Travelling with baby

After going through months and months of having a baby who took hours and hours to get to sleep, you don't dare mess with glorious 12-13 hour sleeps when they finally come.
Such has been my fear of returning to that former, hellish life, that I've been terrified to mess with when (and where) Ari sleeps too much.
Subsequently, I have been reluctant to travel with Ari a lot. But with both sets of grandparents in Geelong and Bendigo, travel is inevitable.
Rob has been at me to do it more, but still I remain hesitant.
This week, we went to Ballarat for 3 days and it was marvellous. Staying with Ari's sort-of-godfather Dean and his partner Andrea, the boy slept, ate and played like an absolute dream. And we even got some time to ourselves, which was wonderful.
The experience has given me the confidence to try it a lot more often, which is great. Kids really are adaptable. I guess it's paranoid parents like me who aren't...

Happy Birthday to you...

Ari is one year old today.
A year ago, at 8.30am, our gorgeous little bloke was delivered by caesarean section at Frances Perry House, Carlton, weighing 8 pounds, 5 oz.
He had a shock of gingery hair, long fingers and big feet, and when they wrapped him up in a blanket and laid him across my chest, I knew instantly he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
While those early memories are clear and joyful, the months following stretch out like a blur. In some ways it feels like only yesterday, in others, it's been the longest year of my life.
Motherhood has been the hardest thing I have ever done, no question. But it's exactly like Bill Murray says in Lost In Translation: "When they are born, your life as you know it is OVER. But then they learn to walk and they learn to talk and they become the most remarkable people you'll ever know."
And so we have met a remarkable little person - and we are so proud he is ours.
Happy Birthday, my gorgeous little man.

Work and baby

It's an endless debate, isn't it?
I read yet another ludicrous opinion piece in the Herald Sun this week about how selfish career-driven women should be home with bub. Strangely, the article also mentioned the plight of several women who had stayed home with their kids, only to be dumped by their husbands years down the track and left virtually penniless and out of the job market.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there HAS to be some compromise here.
I'm not saying women can Have It All. Even working fathers can't.
The problem is not with women, it's with the world's attitude to working mums. Most people can't seem to handle women who want to do both. Honestly.
When I'm at work, all anyone seems to want to ask me is if I'm missing Ari, and do I wish I was at home?
Hell no! I LOVE working for a newspaper. It's exciting. Staying at home with a baby ALL THE TIME gets boring.
But you should see people's faces when I say that! I might as well walk around the words "Heartless Bitch Mother" on my forehead.
Having now done staying at home full time and working full time, I can honestly say staying at home with a baby is harder, more stressful work.
Stay at home parents are bloody troopers. And if you don't believe me, you obviously haven't done it yet.

So damn cute

Look at me walk!

Almost a year old

Vital stats

Ari now weighs a healthy 10.58kg and is 79cm long - meaning he has grown 5cm in 2 months! My goodness, is this boy going to be tall. Then again with Rob as his father it was kind of inevitable.
Two new developments this week:
1. Walking - the boy has really caught on with this walking caper and can now do whole laps of the kitchen and even turn corners. He's so determined to do everything we can do.
2. Teeth - Ari's been a little grizzly these past two days (he's normally as happy as Larry), is dribbling heaps, touching his ears and head and pushing his gums in with his fingers. We reckon some eye teeth might be on their way down. It's so hard to watch your little boy in obvious pain or distress.

A walky New Year

Yesterday was significant for three reasons:
1. It was New Year's Eve. Which we (of course) spent in front of a DVD instead of out partying (ah, the life of a housebound new parent...)
2. It was mind-blowingly, unbelievably, stupidly hot. Hot enough to boil a monkey's bum, as Rob would say. It was the hottest day in Melbourne since 1899. It was so hot that it felt almost other-wordly, like when you stepped outside it was onto the surface of a faraway planet. At midnight, the wind was STILL hot. Not warm, hot. Crazy.
3. Ari walked for the first time. He took as many as 7 steps in a row. And bettered that today. He's still very wobbly, but is hilarious to watch because he's so excited about what he's doing that he loses all concentration and dissolves into a giggling (but cute) little heap on the floor.
It's weird to reflect on 2005. It seems like we've crammed a lifetime of stuff into one year. So much has happened, it's unbelievable. This time last year I was walking around with my big pregnant belly. Ari has gone from a newborn bundle to a walking toddler in 11 months. I have gone from being a full-time journo, to a full-time mum to a freelance journo to a part-time journo. Roll on 2006, whatever it may bring...