Fashion is my Food

So, tonight I treated myself to a spot of 'late night shopping' at the local Westfield. There is a definite difference between the late night shoppers and the middle of the day shoppers. Its fun to suss out the key differences. There's lots of teenagers and DINK's (Double Income No Kids), but I was surprised to still see quite a few mothers with children under the age of 1. I guess I never noticed before when I used to shop on a Thursday night (before I was a mother, before I had a child of my own). I wonder how they do it? How do they keep their baby up after 7pm? Not in a 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe they are keeping their baby up, that's so irresponsible' kind of way, more in a 'How do they physically keep them awake for that long?' kind of way. Hmmmm ok, both sound bad and judgey wudgey, but hear me out! 

We'll stay out late every once in a while, but Miss L is almost always in bed at 7pm. Mostly because she is just zonked by that time, and partly because lately she has been cutting out her day sleeps, but also because I was hardcore into establishing her bedtime routine right from the start. Dinner at 5pm, bath at 6pm, bottle at 6:30pm, play, then bed. It works for us, but can also be limiting. Miss L doesn't sleep well at the best of times so if she's in bed at 7pm and wakes up at 5:30am, I can deal with that. I know she's had a decent enough sleep and the strict bedtime is the one part of her sleep routine that I can control now that she refuses her day sleeps and wakes up whenever the hell she wants to during the night. Even when we put her to bed later, she still wakes up at some ridiculously early hour. Uggh. The sleep issue will always be there I guess and I know I just have to ride it out. A good friend said to me once that there are two types of baby in this world - the ones that sleep, and the ones that don't. So true. Miss L's sleep (or lack thereof) consumes me and its all I can think about. Will she sleep through tonight? How many times will I have to get up to her? Should I put her down for a day sleep or will it just make her cranky? Do I ignore her cries when I'm trying to get her to have a day sleep? Or do I stay in there with her and try and pat her to sleep? Should I just go for a drive and hope that she falls asleep in the car? So many questions and thoughts running through my head I know that this too will pass, but it could be years away. I guess we just need to take each day as it comes. And I need to stop being so obsessy over it all.

Anyway, I digress, so I went shopping last night and Mr B requested I pick up some delicious Mexican takeaway dinner for him, which I did as the dutiful wife I am. I was wondering what I was going to get for myself, when I stumbled upon this scarf at Sussan

Reduced to $19.95, with a further 30% off that... that's $13.95... I could spend that $13.95 on dinner OR even better, I could spend  that $13.95 on this fancy new blue scarf and just make myself something at home? Brain, you are so clever. Fashion is my food you see, I don't need no takeaway meal, just a bright new scarf to take the hunger pangs away.

This is how my brain works. Is that scary? Maybe. Probably. Definitely.

In other news I've decided that this year is my year of getting rid of a credit card. I say 'a' credit card, because I have two. Yes, two. Two credit cards for one Cath is not good. Don't ask me how I ended up with two. It may have been a failed attempt to transfer some debt to a new card to take advantage of a 0% interest rate for 6 months and pay off my credit card, but in my naivety I just started adding purchases to said credit card. Massive FAIL. Now i'm dealing with two credit card debts which is just ridiculous. I finally fessed up to Mr B about it all. He was not impressed to say the least. So now, Operation Pay Off The Credit Card is in full swing. My goal is to have one paid off before the end of this year, and the other significantly reduced.

With that in mind... did you all know that J.Crew is now shipping to Australia?!!! It is very exciting, especially since they are celebrating this fact with Free Shipping and Free Returns until the end of April. Arggghhh!!! Go forth and shop my dear friends! I loved J.Crew when I was in the States in 2010, and a few of my fave fashion bloggers rave about J.Crews tailored cropped pants, cashmere sweaters and gingham shirts. Le sigh. Pity now I'm in the midst of Operation Pay Off The Credit Card - I have to be able to justify all purchases to Mr B as he will see them on our joint account. 'It was on sale... think of the savings!' isn't going to cut it!

Which reminds me... I may have bought Miss L this divine Missoni cardi that was heavily discounted on Ozsale. Its super cute. We sure do love the laaabels darling. Can't wait to see her in it.

C xo

Life Update

You sure do know you're alive when you have a sick baby. On Friday night Miss L woke up around 11pm and from there it was down hill.  Saturday was a nightmare. She just couldn't be comforted. She cried literally all. day. By 5pm I'd had enough. She was getting worse. So we made the decision to take her to the emergency department at the Mater. And I'm so glad we did. She had a temperature of 38.8 and a spreading rash. The Doctors called us in straight away. They decided to do some tests. First up a urine test. Oh my. That was interesting. We had to give her sips of gastrolyte every 5 minutes and make her lie on the bed with her nappy off while we sat there waiting to catch her wee in a small plastic container. She did not like that one bit (neither did we). Screamed the majority of the time. The only saviour was watching videos of herself on my smart phone and listening to music. What did parents do before smart phones? After that stressful period was over, she crashed... she lay on her tummy while we pat her back and rubbed her hair. The nurse came in to stick these little plastic whatsies on her hands and arms that were smeared with a numbing cream (in preparation for her needles for the blood test). She lay there so still while the nurse did this. Mr B and I were so proud of her for being so calm... the nurse thought differently. 

Sad bubba at the hospital

She told the Doctor of Miss L's flatness and floppiness and they moved us to acute care straight away where they could monitor her more closely. They were worried. Here they poked and prodded her some more. She was so upset. Afterwards she lay on her tummy and fell asleep for maybe 30 mins. She woke up screaming. We gave her her bottle, which she drank all of and then promptly fell asleep again on Mr B's chest where she lay for a whole hour. She never does this. We knew then that she was really sick. She woke up and they decided to give her a dose of nurofen and xylacaine. First up, nurofen. She took about 1ml and promptly vomited up all over herself and the bed. And screamed. Once they had changed the bed and we had changed her, they gave her the xylacaine. She screamed. But took it. It seemed to coat her mouth. I don't know what it was but she became calm and more herself. She started pointing to the brightly coloured mobiles hanging around the ward and talking in her little language. They were sending us home. The Doctor was happy that she was doing normal things like taking her bottle and sleeping, so they decided not to do a blood test. The urine test came back clear. They told us it was a viral infection and she was going to get more of her rash and more fevers. And all we had to do was keep up the panadol and nurofen. No easy feat when she gets so upset at the mere sight of the syringe/dropper. So they gave us suppositories. Brillo. I have to stick my finger up her bottom. Oh the joys of motherhood. We were home by 10pm. Hot. Tired. Smelling of vomit. But glad to be home. 

Spots all over her arms and hands

And she's still not 100%. Spots cover her tiny little arms and legs and she is just so sad. She's exhausted. I'm exhausted. But I know we just have to ride this out. This too shall pass. (*Edited to add: Mr B has been Dr Googling [which is usually my domain] but he has discovered that she has hand, foot and mouth disease. Why haven't the two Doctors we've seen figured that out, yet Dr Google can tell us that in a matter of minutes? Uggh. Not looking forward to ringing the child care centre tomorrow and telling them that piece of information).

Now, after THAT novel, onto other areas of my life.

Work is still going pretty good... but i'm lonely. I guess I was just so used to being 'part of the furniture' in my old office on the Gold Coast. Being the new girl in the Brisbane office is hard. I sometimes feel like they are freezing me out. I have been trying to chat more with a few of the younger girls in the office, doing the usual things like complimenting them on their outfits etc. But its hard to become part of the 'in' crowd. I've just got to be patient I guess. Its not going to happen over night (but it will happen lol Pantene ad anyone?). 

12WBT is going great guns. I've lost 3.2 kgs and have reached my goal of fitting into my pre-baby black pants. My next goal is to fit in to my skinny jeans... I've started going a bit off track with the eating (due mostly to having a sick baby and me needing chocolate and extra lattes to get through it) but seeing the results so far has empowered me to keep at it. This morning I dug out an old aerobics video (complete with lycra outfits) and jumped around the lounge room while Miss L (mostly) slept. I'm trying to fit in exercise when I can but its proving difficult on the days I work. 

And that's about it for now. I need to go and prepare myself for *another* bad night with Miss L... Hope you are all well.

C xo

Alex and Ant

The cuteness scale would be off the radar if Miss L was wearing these shoes!

Available at Baby's Got Style