Christmas Traditions- Aussie Style

Now, I had to title this entry "Christmas Traditions- Aussie Style", but that being said, I'm sure our Christmas Traditions aren't hugely different to many other countries, especially being that dear Hubs is American.
Now that we have a little one to share the holidays with I was kind of excited, some may say a little ambitious about the 3 gazillion new Holiday Traditions I wanted to start up so Hudson could experience them all.. it was like as soon as I discovered a new tradition I Had To Have It. Eventually I culled the myriad of ideas I had, and we were left with the following:

1. Christmas on the Island- Yes, my parents live on an island.. So we treck over to the island for Christmas Day. We have croissants for breakfast, and in the sweltering heat we have turkey and ham for lunch, but sides are things like salads, a special cold spaghetti salad that Mum makes only during Christmas. There are prawns and seafood and dessert is usually something like Pavlova (an Australian dish) or trifle. Neither of which I am a huge fan. Give me chocolate any day!


Pavlova- basically a meringue topped with cream and fresh fruit



2. A New Christmas Ornament Each Year- I like the Hallmark ones. When we first got our cat-child, we got a little fishbowl ornament that you can put a photo in. When we got (ha, kidding) our real child, we got a very cute baby booties ornament that has 'Baby's First Christmas' on it. Some say tacky, I say cute!



Obviously the ones we have say 2011...



3. New Christmas PJ's- starting this year, so far just for Hudson. When I suggested it to Hubby, he was all "I already have enought Pajamas".. geeze, ok.. bah humbug!

4. Personalised Santa Stockings- They are so cute! I got one for each of us (and shhh, a blank one for the next addition to the family to be stored until needed!), they each have our name embroided across the top. Santa stockings are always opened first on Christmas morning. My parents used to give them to my brother and I to open first when we were up at like 4am, and my parents were still trying to snatch a few more hours of sleep.

5. Milk and Cookies Left Out for Santa: I don't think this is hugely original or anything. But I did manage to buy a really cute little milk and cookies plate & matching cup. I don't think we'll use it until Hudson is a bit older, but it's still cute.

6. Christmas Puzzling: Who doesn't love a good puzzle? Oh right, most people. Ok, well Hubs, myself and a few friends love doing a good puzzle while sitting around listening to Christmas Carols and eating Tim Tams (a delcious chocolately Aussie cookie). I prefer cool puzzles (can puzzles be called 'cool'? Really?) where you don't know what the picture is, or the murder mystery types. This year we're doing a "Wasjig" Christmas Puzzle.

So, those are just a few Christmas Traditions we're doing this year. I'm sure I can sneak another two or three in, any ideas for me?

Back on the Wagon

Well, last night was a little bit hideous to say the least. Hudson slept really well from 6.30pm until 2am, but then he woke for a feed (normal) and after that kept waking up as I think he was having some tummy pain, poor thing. Needless to say Hubby and I are pretty exhausted today and looking forward to an early night. My husband is an absolute star when it comes to getting up in the middle of the night. I am the designated feeder for those middle of the night feeds and hubby is the designated settler/ dummy plugger for those other times when Hudson wakes. He also gets up when Hudson wakes between 5-6.30am (Hubs gets ready for work then) and lets me sleep until 7am. I just wouldn't be able to do it without my husband!!

Anyway, so I weighed in this morning and after a pretty crappy week of eating, being sick and only going to the gym once I was still down 0.6kgs (1lb). I was amazed.
This also puts me at exactly my pre-preggo weight, but still leaves 3.4kgs until I reach my goal of 60kgs.
This morning I'm meeting my good friend at the gym for a workout while we put our babies (she has a 6 month old also) in the creche for an hour. I'm always so nervous to leave him there, but I know it's good for both him and I to get used to it.
I'm also going to be much stricter with my eating this week- time to get back on the wagon!

Updates.. Weight, Trip and Baby #2

Ahhh! It's been too long since I've updated. In a nutshell here's what's happening:
1. I am still doing WW online.. I got below my pre-preggo weight, but then we went on a trip to the US to see family and I managed to put on a little weight. This week I have been sick and lost all motivation to eat healthy, so tomorrow I am back on the wagon!

2. Hudson is 6 months old! He is just such a good, sweet little boy and I am loving this age. No, he is still not sleeping through the night, but on further investigation I found only 1 baby out of 8 at my mothers group is sleeping through! So that made me feel a little better.

3. We have been talking about #2! Yes, already! We're definitely not trying any  time soon, but we don't want the age gap to be too big so we are trying to plan things out.

Weigh in Day

Ok, so last week I would definitely say I was not 100% perfect. I had a baby shower, so I ate a cupcake or 2, I also had a mini pizza for lunch one day, a cocktail on Saturday night and I didn't do a scrap of exercise over the weekend (I was feeling pretty sick on Sunday). Anyway, I still did stick to my points allowance, but I only managed to lose 200g (that's half a pound folks!) Arghh. I think I get allocated too many points per day as I have extra points as a 'breastfeeding mother', but because I am both breastfeeding AND formula feeding I feel I have too many points. So, I turned that feature off this morning and I am back on the straight and narrow! I also plan to start jogging in the afternoon- goal this week is 3 days. I was planning on jogging today, but after a terrible nights sleep and still feeling a little sick, I'll leave it until tomorrow.
So weight loss this week: 0.2kgs
Weight until goal: 5.2kgs
Total weight lost: 3.8kgs

Weight in #4

Hi all,
It's Monday morning, time to weigh in! I was extremely happy to see I had a decent loss of..*drumroll*
This weeks loss: 1kg (2.2lbs)
Current Weight: 65.4kgs (144lbs)
Goal Weight: 60kgs (132lbs)
Weight until goal: 5.4kgs

According to Weight Watchers Online I have lost 5% of my body weight (yay!) and I have only 0.4kgs (about a pound!) until my personal mini goal of 65kgs. I have decided I will buy myself a new pair of jeans when I hit 65kgs. Surely it's time to ditch the maternity jeans for once and for all?!

So, I have been a little bit slack with my blog the past week. This is mainly because I've been SO tired! Why so tired? Well, little did I know, this thing exists called 'The Four Month Sleep Regression'. So that decent little sleeper you thought you had goes out the window! We went from maybe 1-2 wake ups per night, to around 6 or so wake ups per night (waking up every hour from around midnight or so!). And also instead of waking at around 7am like he used to, he decided that 5.50am was going to be his 'wakeup' time. Um no.
Oh my! So exhausted!
Thankfully Hubby was just as commited as me (if not more so!) to getting up and soothing our little guy back to sleep. Unfortunately, crying it out does not work in any way for Hudson. Seriously. So every time he woke, it just meant one of us getting up and giving him his pacifier or rocking him back to sleep.
Last night was the first night in about a week and a half where he only woke up twice and slept in until 7.15am (never thought I'd consider 7.15am a 'sleep in'!).
So, I am feeling much more refreshed today! Yippee! I hope we're onto something here.

I have such a full week planned this week. Today I have got to organise a few things for a baby shower I am throwing on Wednesday, as well as meeting a friend for a walk with our bubs this afternoon. I've got Mum coming over tomorrow, lunch with friends, the baby shower, mothers group and coffee with a friend. So all in all, a busy week! Love it!

Hubby and I have also pretty much decided that we WILL be flying to the US this November to see his family and go to a friends wedding. We'll also be there for Thanksgiving which is awesome! Still have a million things to do to make it official though, including passports for Hudson (US and Australian), booking flights and a few other things. If we do go, I know I pretty much plan on stocking up on all my US favourite items while I'm there.. I'll post more about that in another post :)

Weigh in #3

I weighed in on Monday, but forgot to post about it! I am down another 600g (1lb) which doesn't seem like a huge amount, but I am taking the 'slow and steady' approach for sure. I have been sticking to the Weight Watchers Online plan, still eating a little bit of chocolate each day, I had takeaway on Saturday night- but just made healthy choices. I have also been walking each day. So as you can see, I'm not going nuts, I'm just being sensible and taking it one week at a time. As long as I lose at least 500g each week, I am happy. If I lose less than that I am going to have to start thinking about what additional exercise I can fit in. No easy feat with a 3 (and a half!) month old!|
So, total weight loss: 2.6kg (5.7lbs)
Which puts me at: 66.4kgs
Weight to lose until goal: 6.4kgs

A Day in the Life (with a 3 month old!)

I have read a couple of these 'Day in the Life' entries lately and thought I would write one.
So, here we are.. a day in the life of yours truly with a 3 month old baby. How times have changed since before I had a bub.

7.00am- This is the time Hudson usually wakes up. Hubby is always up at 6am getting ready for work, so he brings Hudson in to me at 7am where I feed him in bed. (Can you tell I'm not a morning person!). This morning however Hudson let me sleep in until 7.30am which was amazing!
Hubby leaves at 7.30am for work.
After I have fed Hudson, he has some time on his play mat where I get the joyus task of pumping (Hudson is a fussy feeder so I have to combo feed him).
8.15-8.30am- Hudson goes down for his morning nap. This is his longest nap of the day, so it's go time for me as soon as his little peepers are closed!
I make the bed, then hop in the shower (I take our video monitor with me so I can keep an eye on him), get dressed, throw some makeup on and do my hair (ponytail is as good as it gets these days).
9.00am- I come downstairs and put on NBC's Today show, so I can pretend I'm still in the US. hehe.
Breakfast time. Toast & tea. While I'm making my breakfast I am multi tasking and making up Hudson's bottles for the day (like I said, I am both breast and bottle feeding as Hudson is a very fussy feeder. It takes a lot of effort and work to do both, but I think it's worth it.).
9.15am- I check my emails, blogs, ebay listings, facebook etc while eating my breakfast. I also might write a blog entry and update my weight watchers food tracker (which I also do on my iphone throughout the day).
This morning I am also ordering a few things online for a baby shower that I am organising for a good friend and checking my work emails (ewww!) because I have to put in my teaching preferences for mid next year.
10.40am- I am currently marvelling at how Hudson is still napping and that I have only had to run upstairs once to put his dummy (pacifier) back in! Unpack dishwasher. Look up flights to LA for November.
10.55am- The small fry has woken up. I run upstairs, grab him and bring him downstairs for a feed. I feed him and change him and then we're off to a friends place. I usually like to see friends or run errands around this time.
11.30- Arrive at my friends place. She has a baby the same age as Hudson. So we have a tea, the babies 'play' on the mat while we chat and then we head off for an hour long walk in the forest with the bubs.
2.00- Arrive home. Feed Hudson. Because he hasn't really napped while we've been out (he usually has a sleep in the pram- but not today!) I put him down after his feed as I can see he is quite tired.
2.30- Hudson is napping and now it's time for this Mumma to have lunch! Finally! Cheese, tomato & ham toasted sandwich. Nom nom nom.
3.00- Hudson wakes up (arghh!) I get him back to sleep then put on a load of laundry.
3.15- Hudson wakes up AGAIN (this is what happens when you have a child addicted to the dummy. It falls out, he wakes up and so on). Luckily he immediately falls back to sleep as soon as it's back in. But I have a feeling it's going to be one of those afternoons!
3.30- After going upstairs AGAIN, I end up bringing him downstairs to go in his swing and chill out, as I think nap time is well and truly over. He doesn't nap anymore, so I play with him, read to him and he plays on his play mat for a while. We do some tummy time too. Got to strengthen those muscles!
4.30- We head off in the pram to 'pick up' Hubby from the bus stop. It's a bit of a walk, which I really like getting in each day! On our walk home we always catch up on what happened during the day.
5.30- Hubby spends a bit of time playing with Hudson while I fold laundry.
6.00- Hudson's bed time routine begins. Hubby gives him a bath, feeds him and gets him to sleep while I'm downstairs washing and sterilising bottles and getting dinner ready. We're having pasta tossed with chicken, basil and roasted vegetables. Yum.
6.30- Shower time for me! Ahhh! Complete bliss. No looking at the monitor because Hubby is doing that. I take my time!
7.00-9.30 Dinner, TV, cleaning up the kitchen and general relaxation.
9.30- I wake Hudson for a 'dream feed'. Then I pump for the following day.
10.00- Hudson is back in bed.
10.15- Bed time for me! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz