Firstly, for the record....I STILL have my cold! Longest cold in the world... ever!  I'm still a bit deaf in my right ear and I sound like I'm talking out of my nose - kind of like an Aussie, but less whiney! (Sometimes!).  If it wasn't for that, I'd feel great!  On Sunday we were out shopping, on Monday it was a beautiful day so we headed out for lunch.  Steve, Ella (who has now and from this moment on in the  blogs onwards will be known as Egg) and I sat outside enjoying a good lunch washed down with a pint of Montieths Celtic, something I've been fantasising about for the last nine months!  I couldn't bloody taste it thought!  Grrroan!  I've lost my ability to taste, so the Dom is still sitting in the fridge and the red wine I'd excitedly stocked up on, remains in the wine rack.  Egg is a fantastic baby, she's really laid back and enjoys four hourly feeds, which makes it easier on me!  She's really cute and cuddly.  The girls adore her.  Moons always wants to hold her and proudly told everyone at school about her!  Pip is very taken with her, she just stares at her and strokes her head.  It really helps having this Nanny here.  The girls love her, especially Pip.  I've been able to rest and take care of Egg and Steve has been able to get on with work.  I started this blog back in 2006 - just after Pip was born.  I was in a very dark place and people started sending me PMs, which politely told me not to kill myself!  Pip screamed all the time, she barely slept and had an array of digestive problems.  Steve and I had returned from a failed venture in Mexico.  We were completely broke and pulled on lots of credit and lived in the shadows to avoid debt collection agencies.  Steve struggled to find work, only compounded by the fact that he couldn't go to all interviews because we couldn't afford the bus fair for him to get there.  We were forced to live with my parents, who aren't the most nurturing souls on the planet!  The labour had been horrific and left me in lots of pain, but my parents were eager for me to lose weight and not lose my ability to do housework.  They were awful to Moons daily because they're of the belief that children should be seen and not heard (you may wonder what went so wrong with me!!).  We really were on the brink of despair.  Our luck changed when Steve was finally offered a job, his first few paychecks had to go on debts to save us from more trouble.  We decided to get enough money together to get flights and a bit of a buffer and leave the UK for our new life in NZ (with Steve being a Kiwi we felt sure that immigration would be fairly easy).  It was one hell of a risk to take, no savings, no plans. Two young children.  But we would have been, I feel, in a lot more trouble staying as we were.  We put our mental health before anything else.  Although I've never been keen on NZ, its certainly the best decision we could have made.  I never would have thought I'd be sat here, after my third child, in a lovely home, with a Nanny to look after the girls and me actually enjoying being a new Mum to a new baby.  Its such a remarkable difference back from my first entries in 2006 - which I can't bring myself to read yet, feeling its still a bit raw.  There has been a lot of stress here in NZ, but I still don't think its anywhere near how we felt in the UK.  There has been some stress over the last few days.  Egg is still quite yellow, so she had to have some tests.  Fortunately the jaundice isn' bad enough to warrant treatment.  Pip's appointment with a psychologist came around.  It was a long time ago that I was forcing the GP to refer her to a psychologist.  I've been anxious about her development.  I know that Moons is advanced so not a great benchmark, but I do feel that Pip has struggled to learn speach, and she still doesn't sleep much.  The GP wanted to put it down to second child syndrome.  My insistance paid off.  An evaluation has revealed that Pip is a little behind her milestones.  She's not a 'special' child and won't require assistance at school, but they have suggested we get some guidance from a speech therapist and developmental paycholoigist to encourage her motor skills.  Its exactly the outcome I wanted.  I wanted to give her the right support and I wanted the direction to do that.  We have that now.  We also have a prescription for a drug that mimics the chemical in the brain responsible for inducing sleep because she is simply unable to wind herself down at night.  Its a temporary measure to encourage her own brain to do what its supposed to.  I'm glad that the psychologist didn't see me as a pushy Mother with high expectations and has instead suggested ways to help Pip reach her potential.  The Nanny has been incredibly receptive to this and has been helping by reading with her and repeating words with her.  Something we do anyway, but its great to her have on board as well.

I just wanted to say thank you to all the people that messaged me and left comments for me following the birth of Egg.  Its so nice to receive your thoughts and warm wishes.  Its quite incredible really, I received so much support right at the start when times were very hard and I've received some wonderful comments more recently.  Sure, there's some 'not so great' comments and PMs, but they pale in comparison to the support.  Thank you!

Here's another photo of my lovely Egg..