Free Stuff

Today I had a pile of old baby stuff that I wanted to get rid of, before we move to our beautiful new home next month. I had some large things like an exersaucer, baby bath, and carseat.

There are 3 opshops in our new town in the Waikato, but I thought I would choose the one that is run by Hospice. Since my beautiful young sister inlaw died just a few months ago to the nasty old cancer, I am going to support hospice with my donations and shop there too. Plus it is right next to the bakery with nice chicken rolls and donuts, so I got lunch too.

Well, anyway, my story is. Just as I was about to walk into the hospice opshop with a big pile of baby things, a lady with a big pregnant belly walked out. I said to her "oh do you need some baby stuff". And she did. So the stuff didn't even make it into the opshop. She was pleased to get free baby stuff too!!

The funny thing was that she was parked right next to my car. She noticed the Breastmates branding on my car and asked if I was Frances. Small world huh!!

She was very pleased with the items, and I was thrilled to be able to give them away and clear some junk!!

Driving in the Country

Living here in Cambridge, we are missing McDonalds.

So it was my husbands birthday the other day, we we decided that we would drive to Te Awamutu for a birthday dinner at McDs.

So we were driving in the country, in the dark, with no street lights.

My four year old son started crying and was really distressed about the darkness. He wanted to go home. We managed to distract him.

But it was the first time that he had driven in the dark country, without any street lights. What a city slicker!!

some personal feedback that i want to gloat about

from my friend Lynny

Does your hubby realize what a fantastic wife he has, man you are so efficient online and off. So you have packed, moved a couple of hundred kms, with 2 kids and a hubby, unpacked and are back online, business as usual… all in what 4 days….. god I want to be married to someone like you lol…., WONDER FRAN…to the rescue .hehehehe

actually it was all within 2 days. then soon after the children had a tummy bug, and now they both have chicken pox so it has been a very busy few weeks!!!? what an upheavel!!

Breastmates Waikato

Breastmates is now based in Cambridge in the beautiful Waikato. It doesn't really matter where our business is based, as we still answer emails and send orders just the same as if we were back in Auckland. Though we can now provide Waikato residents with breastfeeding support, maternity lingerie, nursing bras, feeding pillows, and breast pumps etc if they want to collect them from our studio store.

Here are a few things I have noticed already about living in a small town.

The people here are so friendly, everyone on the street says hello.

There are pretty much only white people around. This is a big change from our multicultural community in Royal Oak, and makes me a little sad that my children wont mix with as many cultures. I wonder if the local preschool my children will go to will also celebrate Divaali Indian Festival of Lights like we did before? (sp)

Meat at the supermarket is a lot cheaper

I was in a shop yesterday and the till didn’t have enough cash for $15 change, so the shop owner popped to the shop next door!

Snickers Bar

Every time that I go to pick up my son, aslong as it is not raining, me and baby walk into town first. We do errands at the post office, stationary shop, and bank. Then we pop into the supermarket to get a fill up on milk, bread, coke, and something for tea. I buy my 4 year old son about 30 cents worth of pick'n'mix lollies. And I buy myself a snickers bar. These are $1.35 now. They used to always be $1.

So anyway, that must mean that I've had at least 3 snickers bar every week for the past 10 months. I know this, because its only since I've had the baby that I have walked to pick up 4 year old from preschool. And its only been a few times that it has rained.

I used to buy the snickers bar, rather than something like a mars or a crunchie, because I though the snickers had extra nutritional value and calories, due to the nuts. Which the other bars don't have. I always wanted to buy a chocolate bar that would give me the most calories.

It hasn't really helped much at all. My weight keeps falling off and I am struggling to keep it on. I don't want to be skinny, i cant help it. I dont want skinny chest and shoulder blades, scrawny arms. A drawn face. I want to be rounded, curvey, plump, cuddley. Its just not going to happen though. Even though I have tried.

I think I will still eat 3 snickers bars a week. I like routine.

Breastfeeding Photo

Here is another breastfeeding photo of me and my baby. My husband took all these great shots when my second son was 2 weeks old. We just had timed it after a feed and a bath. I decided not to use this one in my marketing though for my breastfeeding store

Looking back at this photo now, my bubs was so tiny and cute! Well he still is cute, he's just grown a lot. I should have taken more pics

Blue Eyes

The other thing that I want to remind myself about...Nearly everyone, or maybe it is everyone, who meets my kids will comment on their gorgeous blue eyes. They get these from me. They also get their gentleness from me, and they have my toes. Thats it. Everything else is an exact replica of my husband. So we have 1 Big B, and 2 mini-B's.

Here is a photo that my 4 year old took of himself. Its a great shot of his eyes. I dont know if he was blinded by the flash - but it was the only photo of his eyes that i found on the memory card

Ginga

My husband often comments on baby's hair and he says that it is red, or ginger ("ginga"). It is a light blondy colour but I do admit that sometimes it looks almost ginger, or strawberry blonde. This photo taken by my 4 year old son, confirms clearly in photographic evidence that his hair is blonde. So far.

Or he might turn out ginga like his Aunty La.

That would be okay too!

ys

Teething

So my baby has been a bit grizzly this week. No wonder, he just cut 3 teeth in a week.

I tried to get this photo, to show you how sore one of the holes looks, just wear the new tooth is poking through. Its red and looks bloody, but no blood comes out.

I am using a teething necklace for him, and I think it helps.

He has 7 teeth so far. Age 10 months.

Celebrity

Ooh Bloggy Blogness.... had a celebrity purchase something from me last week. From a TVNZ show.

So that makes 2 celebrities that have purchased from me in 2009 already.

She was very nice, and even wrote ME a message to say she had received it and she liked it.

yay me.

Hey Kath - Can you Hear Me?

So today I was chatting on the phone to my lovely big sister. She is my PR lady and writes great articles that I give out to my media contacts... we are working on a big one.....

She lives out in the whop whops in Taranaki, and never used to have interent. Now she has moved closer into town (still whop whops though) and is pleased they have internet. She said it was broadband.

Anyway, while we were chatting I asked her to check out my new Press Page on my website. It took ages to load, so we kept chatting while she was waiting for the page to load. It never did during our conversation.

So either I have a problem, or else her internet is really really slow. Or maybe it is because here in the Big Smoke our house is right next to one of the Broadband Cable Wire Box Things and that makes our connection faster.

So anyway, now that I know my sister know the address of my website http://www.breastmates.co.nz/, I wonder if she will stumble across this blog.

If so, Kath, can you please post a comment on here...

Ta

Powers of the Universe

So yesterday I was having a totally productive day. Got all the usual jobs done, then was investing some time in some new jobs. (on the computer). My gorgeous baby was with me, happy playing next to me while I worked. I can work, and sing nursery songs at the same time. Thats quite clever huh.

Then we had lunch. Then baby went to sleep. I was keen to get back to work when.... there was a power cut. Dangit!!

So couldnt get my cup of coffee.

Couldnt do all the new things that I was amping to do.

Did paper work, tidied up. Restocked shelves. cleaned desk. Tidied house. Baby was still sleeping and I ran out of things to do. Nothing to do, nothing to do.

So I lay down on my bed for a rest. First time I have done that since having a second child, its only taken me 10 months to get around to it.

And wouldn't you know. I must have been laying down for about 30 seconds when the power came back on.

I didn't know that my Powers of the Universe were so strong.

Boys

I like it that my children play non-gender specific games. Here is a photo of my two sons, playing "mums" with baby dolls. My son Angus is playing with my old cabbage patch kid, my most precious toy when I was a child. I used to think it was a shame that I dont have a daughter to pass her down too, and my neices would probably never treasure her enough, but my son treasures her!

8 weeks

Its been 8 weeks now since Allison died. It feels like forever, but then like it was only yesterday. Surely it hasnt been 8 weeks? It feels like it was all a dream, and that it hasnt really happened.

Everyone else is moving on so quickly.

Everything is cleaned out. All that remains is the cat Fluffbum.

Because she was in the UK, all her stuff was in boxes, she didnt have much stuff anyway.

Some days I think why was it her, it could have been me. It could have been Bruce. But it was her.

My husband thinks that deep deep down in her inner being, she knew she was going to die. Like ages ago, before she got sick. She never settled, she always had travelled. Maybe that was why.

I feel guilty that I am alive.

Things are moving on. I think of Lochies development in terms of before and after she died. Like jsut before she died baby Lochie had started to sit up. But now that she has been dead 8 weeks the baby has learnt to crawl.

I am sorry that she had to die.

Make me a heart

Its been about 6 weeks now since Aunty La passed away

Tonight Angus said to me, as we were looking at the moon and the stars in the twilight

"Aunty La is on a girl star aye mum?"
"she's going to make me a heart and throw it down to me, because she loves me".
"i love Aunty la mum, i like playing games with her. But she's not gonna come back so i wont be able to play games with her mum".

The hardest thing I have had to deal with, is how quickly life goes on. Everyone around me seems to be coping alright. It is so sad that there is not much left to show of her life. I got a bag of her clothes given to me from MIL yesterday. Gorgeous clothes, wonderful fabrics and stuff. Only about 2 things fit me, and are what i would wear. I never saw her wearing these clothes, and we both did love opshopping so I dont feel funny about taking them. The clothes just remind me exactly what size she used to be (big bust - the halter tops look so empty on me!) and that makes me sad when i think of the little old granny lying on the bed dying. i also got given her watches - we have the exact same size wrists. I even fasten the band on the same "hole". Though its a DKNY watch so doesnt have holes it has a fancy clip thing to fasten.

http://breastmates-nz.blogspot.com/2008/11/twinkle-star-shining-bright.html

Breastfeeding Video

I dont know if i ever did post about the breastfeeding video that I made. I spoke about making the breastfeeding video in an old blog post: http://breastmates-nz.blogspot.com/2008/10/breastfeeding-video.html

Here is a embedded feeding video that I made, and host on Youtube.

Its that noisy suckling feeding baby!

I have more ideas in the pipeline too!

Enjoy this breastfeeding video, its not a breastfeeding tutorial video, just a self recorded moment.



Return to our breastfeeding blog here: http://breastmates-nz.blogspot.com/

Breastfeeding In Public

Here is a list of all the places that I have breastfed my baby Lochie.

in hospital
at home
at the inlaws
on a plane
on the snow in Queenstown
on the snow at The Remarkables Ski Field
at my friends houses, Anna, Erina, Kylie, Mark & Bridget
at the zoo
at cafes
at the hair dressers (! bit hairy!)
in the library
during the Santa Parade
at a funeral (afterwards)
at the park on a bench
on a swing
on the decking outside
in the office while working
in bed
in a changing room at a clothes shop
in a mothering room at the shopping mall
in the car

Click here to return to my main breastfeeding blog http://breastmates-nz.blogspot.com/

Or click here to view my shopping website for sexy maternity lingerie and breastfeeding maternity stuff online http://www.breastmates.co.nz/

Breast Changes during Pregnancy

Here are a few observations of mine, how breasts can change while you are the reproduction phase of your life.

1. Getting pregnant. The first few weeks, like before you might take the pregnancy test, you may have sore and tender breasts.

See our related post for when to fit a maternity bra: http://breastmates-nz.blogspot.com/2008/11/when-to-fit-for-maternity-bra.html

2. Around 14 weeks pregnancy, or so, breasts seem fuller. This size continues throughout your pregnancy. Some people go up a size, most dont.

3. During pregnancy, still experiencing fuller breasts.

4. Towards the end of baby gestation, around 30 weeks + you might notice your breasts seem to have a lot of veins, alot more visible veins. Milk ducts.

5. Labour. Nothing changes really. Birth, and initial breastfeeding. Feed baby the colostrum. Might be sore nipples getting latching correct. Strange that there is colostrum there and ready for baby to drink.

6. A few days after giving birth, you may have the WHOA effect! Breast engorgement when your breasts seem to feel HUGE. They will be full, heavy, very sore! Your nipple may feel tiny compared to this huge swollen breast. This is when your milk comes in, and you now have to get baby to drink it. Argh the relief when baby latches, drinks, and empties the breast.

7. A week or so after birth, after the milk supply settles, breasts will be back at the pregnancy size. Fuller than pre-pregnancy.

8. After you have been breastfeeding for a few months, your breasts will usually return to the pre-pregnancy size even though you are still feeding. You will nolonger feel like you have full breasts, and many mothers worry that they dont have enough milk, as they nolonger have the full feeling. This is just because your body is used to it, and your baby's needs.

9. Unfortuantely, when you stop breastfeeding, your breasts may seem a lot smaller. Less perky. More sagging. You should try to find pushup moulded cup bras, chicken fillet bra inserts, and a correctly fitting bra.

10. boob job. :-)

Return to our main breastfeeding blog


See also: When to fit a maternity bra, Maternity Bra Fitting, Sexy Maternity Lingerie

Shopping Online & Christmas Hours

We will be open and checking orders during the Christmas holiday season (except Christmas Boxing and New Years days).

Orders will be dispatched on working days.

For some items that may not be available for packing in our studio, the items will be sent during the first week of January. But we will email you after we receive your payment to let you know the status of your order, and expected delivery.

We will be a bit slower to respond to emails, as we will be having some family time too. Allow 24 hours for a reply.

Visiting hours may be different to normal operating hours, it will really depend on whether we are home or having some fun with our kids.

This is me and my boys photographed on Christmas Day. Santa and the reindeer had put up the swing set on Christmas eve! The reindeer even left foot prints on the deck while they ate the carrots. The swings have been a big hit!

Return to our Breastfeeding Blog

Bottle Feeding Tip #2

A tip if you are trying to get baby to drink from a bottle.....Tip #2:

Keep calm.

A good way to keep yourself calm is to sing. Personally I like singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I keep calm over the crying. Baby is not happy at the sight of the bottle. Even though its yummy.....