My husband Duane and I have been married for 2 years this November. We met in January 2004, at the Australia Day fireworks. From then on, as they say, the rest was history!
We fell pregnant with Ella in 2006, and found out 5 months or so before the wedding so we had a lot of people ask us if it were a "shot gun wedding"! But no, we are soul mates and this was just another chapter to our fantastic lives.
Ella was born on Tuesday the 20th March 2007. I had been in and out of hospital for high blood pressure in the last trimester, which was my only pregnancy problem! That, and the fact that I had a monster growing inside of me! At 35 weeks, her estimated foetal weight was already over 7lbs! But at 39w 5d, she was born a healthy 9lb 9oz, naturally with an epidural.
Being a new mum was absolutely daunting, and the most amazing experience I have ever had, period. Nothing compares to holding your newborn bubby all covered in muck and looking into their eyes for the first time.
But it wasn't always as magical as that. I suffered Postnatal Depression (PND) and was diagnosed when Ella was 3 months old, soon after I stopped breastfeeding. I think, in part, both contributed to the other. I gave up breastfeeding because I felt it wasn't doing my precious baby any good, which was on account of the PND, yet giving up breastfeeding sent me spiralling even further which didn't help the PND one iota.
I still mourn breastfeeding to this day. I regret not soldiering on and fighting for something I wanted to do so badly. But you learn these things, and a lot more, when you are a first time mother.
Ella is a fantastically happy little girl. I say that even though for the past 4 days she has been clingy and sooky due to molars breaking through and a cold because she just really is HAPPY.
She was such a content baby. People often asked me whether she ever cried, to which I answered with an exhasberated YES! Obviously she only ever saved it for mummy and daddy and for 3am wake up calls!
She loves people. She is just as content in a strangers arms as she is in my own. She's a show pony and knows she is centre of attention when she is in the room. She's my little star.
She is independant and stubborn, just like her mother. She doesn't stop for cuddles, she is always doing something and I love it and hate it at the same time! I've been hoping that once a sibling comes along she will slow down a bit, or at the very least have someone to run around with.
My 5 year old step-neice Kiara and her get along famously. Ella idolises her and follows her everywhere. I've never heard her laugh as much as when she is with Kiara. I can only imagine how much my heart will soar when she is like that with her own little brother or sister.
Of course that is just my fairytale. I am sure there will be tears and hairpulling and smacking and pinching!
Duane adores Ella. He really does go weak at the knees for her. She is truely a daddy's girl and I love it, as does he!
I remember once, he turned to me and said "I never realised I could love someone else as much as I love you". That is just the most perfect sentence in so many ways. And the feeling is mutual.
He is the most caring and gentle soul. I have never met anyone more courteous and friendly. He has a million and one friends and twice as many aquaintances and to be with him is such a great thing. If anything is handed on to my daughter, I'd hope it would be his nature.
Ella does get her "don't stop" trait from her daddy. Ever since I have known him he has always had to be somewhere or doing something. Usually it involves cars, actually 99.99999% of it involves cars!
Duane is a speedway driver. He's raced ever since he was 9 years old and gave it up briefly when we met, only to be back into it a few years later with a bigger and better car than before.
I love being a speedway wife. And Ella loves the speedway too. She points to our pictures of Peter Brock's Commodores on our loungeroom wall and says "Da-da!". Any racecar is her beloved daddy!
Duane also paints cars for a living. He is a tradesman spraypainter and he does a fantastic job! When I first met him he had a bright yellow ute (Yelo Tera, how I miss you so) that he had done up for a show car. He won many a Show and Shine with that ute, and later build me a matching sedan to boot!
Both were sold to make way for our little bundle of joy, and we traded the ute for a wagon. He gave up a lot when we had her, as did I, but I wouldn't change it for all the tea in China.
Becoming a parent is the best thing I have ever done. And it helps that I am mummy to the best daughter in the world!!
Wouldn't you agree?
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