It sucks coming 2nd!

Remember how Cadel Evans won the Tour de France last year? He became Australia's latest sports hero. Most Australians had no idea who Cadel Evans was until this win. We are a parochial lot that way. Anyone know who came second? Anyone?

Which brings me to Charlie. Poor Charlie. He has started going to day-care at Caring 4 Kids, one day a week. I at least need to get him in 3 days a week, so I can go back to work in early April.  So far only one day has come up so I had to take it. They are so awesome that no-one wants to leave and the waiting list is large. While I was there last Friday there was three other parents asking for extra days. Gulp.

I'm hoping Charlie's cuteness moves him up the waiting list at Caring 4 Kids!

When Aiden started going to day-care I was very organised. He had his own little back pack with his name on it as well as cot sheets (labelled with his name), bottles (labelled with his name), he had "onesie" singlets, specially purchased so his tummy wouldn't get cold if his shirt rode up and there was no one there to pull it down. He had bibs with his name on them too.

Charlie went off to day-care last week with bottles labelled with his brother's name, which he won't drink from (he only likes boob), cot sheets that wouldn't fit on the cots at day-care, (not labelled) and his 'things' in an "enviro" shopping bag. Poor Charlie. 

Very optimistic packing all these bottles!

Charlie's clothing situation is not great either. Being the second boy in the family there is heaps of (hand-me-down) clothes for him to wear, in theory. Aiden ended up having lots of clothes, despite there not being the same range of clothing to purchase for boys, as there is for girls. Any children's clothing store or children's section of department store seems to have 75% girls stuff and somewhere towards the back there is some navy, green, brown and if you are lucky, red, mostly uninspiring clothing for boys. And I still managed to buy Aiden heaps of clothes. 

The only problem is that Aiden and Charlie were born at different times of the year. Aiden in March as Sydney moved into winter and Charlie in October as the weather started to warm up. This means that Charlie gets to wear about a third of Aiden's hand-me-downs. And because I seem to have clothes everywhere in the boy's room I haven't bought any more. Poor Charlie.


Of course this neglect started at the very beginning. When Aiden was born a professional photographer visited the hospital to take some new-born shots. We loved them and many people asked who took them (Footprints Photography) and some friends have gone on to use them for their baby shots. Here is one of our favourites:

Aiden, 3 days old.

When Charlie was born the hospital was packed with women and their babies. Charlie and I were shipped off to the Crown Plaza at Codgee to enjoy the Little Luxuries program (tough gig I tell you) because I was a 2nd time mum and because our health fund had decided to cover the cost. There were no professional photographers at the Crown Plaza. Poor Charlie.

Luckily in the past week, the mummy-guilt kicked in and a few things have arrived for poor Charlie.

 Here is Charlie's new bag. It arrived on Monday. Phew! 

Here are Charlie's labels. They arrived today. Yah!

Better take a good look at these labels because after a flurry of labelling I will probably put them somewhere safe, and then not remember where I put them. On the positive side I have just found the labels I ordered when Aiden was Charlie's age!

I have also procured some brand new cot sheets for Charlie for him to use at day-care. He has a new bottle with a softer more boob-like teat which "the girls" at Caring 4 Kids, think he will like a bit better.

And luckily in January our lovely friend Andrea Thompson came to visit and photograph Charlie. She managed to get some beautiful shots between him screaming his head off, for no apparent reason. Maybe he had a hint of the neglect ahead of him?

Welcome Charlie James Pearson

We didn’t know that Charlie was going to be a boy. We should have though. We had a lovely selection of girl’s names…and even a good second name with a family reference. But it was not to be.  We had another lovely boy called Charlie. He arrived at 6.59pm on Friday 21 October after being induced, a labour of 5-6 hours with some awesome drugs. I highly recommend gas while lying back in a warm spa bath. Even if you aren't in labour! He was 3.296kg and 50cm long. Perfect!

The Prince of Wales hospital at Randwick was “packed” that night with new mothers and their babies.  I was moved into a shared room at around 10.30pm and in doing so got the last bed on the maternity ward.  There I shared the night, not sleeping, with another mum and her second baby. Call-bell’s rang all night and mid-wives came and went in a noisy manner. It was a relief to told in the morning that I was going moved to “Little Luxuries” at the Crown Plaza Hotel at Coogee. 

Little Luxuries is a program where, if you and your baby are well enough, you can move to the Crown Plaza for the rest of your hospital stay. They have a mid-wife in the hotel 24 hours to support and check on you and your baby and the food is really good! From what I can work out the main downside is the beautiful beach across the road. I found I really wanted to take Charlie in his pram for a walk along the beach, but didn't feel well enough to actually do that! Also, as you are still a 'patient' you aren't allowed to leave the hotel! What a tease this view was!

Beach view from my room

View right under my balcony!

We had Charlie on Friday and came home from Coogee on Tuesday. Was nice to be home in Glebe, close by to all our favourite places. So far the locals at Clipper and Astor Espresso Cafe's have met Charlie as well as everyone at Stevie English Hair (a girl has to keep her hair nice) and Aiden has showed off his little brother to all at Caring 4 Kids.

Cuddles with Aunty Em!