40 today!

Happy birthday to me. It's a big one, I'm in a reflective mood so soppy alert...serious soppiness coming up. 

When I hit my 20th I was a student, single, broke, no idea what I wanted to do and defined my teenage years as a disaster cause of the lack of boyfriends. When I hit my 30th I was single, living back at home, having spent a fairly uneventful decade in Dublin...not exactly disastrous but still not many boyfriends (I was far too obsessed with boyfriends or lack thereof, especially on my birthdays).

Now I'm 40 and in the last decade all my dreams came true. I got everything I ever wanted but assumed I'd never have. It's hard to believe that I have 4 precious people in my life that weren't there 10 years ago. How lucky am I that I get to spend my 40th with a new baby and two lively three and a half year olds, and I get to spend the next decade being part of their childhoods, watching them all grow up. And I finally have a boyfriend turned husband...who was worth the long wait.

So age is just a number and this birthday the only thing I'm counting... is my blessings :)

12 weeks today

It's going too fast. Our little boo is 12 weeks today. The days of sleeping on chests, swaddling, wobbly heads and winding are slipping by. What a lovely addition Hannah has been to our family. These days she is sleeping til about 6.30, feeding with no fuss and is still as placid and undemanding as ever. After an initial week of breastfeeding torment followed by 7 weeks of me pumping she decided she wanted to try again and took to the boob no bother. Her mouth had to grow to accommodate my freakishly large nipples apparently. Yeah for me, I've almost hung up my pump for good and more or less ditched the bottles.

In other news it feels like the lads have been non stop sick over the last few weeks. At one stage everyone was sick and at home including myself and Sean. I never want to go through that again! So I have nothing done for Christmas or the christening on Sunday. Everything needs to slow down. Here's some photos...

Swaddled angel, she is starting to wriggle though.

Lots of smiles and chat 

Snuggling on a lovely warm tummy with daddy and big brother

There's none of Lucy over the last few weeks cause she has decided to take up photography. She took this one, not bad for three and a half! We are hoping Santa might bring her a camera so mammy can get her phone back.

First 6 weeks

Well the first 6 weeks have been lovely. Hannah is a pet. She has slept a lot of the time and when she is awake she sits quietly in her bouncy chair staring out at us. She knew night time from the start and just wakes once, then goes down easily. Sean and I can't believe it...where is the mayhem, the feeds running in to each other, the 20 nappy changes per day and 20 bottles to sterilise? The mental torture that is sleep deprivation? There's a huge TOUCH WOOD attached to this post!

So it looks like so far we can conclusively state that one is a lot easier than two. Having said that, pretty much the day we got home from hospital we realised that three are a lot harder than two! The weekends are chaos. The lads love her though, every time she cries Lucy says "she wants her big sister". Here's some photos from the first six weeks.

When Hannah met everyone...

First smile at 2 weeks...

Weekend mornings in bed watching tv...

Hello Hannah

Hannah Ryan, born on Tuesday (full of grace), 24th September 2013, 7lb 9oz. What a beauty! Now I have to figure out how to change the name of my blog.

Last few hours pregnant

Am in the maternity waiting for an elective section in a couple of hours...for the record, it's the consultant doing the electing, not me!

So I'm in my last few hours of pregnancy with my (as Sean puts it) 3rd and final child...emphasis on the final! Overall it's been a lovely pregnancy. The first few months were horrendous because of morning sickness and being pregnant while looking after kids is a whole different experience that no one tells u about. But overall, still a lovely pregnancy, a lot more comfortable than the twin pregnancy and for some reason I slept better in last 9 mnths than I have in years. 

So for the record, today I am 40 weeks plus 2 days, my circumference is 42" and I weigh exactly 12 stone...eek, but I think it was 13 for the twins and I'm hoping to lose a substantial bit of it in the next few hours. 

I can't wait to meet my singleton baby...I'm expecting to be looking for the other one for a few days til I get used to just the one. Please be an easy baby...

37weeks

Here's a then and now photo of me at 37 weeks with twins and me now with just the one. It shows clearly the difference in bump size, but also the impact 3 yrs of twins has had on our garden. The inside of our house has gone pretty much the same way!

On the farm

Another out of date pic with all the sisters, kids and bumps on the farm.  We took 10 photos but no way were my children going to look anywhere but at the dog!

Bumpity bumps

An out of date post at this stage since Clo has by now had her baby but its still worth putting up for posterity.  I think we were 36 weeks and 30 weeks. 

We're all going on a summer holiday...

Actually we're not, or we didn't. It was just myself and Sean. When we got the wonderful news of going back to baby land and rewinding our lives by 3 years, we decided that if we didn't go away now, we never would. Obviously we haven't a hope in hell of anyone ever offering to mind 3 children for us while we swan off to the sun. So in our first holiday together since our honeymoon (when I was also pregnant, incidentally), we went to Malaga for 5 days, while Mam and MIL co-minded the kids. It was fab...lying by the pool, reading books, eating out every night. I bought a little picture of Spain that I'm going to hang in the bathroom so that when I'm sleep deprived, with leaky boobs, not having showered for a week and dealing with twin toddler tantrums plus baby colick, I can remind myself that things do get better, life will get back to normal eventually and Sean and I will have another holiday together...when I WON'T be pregnant...babysitters willing. Anyone? Anyone? Helloooo...anyone there? The highlight of the holiday (for a complete stranger, not me) was being caught mid-pee, giving a pretty much full naked frontal in the men's bathroom of a tapas bar...curse them for their dodgy door locks. In my defense, being pregnant, it had been at least a whole 15 minutes since the last time I went and I couldn't hold it in the queue for the ladies. The poor (or lucky?) Spaniard got a view that only Sean and my gynecologist have ever been honoured with. Cringe! I'm never going back to Spain.

Looks like its a girl!

For the last 3 scans we've asked and the doctor hasn't been able to tell, but each time he thinks it might be a girl. Its hard to tell because the legs are tightly closed together...prompting Sean to comment "I wonder where she gets that from?" But on the basis that he wasn't sure three times in a row, we've ourselves 100% convinced that its a girl, so I've given everything blue to Clo and kept everything pink. If it turns out to be a boy, he'll just have to get used to wearing pink and will only have himself and his tight-closed legs to blame. Needless to say, we're delighted. Girls are wonderful...once they grow up, leave home and unite in a sisterly bond against their mother. We'd be thrilled with a boy too, even if he does turn out to have gender confusion issues because of all the pink!

So long, terrible twos?

Ronan and Lucy had their third birthday a few weeks ago. I can't believe we got to three years and we're all still standing (especially me). In the elusive search for the holy grail of toys...one that will keep them occupied for more than 5 minutes...we invested in a trampoline for their present. All the promises other parents made to us about toy kitchens, wendy houses, bikes, tea sets, etc. (as in "they'll spend ages playing with it, you'll never see them") turned out to be hollow, but yet again we got our hopes up. And the trampoline has been somewhat successful, in that they might spend 10 minutes in it instead of 5...then they'll come in and drag myself or Sean out with them to "keep them company in the trampoline." Still, it was a great success on the day of their birthday, so it was money well spent...until one of them sprains an ankle in it at some point in the future, or worse, someone elses' child does and sues us. In other news relating to dashed hopes and dreams,I'd very high hopes that the big 3, together with the trampoline, would magically mark our transition from the terrible twos into a calmer, more serene phase, but my God, have they been making it clear ever since that absolutely nothing is going to change any time soon. Hopefully by september maybe...fingers and toes crossed...both mine and the baby's. PS...from the creche photo it looks like there were only two of them at their creche birthday party (somewhat reminiscient of my own birthday parties), but just for the record, there were lots of their friends, but I didn't want to put up photos of other people's kids...in case some one sues us!

Best Father's Day so far

Up to now poor old Sean would be lucky to have gotten a cup of tea and a peck on the cheek on Father's Day...there was no way he was getting a lie in or time off or me doing any of his jobs (because life is too busy, not because I'm lazy).  But this year Lucy and Ronan have finally started to recognise his contribution, with a little help from the crèche.  I'm so impressed, I can't wait for Mother's Day.

UL staff BBQ

Here we are at the UL staff BBQ this week, the sun came out for a few hours. It was a lovely summer really.

The party ended as all good parties do...on the dance floor with Ronan bumping into Lucy, getting a bloody nose and everyone leaving in tears. Great fun had by all.

Swimming for the first time in a year

They won't get into the bath for love nor money...nor bribery with sweets or tv...but they are loving the pool.  Looks like this is how they can get washed from now on.  If only they'd slip and go under for a second...then we could consider the hair washed too!

And just when it was getting a little bit easier...

...Sean started making noises about number 3. He'll say it was me, but really it was all his idea. Christmas festive spirit plus alcohol also had a part to play. Seventeen weeks later and I have to start blogging again, or risk accusations from number 3 about favouritism and not being as excited as the first time around. Today I got down the maternity box and must admit to feeling a litte bit excited. Its like a whole new wardrobe! So there's another bun in the oven, this time just the one (thank God, the saints, Buddha, Allah, any Wican goddesses that might have had an influence, the Universe in general and all other deities not mentioned here). I'm working on the assumption that these aforementioned deities wouldn't dare give me anything other than an very easy baby (good sleeper, good eater, placid) and the whole thing will be a breeze...surely? I'll try not to make comparisons when number 3 arives, but so far the main differences are that I was sicker than I've ever been in my whole life from weeks 6 to 14 and that I still don't have much of a bump. Maybe I'll be one of those women with a nice tidy bump and still have a spring in my step by the end of it, as opposed to the beached whale-look I turned into last time. I'll also have to change my blog name. "Keeraweera and the monsters" comes to mind, but maybe "Keeraweera and the twins and the placid angel", though a little long, might work better.