I’ve been trying to be more environmentally friendly, and the use of disposables has really been bugging me for a while. So the pull to use cloth nappies has been even stronger. Nicky, from Mother Nature Products posted on FB that they were looking for mom bloggers. I’m a mom and I have a blog, so I sent her my details. I got a mail back asking if I’d be interested in reviewing some nappies for them.

I jumped at the chance to do it This was my perfect opportunity to give it a go under the guidance of someone and while helping them with a review. I did tell Nicky that I was a first-timer and she said that she didn’t mind. I was so excited.

A week later, my parcel arrived. Inside was a Mother Nature All-In-One nappy, 2 booster pads, biodegradable nappy liners, and a pair of bright pink training pants

It was all so beautifully packaged. I was impressed with care instructions and that all the packaging was eco-friendly and recyclable. Even my husband commented on how nicely it was presented. I went onto the Mother Nature website and read everything! My poor hubby was subjected to many, “oooh did you know” moments

Nicky has been fantastic in her support and advice. I’ll be posting my full reviews soon. At the moment I’m completely happy and enamored with Mother Nature Nappies. Hoping after the first few washes I will still be. I’d love to make the switch.

Keep watching this space. Kyla is wearing it tonight to see how it does

It took me about 2 minutes to realise that I’d be myself . I’m a mom, I’m the biggest and best superhero around. There is nobody who is more super than me or any other mom out there.

- We are faster than a speeding train – when you sprog is about to leap off the junglegym/couch/table you get there to catch them.

- We have super-sonic hearing – with 50kids calling “moooooommmmyyyy” you can pick out and distinguish your sprogs cry.

- We have super-human strength – moms have been known to lift cars off of their trapped kids, ripped doors off and we can carry a toddler and 20kgs of shopping/washing.

- We have super eye-sight – moms can see the tiny marble that baby might choke on, we can see the tiniest tear in our sprogs eyes, we can see behind us and know that our toddler is eating Nutella with their hands.

- We have healing powers – moms can make the hurt go away by merely holding our sprogs in our arms or brushing over it with our lips.

- We have limitless energy – moms can survive on little/no sleep and still have enough energy to rough and tumble and chase sprogs all over the garden and house.

- We are psychic – moms know what their sprogs are planning just by their body language and facial expressions.

- We fight injustice on behalf of our sprogs.

- We are invisible – moms can stand in the background, without being seen and watch their sprogs master a new skill or make a new friend or watch the toddler eat Nutella with their hands out the jar.

- We are tougher than tough – moms can keep their emotions in while comforting a baby/child during an injection/physio/broken bone.

- We can leap buildings – there is no wall too high for us to scale in order to get their favourite ball.

- We have a super sense of smell – moms can smell when they’re kids are getting sick and even if there are 5 kids with a poo-bum, moms can smell their own child

And yes, the “toddler scooping Nutella with her hands and eating it” incident, really did occur this week. It also happened with peanut butter.

He is doing well and is a fantastic little guy. He is fitting into his 3-6month clothing and is around 7.5kgs. He’s the size of an average 6month old it looks as though he will be a brunette. His hair, although sparse, is darker than the others.

He feeds often and very well and loves his mommy a whole lot mommy loves him a whole too. He is a very beautiful, happy little guy. When Jaydon smiles he lights up the entire room. He has a really big smile and its infectious. You know someone has seen him smile when they stare at him with the biggest smile on their faces.

Jaydon also loves to chat. He is very vocal and is trying hard to laugh. He just can’t quite get past the hiccup barrier. He sounds as though he is about to let loose and belly laugh, when the hiccups take over. Of course, this puts me in stitches. While I laugh, he tries harder to laugh and hiccups more.

Sadly, he has had his first hospital stay and anti-biotics already. 4 weeks ago, he contracted RSV and was admitted to hospital for a night for observation. He spent longer in hospital this time, than he did when he was born. He was on anti-biotics for a week and on a nebulizer for 10 days. He bounced back quickly, thankfully.
The worst part about it all was that he was completely hoarse and we couldn’t hear him when he cried it was heart-breaking!

I still marvel at his birth weight and giggle when I think that he weighed 5kgs. Its still spoken of at the hospital. Our big beautiful boy’s birth will not be forgotten for a while.

I didn’t always feel this way about my laundry. For a while I begrudged it. I’d moan at it and curse it. Everytime I found that it had grown a little bigger… I’d get angry. I’d wonder who kept feeding it and why at times it seemed so out of control and over-bearing.

Then one day, I was angry. Like more angry than I’ve ever been. I was hanging the clothes on the line and I could hardly see straight I was so cross and blinded by tears. I was tugging at the clothes and trying to get the job done as quickly as possible so I could go inside and stew over the issue. (I hate being angry, its ugly and makes me feel horrid)
I didn’t know what else to do and I needed to get out of my angry, negative space. So I started to pray and give it over to God. With each item I hung, I prayed.

Suddenly, I was done with the hanging-up and the world was brighter. I felt at peace. The anger had been replaced with a feeling of love and comfort. The stress had just-about disappeared and my rose-tinted glasses were back on.

You see, while I was hanging up my laundry and praying, I was struck by how blessed we are. We have beautiful sprogs who are healthy and happy and love to play, which creates dirty clothes for me to wash. I have an amazing husband, who is very fit and into a host of sports. His training and racing creates clothes to wash (sometimes his are dirtier than the sprogs ).

While hanging the washing, I get to see clothes that the older sprogs wore that have been passed onto the smaller sprogs. I get to remember how precious time is and just how quickly the sprogs grow. Not too long ago I had only little pink things on the line. Now I have big girl clothes, big boy clothes, little girl clothes and baby boy clothes. I feel so richly blessed by this.

God can and does use all sorts of things to open our eyes to the blessings around us. I’m just not sure we’re always open to listening and seeing them

I don’t believe that those words should hold the power that they do. They seem to suck too many moms in and spit them out as bedraggled, confused women who have no idea which way is up.
Those words have been the downfall of many a mom. They become a self-fulfilling prophecy. “Wait until mothers guilt sets in” BAM! The seed is planted. It gets watered and fed by society and other moms. Suddenly its a big, ugly weed and mom is feeling guilty about almost everything.

We all have guilt in some form. But we were chosen to parent our children and that’s huge! That means that we should make our decisions, stick to them and not worry over the “what if’s” and what others say/think. Those things feed the guilt weed. Every time we’re attacked for doing what we believe is right, that weed grows bigger. That’s why we have to get rid of what feeds it. If that means cutting out negative people, so be it. Ultimately our sprogs deserve the best of who we are. And we stop being our best when we’re choked by guilt.

I have 4 beautiful sprogs (1 of whom is currently passed out on my chest).
I have an amazing husband, who truly completes me.
I want for nothing.

None of these have come by my works/deeds. They are all gifts from God. I am an undeserving sinner, saved by His grace. I make mistakes and sin daily. Yet, He continues to bless me and most importantly, love me unconditionally.

I don’t need people to approve of me. I don’t need to fit in. I don’t need to be popular. All I need is God, His Son, His love, His grace and my awesome family. With those, I’m whole, content and at peace.

Its a huge moment for me to grasp this. (I’m probably going to be grasping it for a while). He truly loves me and everyone else. I don’t have to earn His love, He gives it freely. He blesses me because He loves me. WOW!!

From the second I tweeted that I was indeed in labour, the love, support and encouragement started coming in. I could actually feel everyone’s thoughts and prayers. They bolstered me and helped me through when things got rough. Twitter was also an awesome distraction when things got sore

Everytime my little red light flashed, I smiled. In fact my little red light flashed so much that my phone died! I had been chatting with Mel on bbm, so B added her to his and they bbm’d throughout. Between B and Mel they did a fantastic job of keeping everyone up to date with everything.
B gained a number of my followers and he was kept very busy relaying all the messages from all the amazing people I’ve met on twitter.

Mel is 1 of those people. We have yet to meet in real life, but she has become a wonderful friend. She gave both B and I so much support over bbm. It was like she was in the room with us. We chatted a lot leading up to labour and she gave me the extra encouragement and inspiration I needed. She has given birth to a 4.5kg baby and she affirmed that I too could deliver a baby of that size. When many others were telling me I couldn’t (too big, too risky) she told me I could and that we (baby and I) would be fine. I will always be grateful for her support Mel, you rock!

I’m struggling to put my thoughts into words on this. The outpouring of love and support was incredible! And it didn’t stop, it still hasn’t. I still have a couple of those awesome ladies checking in to see how we are doing. I can still feel all the love and support.

To all of you who were “there” with us on the day that Jaydon was born,
I’m incredibly grateful to you for every single message. You are all amazing! Thank-you for being there with us and for sharing in an very special day.
Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you!

I had been saying that I would keep my legs closed so that baby was not born on 29 January. We’ve had some drama and the 29th is the birthday of someone who has issues with us. But it turns out, God gave us a reason to celebrate the day, to overshadow those who harbour ill feelings towards us and to help us heal

At 3am my contractions started. I felt the first 1 and thought, “oh! I wonder if this is IT”. 10 minutes later when the second contraction hit, I knew that this was indeed “it”. I told B that we were in labour and then left him to sleep. I got out the pilates ball, walked and bounced and tried to rest. At times the contractions were 8 minutes apart, other times they were 1 1minutess apart. I sat on the ball and rested my head on the bed and managed to get a few minutes sleep every now and again.

At 5am, I was feeling a little lonely and went to wake B (he was sleeping with Jack as he had woken up wanting daddy in the night). We discussed him doing his race. The swim was to start at 9 and was a 5km sea swim from Table View to Big Bay. It looked to be an awesome swim and the weather was perfect. My contractions had slowed to every 20-30 minutes, so my mom came down to our house and B went off to register for the race.

We met him at the start just before the race. The race started and we then went off to Big Bay to wait for him. My contractions were still coming, but I was able to drive and talk and carry on, so it was fine. B nearly won the entire race, but fell off a wave. The winner beat him by 5seconds. I was (still am) so proud of him.

Once he was back with us, my contractions sped up again! I actually told him to go away as they were back to every 10minutes. after prize-giving we came home to get ready for lunch at moms house. My contractions were getting stronger all the time. We packed bags for the kids in case we went to hospital and they needed the pjs and clothes for the next day. We had no idea how long labour would go on for and wanted to be ready. I thought we had until the next day to deliver #4. I think I was in slight denial

After an hour and a half at moms house, we decided to head for hospital. Contractions were every 3-5minutes and were stopping me talking. I was determined to wait it out a little longer, but B said it was time to go.

I was only 4cm when we arrived and a little disappointed. The contractions were big, sore and long. My gynae couldn’t be reached, so they called Dr. Sarel Brandt. He is amazing! He arrived within 10minutes and I was 5cm. Due to my history with my waters breaking late (broke with Kyla just before she came out) he broke my water and I went to 6cm. I was sore but still handling without pain meds. By now it was 4:30-ish.

The contractions got serious! I was very very sore. Between Bryan and Sarel they spoke me through them. My mid-wife arrived. I call her mine because she’s been at the birth of all our sprogs and she’s fantastic! Sarel (the doc) offered to fetch coffee for B, made sure we had cold, iced water and kept us entertained with stories from his travels and experiences as a doctor. There were lots of laughs in our delivery room. At times, it felt more like a party than a birth Sarel also never left us. I’ve never known a doctor to do that. He even asked B if he wanted to catch baby. B’s face was hysterical! He went white, regained colour and said the he’d stay head side with me. Next time, I’m going to try convince him to catch baby

I hit 8cm and was struggling. I couldn’t cope with the pain and was begging for an epidural. My “team” got me through another 20minutes or so, but I couldn’t do it any longer. The anethetist was called just before 5:45pm and my epidural was done within 10minutes. It was kept light, so I could still move my legs and feel pressure from the contractions, just no pain. My contractions continued to get stronger as I entered transition. The pressure was intense and I was incredibly thankful that I couldn’t feel the pain. At 6:35 I was ready to push. My gynae arrived after the first push.

They let me push whenever I felt the urge to, I just gave them warning of the building contraction and they counted for me. I struggled a little to get his head down and forgot to breathe at times. But it was going well, and a mirror was fetched, so that I could see what was going on down there.

Seeing my baby crown was quite an experience! It was amazing to see how the pushing, pushes them out I could not have done it first time or even third time around, but it was awesome! I’m so thrilled I was able to see and experience it. While pushing out the head, I could feel that he was big. We were warned again about his size and about what would happen if his shoulders got stuck. God had heard my prayers and Jaydon’s shoulders came out without a hitch. I was told to stop pushing and the rest of him slid out.

Everyone marveled at his size and they started guessing his weight. He was placed on my chest and he was heavy and beautiful. I had “known” he was a boy, but was thrilled to see that he was indeed a boy! He was perfect and gorgeous. The 2 doctors and 2 mid-wives were still throwing weight guesses around. He was thought to be 4.5-4.7kgs if not bigger.

The “team” couldn’t wait anymore and took him to be weighed. Sarel placed him on the scale and turned towards us with his hands over his mouth, giggling. Tania asked for the weight and was told, “you have to see this!” Jaqui went and looked at the scale. “4.975kgs” (even typing that I start giggling) we all just giggled and were shocked. I had delivered a 5kg (25grams shy, so I’m claiming it) baby with no tearing and no medical intervention.

He latched well and started drinking. Jaqui said I should get used to having him there, as he’d probably be attached to me for the next 6months at least.

When I saw Tania the next day, she said that it was a good thing that we didn’t know his weight. She said she never let’s people deliver naturally if baby is over 4.5kgs. She said that there’s no way she would’ve let me deliver him, had she had any clue. She did acknowledge that I’d managed just fine with everything intact, so clearly it could be done

To me, Jaydon’s birth is nothing short of miraculous. These days gynaes are very quick to cite baby’s size as a reason for cutting. He didn’t get stuck, I didn’t tear, he came out perfectly!

I had prayed a lot (read: A LOT) about being able to deliver him naturally without complications. I prayed that he would be healthy and that we would be in and out of hospital quickly. God answered all my prayers regarding his birth. It blows me away. Jaydon Kai means thankful and rejoice. His name is fitting already. I’m very thankful to God for answering my prayer and am rejoicing in it! We are thankful for our new baby boy and are rejoicing having him as part of our family!

The day I went for my 40 weeks scan, I was still feeling very comfortable. I was struggling a bit in the heat but it was nothing that an hour or 2 in the swimming pool couldn’t cure. That and munching lots of ice
I still felt as though birth was a while off. And was telling everyone as much.
My blood pressure was still good even by non-preggy standards.

When I went in to be scanned, baby was so big that the machine couldn’t give us a weight. My gynae just laughed. Then we measured the legs, and as normal, they were 2 weeks behind. All our babies have had my short legs.

Tania felt baby and said she thought that baby was around 4.2kgs and that we *might* hit 4.4kgs, but she doubted it. She warned me about the delivery and what they would do if baby’s shoulders got stuck. Then she mentioned that sometimes, baby’s shoulder is broken while becoming un-stuck. That made me a little nervous and panicky. Nobody wants there baby to come into the world and experience pain right off the bat!
She did say that is was unlikely, but she wanted me to be prepared in-case-of.

I left the scan a little worried. With all our other babies, she predicted them to be 300g-500g smaller than they came out. But everybody said that she was in the habit of over-estimating these days, by 300g on average. So I felt a little better. The thought of birthing a big baby scared me.

Mel did wonders on bbm to convince me that I’d be ok. She was awesome! A huge, huge support. Ill be forever grateful for her advice and encouragement. Mel, you’re amazing, awesome and such a fantastic friend!

#4 is doing great. There’s still lots of space to grow and everything is looking good. B got such a fright when my doc measured #4′s head. His (I’ve picked a gender) head is measuring at 9.4cm and is the size of a 38weekers. Tummy is measuring at 37weeks. Legs – well if you’re a long time reader or know us, you’ll know that all our babies have had short Lolly legs . This time is no different! Legs measure at 33weeks. Weight is currently estimated at 3.1kgs. So we are on track for another big baby I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m doing well. Blood pressure is looking good, weight gain is tracking well, I’m still comfortable and loving all the movement. I’m feeling very grateful that summer thus far, has been relatively cool. On the hot days I tend to swell up, which can be uncomfortable but its bearable.

I haven’t even begun to think about packing a bag or anything. After B’s big race in January, I’ll get around to that. although, I think I may just throw things into when I’m in labour. NOT!! I’ll pack after the race is done. I like to know that I’ve got everything I need for baby. I can wing it for my stuff
My biggest thing is making sure I have my shampoo and conditioner for afterwards.