will be the first time Anna has gone anywhere without Zach too. How will she go?

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. On Thursday December 18th Zach has an appointment with Hilary again to do some more physio and we will also pick up some equipment that will make things a bit easier around here. A standing frame (so he isn't hanging off my legs constantly), a bath seat (because he is now to big for the baby ones and tips it over) and we are also looking into getting a weighted trolley for him to practice some walking. We will be seeing the OT (Occupational Therapist) soon too.

All these has just been on my mind and I needed to get it out so if you have read this far 'Thank You'......

Bear with me please

I'm trying to make things a little more festive around here but I've run out time right time and, well, it doesn't look right. I will be back soon to fix it up but in the mean time I hope you can still read my blog.....

Tomorrow is.....

my BLOGOVERSARY!

And I got ....... nothing.......

I have been so busy with travelling, trying to get the computer fixed, Zach's appointments interstate and his local appointments for Physio and now Anna is sick :( She has had to put it nicely yucky nappies for about 4 days now (and today I think we had gone through about 7-8 by 10am! Panadol is my current best friend and with Brett working nights this week time is very stretched) that I haven't had time to do anything! I feel really bad as I too let my 100th post pass by unnoticed too. I really wanted to be able to do something.....we can still hope for my 150th post give away though.

On Monday we had our first appointment with DADHC. It was more of an information appointment and needs assessment but in this appointment I found out that I am eligible for Respite Care for the Twins and and also HomeHelp too! These are also free of charge. I have chosen at this point to not take up the services but I am definitely keeping them in the back of mind as the kids get older. At this stage I am just treading water but able to keep up with things and I really want to keep the services for when I really need them.
Last night we also had Mitchell's Pre-school Christmas Party down at the park by the river. We had a visit from the man in the red suit who handed out pressies and sat for photos. Sadly we got rained out at about 7:30pm but we had been there since 5:30pm so the little ones had had enough anyway and we headed home to bed.

Alright Zach is trying to climb on me and Anna has just woken up, not in a good mood it sounds like, so I better head off. See you all again soon!

Eye Spy.....Something in my garden....

Since This is and On my desk have said their farewells I have been looking for something new to have fun with. Wonderful, I have come across this!

Welcome to BugandPop's new 'Eye Spy'! This week we are 'spying' something in our garden!


I'm spying the beautiful flowers of Spring/Summer. This is my first Spring/Summer in this house with this garden and I'm loving it! Everything is so alive and bright and lovely.....

Thank you to BugandPop for hosting and to CurlyPops for this weeks theme!

You may also be wondering where I have been - more on that later but just quickly it involves a computer and a mother board crash - darn computers! (but thankfully nothing was lost on the computer) On top of that because we have Vista on the laptop we had 'issues' connecting to our network so I could access the Internet - without having to be in the office. Thankfully my brother is a computer genius and he was able to sort everything out. Now just need to buy a new mother board and get my PC back!