Happy 6 months Baby Monkey!!!

   Baby Monkey is 6 months today! I can't believe that he has been part of our family for 6 months now. He is the sweetest, most cheerful, little guy! Happy 6 months Baby Monkey!

Birthdays, festival, uniforms, and teething!

  Life is very busy, and I originally wrote this post 2 weeks ago and never got a chance to post it. So I am posting it now!

   This week has been a crazy busy week. Both Daddy and I celebrated our birthdays (we are a day apart in birthdays). I tried really hard to surprise Daddy with a take-out form his favourite Chinese food restaurant, but apparently the people who own that restaurant did not know about my plans and took a 3 week vacation. I was very surprised when I phoned to place an order and the answering machine informed me that the restaurant is closed due to a 3 week holidays that the owners were taking. Sometimes, I wish that people could read my mind!

What has been happening lately?

   Life has been very busy lately. More busy than I expected when I was pregnant. Four kids are a lot of work, but four kids that are all of different ages are even more. I am getting used to the constant demand of my time and attention. With Funky Monkey and Girly Monkey in dance and soccer, and Little Monkey in dance and homeschooling them all, and Baby Monkey still in the infant stage I find that most days test my patience and endurance. 

   Recently, we have noticed hat Baby Monkey has started to spit up a lot after nursing and in between nursing. Since Little Monkey had reflux when he was a baby we recognized that as such. On top of having to change mine and Baby Monkey's clothes on constantly he developed a bad rash on his face from putting his fingers to mouth full of stomach-acid filled spit up and then smearing it on his cheeks. Little Monkey was a victim of that side effect too. Little Monkey lived with that for a whole year before it got better! I just didn't want to deal with it for so long with Baby Monkey Luckily, when Little Monkey was 2 years old we took him to a chiropractor (for his elbow, not reflux) and the wonderful doctor informed us that we should have brought him in when he was a baby as a chiropractic treatment would have helped with reflux. I have ever heard of babies being treated at a chiropractor, but supposedly it is done very frequently. So as soon as we suspected reflux in Baby Monkey I booked an appointment with the wonderful doctor. The treatment itself is very un-invasive. I lie down on the bed and lay my son on my chest. The doctor then uses a little clicking tool to gently click and adjust babies' spine and joints. Baby M smiled and cooed the whole time. Apparently, it felt good. 

Saying goodbye!

Baby Monkey with our midwife Jennie!

   Last Wednesday, I went to see the midwives for my last visit. At 6 weeks postpartum, my pregnancy and birthing journey is done. At this point Baby Monkey and myself will transfer to our GP. It's a milestone for us. But with each milestone comes a bit of sadness. This is the point when my relationship with my midwives  has come to an end. It's the last time that I will book appointments and go for a check-up. Of course, I will probably pop by their office one in a while and say hello (I would guess that's the perk of working as a midwife - you get to see the babies you delivered grow up), but this was the last time that I was scheduled to come in. Why is this so sad? Well, these ladies provide so much support for the whole family during a very special time in peoples' lives. By nature of the profession, to be a midwife you must be a caring and compassionate person . So it's only natural that women came to like our midwives very much. And it's only natural that we will miss them very much.

Baby Monkey's birth story.

   I am happy to write my birth story here in little spare time that I have now. For the last few weeks I was getting really anxious about Baby Monkey not arriving early. For some reason I was really convinced that he was going to be an early baby. And I had lots of Braxton Hicks daily to convince me that maybe I was right. But then this horrible sickness invaded our family and we all got very sick. It started with Girly Monkey and then Little Monkey got it, and then Daddy got super sick and finally me and Funky Monkey got it too. It was a really nasty bug that made all of us miserable. Most of us would have coughing fits that would lead to throwing up. I am suspecting that what we really went through wasn't a case of flu but a case of whooping cough, at least the symptoms fit the diagnosis.