Talk about embarrassing!

So I'm not sure if mentioned at all before but in my free time I also officiate at civil marriage ceremonies and today I had a bit of an embarrassing moment that I suspect only other parents could empathise with.

There's a lovely couple who have come from England to be married in Sydney and the ceremony is taking place in the Rose Garden, in the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens. The couple are planning a very small wedding, just the 2 of them and 2 close friends who will be their witnesses - when I took the booking it was just a week before Master 2 was born so they knew I had young family.

I met them for the first time on Wednesday when I showed up at what I thought was their hotel to meet them. Turns out that I'd turned up at the *other* Marriott Hotel in Sydney (OK, so 2 embarrassing moments now!). Anyway I showed up to meet them and talk through the ceremony and did this while breastfeeding Master 2. They were very open minded about the whole thing that was great.

I'd booked my 16 year old cousin in to come with me to the wedding today, so she could take Master 2 for a walk in his stroller for the 15 mins that the ceremony was going to take. She had a sudden fit of "what do you mean, you're not paying me to babysit" bronchitis (though she was well enough to go to her boyfriend's house for dinner!), so I had a change of plan. Instead of leaving Master 1 at my parents place with Grandad babysitting, I brought both the boys along with Grandad. Surely this would be fine.

Humph.

Well I suppose it could be worse. After the groom and his friend arrived I introduced all and my Dad took the stroller and Master 1 away for a walk using a lollipop as a bribe (I know, bad mother!). Just as the bride begins to make her way towards us Master 1 comes bolting towards me, lollipop in mouth. My Dad is coming (not very quickly I should say) with the stroller but looks unconcerned. He arrives and takes Master 1 and we're all set to begin the ceremony - the camera is rolling when again Master 1 comes bolting into picture. I'm so embarrassed by this point - the friend of the bride who has set up the camera says "We're ready, it's just this little boy...." at which point I own up:

"I'm sorry, he's my son - Dad, can you just park Master 2 (asleep at this point in the stroller) over there and take him away"....

Such a lovely natured couple - they were (at least outwardly) very understanding. But I can imagine how different the scene might have been with a "bridezilla"!

The end of the story is not at all embarrassing, a lovely ceremony, a happy couple, and boys now both fast asleep in bed.

Bring on a glass of red!

3 months have flown!

Well, it's been 3 months since our baby boy joined us and it's gone so quickly! I've not had the time or energy to blog much but here's an update of what's been happening...

Our baby boy is becoming much more interesting -he's gone from being a very cute tiny little baby - whose main claims to fame were eating, sleeping and poo-ing -

to a little person complete with his own unique personality. He is smiling, laughing and has cute little dimples on each of his cheeks. I know that I'm biased but he's even cute when he sticks out his bottom lip and bursts into tears.

We've started to establish a routine and Daddy is a wonderful help when he helps by giving him his middle of the night feed.

I've been fortunate enough to be able to fully breastfeed, and every morning I pull out my trusty Avent electric pump and express enough milk for his late night feed. I'm hoping to keep this up until he begins sleeping through the night - but find that if I don't express first thing in the morning it's difficult to express enough milk for him.

This little boy is an eating machine - he has a great appetite and this time I've been able to avoid putting on all the extra weight I did after Master 1 was born. I put this down to 2 things:

1. Gestational Diabetes - the very careful diet I was on during the last 3 months of my pregnancy meant that I didn't put on as much weight during the pregnancy (only 11 kgs vs 20 with Master 1). It also meant that I had developed pretty good eating habits.

2. Being aware of the dangers of putting on weight. With Master 1, everyone said that the beauty of breastfeeding was that it helped you lose weight and you could eat anything you wanted. I didn't and I did - didn't lose weight and did eat whatever I wanted. The result was 10+ kg of extra weight (after I'd given birth). So this time I've been careful - and Master 2 eats more than Master 1, so 14 weeks after delivery I'm very close to my pre Master 2 conception weight (but a little way off pre Master1!).

Speaking of gestational diabetes - I had my post pregnancy GTT a few weeks ago and finally got my results. They are all good, so now I'm determined to stay active and healthy to avoid developing type 2 diabetes. Having experienced gestational diabetes is the best motivation to ensure I limit my risk factors and try to avoid type 2 diabetes.

I've met some wonderful women in my local area who will make up my mothers group. Some are new to the area and have had their second child which is great - I've made some friends with a couple of women who have an older child the same age as Master 1 and we've been having regular play dates.

We've been fortunate enough to be able to (just) afford to keep Master 1 in day care 2 days a week and my parents are good enough to continue to spend 1 day a week with him. That leaves me with only 2 days during the week where I have 2 boys and hubby isn't around. They are *very* hard work. I don't know how childcare centres manage with a ratio of 1:5 or even 1:4 - and that's for the under 2s, it's even lower for the older kids. These people should be paid more. Fancy garbage collectors earning more than these (often) university educated carers. This is just another example of something that we need to do better as a society.

Master 1 has also begun toilet training. He seems to have mastered the art of peeing on the toilet but he still hasn't managed to produce a poo for us yet. He holds onto it until we put him into his nappy for bed - then, presto! Here's the poo. I know that most kids don't go to school in nappies, so I'm hopeful that it won't be too long before he can stop pooing his pants. Apparently this is all normal - it's just so much laundry to do all the time!

I have one small boy dragging my arm away from the keyboard so I'm off for now... but I'm going to try and be better (and more interesting!) in my blogs from now on.

As my brother-in-law would say.... Tootles!