After selecting a few nice things from the very good, great, bestest bakery (do you think you should go for a trip, just to try it out?!  I think so!!!), we started driving the tourist road from Dayboro to Mt Mee.  Not quite sure what we were going to find or if there was even anywhere to stop, we finally came across the Mt Mee Lookout. 

It was a really beautiful morning, the kids were thoroughly entertained (and extremely well behaved!) by all the motor bikes and cyclists stopping in, as well as the police bike doing laps of the road.  Other than a small war memerorial with some old wreaths left over from an ANZAC day service (which Owen happily spent some time at.  And along with another friendly tourist we read all the plaques out to him), there are a few benches, a toilet and the actual lookout.  That’s it.  No play equipment, no paths to scoot on, barbed wire fences keeping the lookout-ers out of someones working property, and a bit of grass to spread out on.  And the boys were kept entertained for almost two hours!  This was mainly thanks to the Sunday bikers, but still, it was great to have them interested in something other than their usual pursuits for a time.   

Dad and the kids. Enjoying the day, the view, the food and of course, the company!

Ella, just chilling out in the top spot. It's a hard life, being almost 4 months old, you know!

Motorbikes!!!! Don't worry about the view or the cupcake, just LOOK AT THE BIKES!!!

Owen was fascinated by the info pictures showing the names of all the places you can spot from the lookout.

What you can see from one side of the lookout.

I even made it into a photo! It seems to be easy to take a nice photo with such lovely company and scenery!

Taken by Owen - just one of the many bikes that Owen and Reuben got excited over.

Anyway, instead of trying to fit in a tiny little bit of time to gather the Carter Mothers together, we all decided that postponing our celebrations until the weekend after Mother’s Day would work out much better.  And work in our favour, it did!  Mum, Jodie and I met up for lunch at the new cafe on top of Mt Gravatt (delicious!) and then spent a leisurely afternoon browsing the shops and afternoon tea-ing at Garden City.  With no children or husbands/fathers in tow.  It was wonderful!  We all concurred that it was a great way to spend our Non Mother’s Day and will most likely opt to do the same thing in 2011!  My apologies for the photos – all I remembered to take pictures of was what we ate for lunch, and a real quick one of the three of us before we ate! 

The stats on Ella:

• born at 9:55pm.
• weight: 7lb 10oz, or 3465 grams
• length: 52cm
• head circumference: 35cm

With two boys that made their way into the world very quickly, we were pretty much on standby, suitcase packed and in the car at all times and the birth suite numbers not quite memorised, but always close at hand!  Ella didn’t disappoint – we arrived at the hospital at 8:06pm…  In time to walk straight into a birthing suite!  All I can say about the next hour and a bit – the gas is good!  :)

While uneventful for the most part, in the last half an hour before she was born, her heart rate was dropping quite a bit, getting as low as 92 and the midwives were giving her only a limited time to continue along as she was.  Oh, and they confiscated my gas thingy…  This I was not happy about at all!  Thankfully, she arrived quickly and we just missed out on going down the path of alternative birth plans…  Much like what we went through with Owen.  Watching more people come into the birthing suite was an all too familiar situation, even though Owen is now 4 and a half!

Ella didn’t cry but looked around the room at all the faces with those huge eyes – I’m assuming she was in shock over what she had just been through!  I’m sure there is a very good reason none of us can remember being born…!  She was checked over by the pediatrician and given the all clear but for a small amount of fluid on her lungs.  As to the heart rate dropping, the pediatrician put it down to her speedy entry into the world, so nothing to worry about.

Her first night was spent in the nursery, with the nurses keeping a watch over her while she continued to get rid of the excess fluid in her lungs, and I was supposedly having a decent night of rest without the responsibility of a newborn right beside my bed.  That didn’t happen, of course.  I spent the night just waiting for sleep to come my way… and it did not!  Probably because I was waiting all night for them to bring her back to me for a feed.  This also did not happen, until 6am!  I guess all the excitement wore her out :)

I had initially thought that I would stay as long as possible in hospital, you know, to have a holiday of sorts before going home to the reality of three kids under 5, but all the hospital noises and other babies crying (and some new mothers) left us both sleep deprived and sick of living in the hospital – after only 24 hours!  Since we both got the approval to be discharged, and seeing as though Ella wasn’t a first child, we were allowed to go home on Wednesday afternoon.

first sleep at home

Needless to say, Wednesday night was a peaceful (and sleep filled) one for all of us.  There’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed.  And there is nothing like a newborn who is very good to her parents, only waking twice a night for a short feed, nappy update and then back to the business of sleeping!

And how are the Big Brothers dealing with having a little sister?  They think she is hilarious, and Owen wants her to be awake constantly so he can talk to her.  Try explaining to an impatient four year old that a sleeping baby is a good thing!!!  Reuben continues to “pat” her, like any one year old would – hard!  We have had to separate their car seats and put Owen in the middle so as Ella doesn’t end up with “pat marks” all over her head!  All in all, she is fitting in easily and well with the rest of the Harvey’s.

The hardest thing at the moment: Getting three kids in and out of their car seats in under 20 minutes!

The most frequent question I have been asked since we have been home:  What’s it like having three?  Great, actually!   However, Owen being that little bit older is really good.  He can help out quite a bit and isn’t too old to not want to – yet!  Reuben dealing with not being the baby anymore was our main concern before Ella was born, but he has taken Ella in his stride and other than the “patting” and a little bit of whining (which could have something to do with two pesky teeth that are trying to push through) he’s doing great too. Ella is an easy baby (so far) which has really helped to keep things pretty normal around our house and I think that has helped the boys out a lot.

Reuben pointing out her eyes

So we think we will keep her.  She’s a little bit cute and I can’t wait until she shows us her smile.  In the meantime, I am trying to adsorb all that baby-ness while I can!

In case you have no idea what we have been doing or why we have seemingly disappeared off the face on the Internet world, we have been making some rather large changes. 

• We have moved states recently. Very recently in fact. Like last week.  Last week was a long week…!
• We have moved into our new house. An email with contact details is coming. I promise.
• Christmas is just around the corner and we have been preparing for the Silly Season, mainly by catching up with friends and family.
• Unpacking.  Lots and lots of unpacking.
• Christmas shopping.
• Organising to get the whole right side of the Suzi repaired. Call it a parting gift from Sydney…   Luckily no one was hurt and the car is still drivable… And that it wasn’t our fault!
• AND Marc started his new job with sanofi aventis, doing handover in Sydney for two weeks and now starting in Brisbane this week.

We don’t seem to do these sorts of things by half…!!!

Owen mucking around while we made pancakes for Saturday’s breakfast.

Reuben with his first taste of avocado – on a Vegemite sandwich no less!  It was all gone in a matter of minutes…  I think he liked it :)

After spreading lunch all over his face, Reuben had some energy to burn, so he pushed chairs around for a while before his nap.

He’s a bit cheeky, and plays it up for the camera – just like his big brother!!!

Owen and Marc fixing the fence palings…

Reuben had to get in on the action too.  Anything noisy brings him out of the woodwork!

You can just imagine what comes next…  There is less soil in the planter now…!

Owen and Marc on Sunday morning.

]]> http://www.harveysathome.com/2009/09/our-weekend-including-fathers-day/feed/ 0 http://www.harveysathome.com/2009/08/weekend-away/ http://www.harveysathome.com/2009/08/weekend-away/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:17:30 +0000 Meegan http://www.harveysathome.com/?p=1779 Saturday morning we decided to pack up the boys and spend the night in Canberra.  You know, just for something different :)

Marc had been talking about taking Owen to Cockington Green Gardens for ages.  Pretty much since we have been living in NSW.  So that was really the only thing that was on our Canberra To Do List.  Not that it really mattered, I’d never been to the ACT and Marc really couldn’t remember much of the place as he was very young the last time he visited.

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza which is right next to Glebe Park and very close to pretty much everything.  The Wotif deal that we took included a hot buffet breakfast for the four of us on the Sunday morning which was really lovely.

On the way down to breakfast:

Marc:  Owen, what do you think you might have for breaky today?  You know there will be lots of things to choose from.

Owen: Hmmmmmm…  (very, very seriously) Just Weetbix this morning I think Dad.

That’s one way to waste a full buffet breakfast!!!!

Anyway, after a walk around the city on Saturday afternoon, we were freezing and getting hungry, so headed back to the hotel to thaw out, bath the boys and think about dinner.

Another short walk later, dinner was served – Nandos style.  We walked back to the hotel after dinner and watched Monsters v Aliens and had an early night.  Well, what did you think we would do?  We have two young children!  Owen got to stay up until past 9pm – that in itself was a treat for him.  Not to mention eating chocolates on the bed (this is where we apologise to Crowne for the chocolate on the white doona cover….)!

It would be great to go back another time without the kids though, there are heaps of great places to eat and lots of very cool kid un-friendly shops to browse!

On Saturday, after our reasonably leisurely and delicious breakfast, where Marc even got to flip through the newspaper almost in peace (a very rare treat!) we packed up, checked out and headed over to Cockington Green Gardens to check out the miniature villages.  Owen wasn’t so impressed to begin with, remarking that a drain in the walkway was exciting, but he warmed to the place very quickly…  As soon as he’d spotted the first model train to be exact!

We watched this particular train make it’s way round oh, about 20 times!

And there it is again…  Luckily there were more trains throughout the gardens.  Unluckily, Marc forgot to charge his camera battery the night before, and about half way round the park his battery died!  Really though, I think you get the drift of the place, lots of little houses and people and things, all surrounded by beautiful miniature gardens and of course a few model trains!

After nearly 3 hours of taking in all the little people, place and plants Marc and I were pretty much ready to go, but Owen wasn’t.  I think he could have stayed to play with the trains for at least a few hours more!  He has already asked to go back to Cockington Green on another day!

And here is the letter, a little closer so you can read it…

I’m sure we will make good use of all the party gear while Jenny and Nana are visiting.

Thanks heaps Auntie Jode!

(And Uncle Mick and Cooper too!!!)

]]> http://www.harveysathome.com/2009/06/a-pre-party-package/feed/ 3 http://www.harveysathome.com/2009/06/at-jodies-request/ http://www.harveysathome.com/2009/06/at-jodies-request/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:37:54 +0000 Meegan http://www.harveysathome.com/?p=1719

Jodie requested some photos of her and the boys before she went home.

Unfortunately, getting all three of them in one shot, smiling and sitting still, is IMPOSSIBLE!!!!  :o)

But I did manage to get a few good ones, just not all together!