Hi all, it has been a while since my last post. Life has been so busy the past few months. Like most parents, I was homeschooling my daughter in the first term of this year. I was anxious about having a baby during this turbulent time and how I would continue to home school at the same time. However, the situation improved in my state of Queensland. So my preppy got to return to school for Term 2 and my baby decided to come early as well. We are now at the end of second term holidays and the past 2 months have been a bit of a blur.

I would like to introduce you to my new baby boy, Lucius Maximus. He is currently 13 weeks, but these photos were taken when he was 26 days old. They were taken by the amazing photographer Kelley of Rule of Thirds Photography.

Lucius is a lot larger now and is doing really well. He originally was meant to arrive at the end of May, but he decided to move out of his breach position the night before my scheduled ECV at 37 weeks and 5 days. My early labour contractions started the next morning, but things didn’t get serious until the afternoon. I was later rushed to the hospital and he made his way out around 9 pm that night. It was a relevantly quick but extremely painful natural birth. Partly because I didn’t know how bad late-stage labour could be, but also apparently because quicker births can be a bit scarier. Luckily all was well, so we were able to go home after only 6 hours after his birth. He’s been a pretty good baby for the most part. Definitely more easier to manage than my first child. As long as he eats and his held constantly hes relatively happy and will sleep. He has been colicky at night, so I learning how important getting all that gas out of his system has been, to avoid hours-long crying.

Having a newborn 5 years after having my first has not been entirely easy as I thought it would be. Breastfeeding was still painful and difficult. Sleep is a constant war than can never be won. And having the patience to soothe a screaming baby when you having sleep isn’t easy. But I also have much more confidence that things will be ok and can only get better, which is what I hold onto when I feel like I may lose my mind. What I wasn’t expecting was that my first love would go from a sweet little girl to an unruly, defiant little person. I am not sure if it because there is a new person taking up my attention or because shes grown up so fast in her first year of school. I have less patience, but I have to remind myself that she’s still a little girl trying to navigate her own emotions.

Even before Lucius arrived I did find it difficult to blog, colour, read or multitask in general. I found the closer I get to my due date the more my brain feels scrabbled and unmotivated. The only thing I have been interested in doing is cooking large batches of food, cleaning my kitchen and watching other people prepare food and organised their kitchen. Since he arrived, I haven’t had then time to do much for myself, since he’s always attached to me. But as my sleep is improving I found time to do a bit more reading and make more contact with the outside world.

I have a couple of colouring book reviews to put together, more Tasmania travel posts and some recommendations of some great food and mummy Youtube channels I discovered during lockdown to recommend. So please be patient with me and I will try to get focused and find someone to hold this baby. Typing with one hand is a lot more difficult then you think. Catch up with you soon!