Car Trips

So I barely have enough time to blog at the moment between the pub and the kids and the packing. Not to mention my little sewing and hair bow business that I have on the side. I'd have to say I'm pretty occupied every waking minute of my day. But you're blogging now - you say. Well I'm thought I may as well use my time productively seeing as I'm stuck in the car with a husband and 5 kids on a four hour drive. I can't take my sewing on the road with me, hell I can barely sew in a straight line(actually I can but with much concentration) on unmoving ground. I can't play with ribbons - industrial strength glue in a moving vehicle, no way. I grabbed my netbook as it was probably the safest thing I could do in the car.

I use to love long drives, in fact, the longer the better. When my stepdaughters mother moved them out 2.5 hours away from the city it was sad - because my stepdaughter wasn't nearby but it was also kind of cool because we had an excuse to go for long drives.  Hubby and I use to hop in the car when my boys were with their dad and we'd just drive and see where we'd end up, exploring different towns in our wonderful state each trip. Windows down on a warm summer day with the music blaring. Yeah, it was cool.

Then we had more kids, my fourth boys HATED the car. Oh my god, he use to scream the 10 minute trip to taking the older boys to school. Our daughter came along only 15 weeks ago and she is unpredictable when it comes to the car. One trip she screamed for 2 hours, no matter how many times I stopped and fed her. Then last time she didn't make a peep, not even when she was hungry. It sucks that we live 4 hours away from the city, especially when you're pregnant and have to make trips for appointments. Hubby is starting his new job back in the city soon and this is our second trip in under a week.

I'm sure most parents can relate. The whining because they're bored/tired/hungry.

"Mum, he keeps touching me"

"Mum, he poked his tongue out at me"

"Mum, Tahnee spewed"

Stops to breastfeed, go to the toilet, get yet another drink, more snacks, toilet again, fill up the petrol tank. Our car get totally trashed.

I like to take the back roads whenever possible. I hate, hate, hate overtaking people and I really hate having to overtake road trains. It terrifies the living daylights out of me to be honest with you. I would much rather sit at 80km an hour behind a truck for 200km than overtake it. Even worse is night time(like we're doing now). I think I feel even more nervous because I'm not the one driving. Hubby wanted to overtake this road train and I wouldn't let him do it(eventually we made it to a dual carriage way). I felt sick to my stomach and all these scenarios went through my head. Then we got stuck behind a ute what was driving super slow that said road train caught up and was sitting on our ass. ARGH. So hubby overtook that - and I almost had a heart attack, very surprised I didn't crack my netbook seeing as though I was gripping it so hard.

Long drives - no longer something I enjoy. Perhaps one day when the kids have grown and it's just hubby and I. And we can take drives on warm summer days, with the sun roof open and our 'old fogey' music blaring from the speakers.

Baby Girl Update.

So this is the youngest of our tribe. Tahnee is 14 weeks old and is the only girl that lives with us(my stepdaughter comes to stay on school holidays). She is an absolute joy at the moment. When she smiled, her whole face smiles - no matter what kind of mood you're in, one smile from her and you can't help but smile back.

Her favourite thing to do is blow big raspberries. When I put her down for the night, I lay there in the dark and listen to her blow raspberries until she falls asleep. She is so placid and only really cries when she is hungry or if she has a belly ache(and then the vomit follows).

And her hair - yes, she has some crazy crazy hair - I've been able to tie it up since she was only 9 weeks old. You would not believe the amount of people who stop me in the street and ask me if I had heartburn when I was pregnant. It just keeps growing, just like her two older brothers(but not the eldest two, they were baldies). Thankfully I don't need to cut it like I had to with the boys, instead I can put cute headbands and clippies in her hair.

She is sleeping through the night, about 10-11pm to 5-6.30am. Then has a few big sleeps during the day. Breastfeeding is going fantastic for us as well, 2kg up on her birth weight at 3 months a pretty good indication that things are going well.

Mind you, she's not perfect and there are many nights where she will scream for no good reason. Or she will be fast asleep in my arms and be wide awake as soon as I put her down. She also has a nasty habit of vomiting whilst feeding in bed. It usually means that I have to sleep in a wet spot because there is 3 of us in the bed. Projectile vomiting was pretty common in the early days, it was unbelievable the amount that she threw up, that use to come after the screaming(I put it down to a bellyache). Her fingers are her newest toys, which is wonderful seeing her trying to grab things. Not so wonderful when she gags on her own finger and vomits again. And she is growing at such a rapid rate that she has outgrown 2 sizes of clothing, it kills me that she has clothes that she never even got to wear!!

All in all, I wouldn't change anything(except perhaps the vomiting in my bed part). I love watching my children grow, especially when they are as new as little Tahnee. It just fascinates me they way they grow and learn about the world around them. And they give the best cuddles(the other kids do too but she doesn't squirm like they do!)

Oh and in case you were wondering, the heartburn thing is an old wives tale, I had hardly any!

New Beginnings

I suppose I should just start at the beginning. My name is Tracey (aka Tee), I'm a 27 year old mama to 5 gorgeous Children - 4 boys and 1 girl and a stepmama to 1 girl - aged from 3 months to 8 years. We currently live in the middle of nowhere in an old country pub, which my hubby and I run ourselves. Business has not been so great(thanks to the drought) and we decided that we would be better off moving back to the city and back into the rat race. I am also a WAHM(Work At Home Mum) with a little side business making handmade goods - mostly bags and headbands and bows at the moment. It's still in very early stages though as I had so many people requesting bags on Facebook that I started up my page early. In amongst moving next month, I'll be trying to get my stock up(after I get through my current orders).

I'm not new to blogging, but I am new to Blogger. It's just time to move away from my previous blog(which I didn't have much time for anymore anyway) and focus my website on my business. We're in for a big life change again and so I saw it fitting to take my online persona on a change as well. This is my personal blog, about my family, building my business, my journey to being healthy and finally losing the baby weight, frugal living and any other random ramblings.