The Orange Bunch (2024)

01/05/2024

Time you freggen thief! It took 9 months to grow you and somehow it’s already been 9 months since you entered this world - 18months since I saw 2 lines on that pregnancy test - how is that possible? It feels just like yesterday. Man this baby girl is WILD I’ve come to the conclusion mine and Marty’s genes don’t seem to have “timid” or “quiet” written in them. Just like her siblings she’s loud, impatient & strong willed. She has the commando craw down to a fine art and has just begun crawling properly . She can go from lying to sitting with ease and sitting to standing with the help of a table , chair or whatever human is close enough. She loves food and SCREAMS if she has to wait more than 0.000002 seconds for it to arrive at her mouth . She is a TERRIBLE sleeper and I often wonder what I did in my previous life to deserve such slept deprivation (remember how Micah only started sleeping through the night at 6 and a half years old ??) naps during the day however she doesn’t seem to have a problem with. No idea on height but she’s around 8.something kg . She goes to in home childcare 4 days a week for a few hours as I work part time . She loves bath time, breakfast time, lunch time, snack time , dinner time , boobie time, cuddles , books and for some reason the cat even though that love is not reciprocated.

27/04/2024

Baby Blakely 9 months old . How is it possible she’s nearing her first birthday already! She’s obsessed with these fidget toys as they make funny noises when she blows in them . PS ….I still can’t get my insta to connect to my FB 😑 so had to do this manually

08/04/2024

It’s been quiet on here because my Insta account is no longer linked to my FB - I don’t know why and I don’t know how to fix it. I’ve been trying but this page just refuses to exist along side Insta . I’ll keep trying but for now all my updates are on Instagram . Baby Blakely 8 months old

19/02/2024

When learning to eat solids is exhausting 🤣

19/02/2024

30 WEEKS! No update as this photo was from last week and I can’t remember anything 😂 this weeks photo I’ll do some updates though

15/02/2024

Trying pasta for the first time 🤣 she tried 8 pieces and made this face every time

13/02/2024

MICAH TURNS SEVEN! His birthday fell on a weekend this year so we killed 2 birds with one stone (it did make for an exhausting day though! ) we had to cram in birthday morning with presents and waffles then party prep. Now that we have 4 kids I said “right every birthday is special but we can only do big parties for the milestones k?” Well this is my version of small 😂 Happy birthday my little Tasmanian Devil, my Donnie Thornberry, my tornado meets volcano . At least you sleep through the night now - only took 6.5 years 😓

01/02/2024

TWENTY EIGHT WEEKS I was having a chat with one of my neighbours today and we had a heart to heart about life (she’s in her 70’s… maybe 80’s … who knows - older people always look a lot younger than they are sometimes 😂) and she said “life is a flash” and while I’m still young (even though my 26 year old brother reminds me a lot that I’m not 😑) I already do feel like it’s a flash , another year gone, another summer holiday has ended, a month into the year already and 6months of time with my baby gone in a flash. I’ve really tried to soak up the baby goodness this time round because I feel lucky to have had it in the first place but also because I feel like this season in my life is coming to a close and it just feels weird - I’ve had 12 years of it so far and I’m not sure what I am other than Mum. The life is a flash story was told to my neighbour by a 90 year old woman in a rest home and it just felt fitting to share it today as I post another week of baby updates. Blakely is hitting lots of milestones! She’s now sitting, rolling , eating solids , getting a personality ( just look 2 photos ago at Blakely turning her nose up at the food I was offering 😂) she knows what she likes and what she doesn’t. She sleeps face down which doesn’t help my aging I hate it and try roll her back to her back but she flips back over almost instantly. Not only that but she SMOTHERS herself into the mattress literally smooshes her nose and mouth flat , I don’t know how she breathes. Other than buying a safe-t-sleep and strapping her to her back I don’t really know what to do (and having a brother die of SIDS or cot death back then makes me feel more panicky) Sleep is about 730/8pm , 4am then up for the day around 730/8am day is nap at 10/1030 and 2pm then sometimes a bit of a cat nap just before dinner. For solids she loves fruit - watermelon, melon, banana , puréed apple , has just started peanut butter toast . Hates puréed carrot with orange kumera and a semi puréed polenta lamb mix but will happily chew on a chicken drumstick .

31/01/2024

Another Summer holiday done & dusted! Roman is now Year 8, MilaRose year 5 and Micah is now year 3

30/01/2024

When the food on offer isn’t up to standard 😂

30/01/2024

Daddy & his girls 😍

21/01/2024

26 WEEKS We now have a 6month old! In the 25th % for height and 75th for weight 😵‍💫 we are having a lot of fun at the moment trying to get her to sleep and it’s taking some time - the heat is probably not helping. Trying to keep her room cool is hard even with the air con going all day . I’ll go to pull down her black out curtain in the morning ( it’s summer here so the sun is up early and our blinds sit quite far out from the window frame 😑) and I can feel the intense heat radiating through it 🥵 she had her 3 month immunisations (yes I’m 3 months late ) and took the 3 jabs like a champ. We kept on top of the pamol so she barely cracked a fever. The second night though 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 screamed the house and the street down for hours and hours on end I blame jabs Marty blames starting solids - likely a bit of both. It was so bad I had to do the whole put her down and walk away take some deep breaths go back. She has found her voice not really babbling …more high pitched squealing it’s ear piercing but she seems to think she’s very clever. Sitting up on her own 90% of the time I still shove a pillow behind her for now . As for everyone else we are just making it through the Summer holidays day by day mostly inside with the air con 😂 it’s hot but not crazy hot only about 30degrees but the humidity is a killer the air just feels so wet and hot and muggy it’s awful and has brought out all the mozzies . Kids are back to school on the 1st of February- Micah in year 3 , Mila rose year 5 (both primary school) Roman is year 8 2nd year at intermediate school , he will be at highschool next year and that blows my mind 😭

20/01/2024

S**t guys! HALF a year has gone already! And while this not so wee babe has had next to no YouTube story like her siblings she has been the most plastered on my Insta. Hopefully I can turn that around this year and find a little more balance - YouTube is just hard as it take so much time to edit but I don’t want Blakely’s story to be missed. I won’t do a huge update here as I’ve also got her weekly update photo ready to go. All I can say is she short, she chunky , she wild. Happy half Birthday baby girl!

17/01/2024

6 Months old and starting solids!

12/01/2024

School holiday 23/24 so far! Only 3 weeks left - it’s flown by so fast. We didn’t go camping this year as both Gemma and I had babies but I definitely missed it !

05/01/2024

My little marshmallow and her newest development- sitting up! But she’s also obsessed with her feet so sitting up or lying down she’s gotta grab them!

02/01/2024

Goodbye 2023 HELLO 2024 . Well what a year! Here’s a recap! Shared pregnancy with 3 other friends for the first time, had a baby girl , genuinely thought I was going mental when hallucinating on pain medication, built a deck… well watched the deck be built, got a kitten, lost a kitten, got pregnant , lost the pregnancy , built stronger friendships , lost a friendship , celebrated another year of marriage , birthdays & a wedding. I think this year was focused on friendship - I’ve never felt closer to my friends than I did in 2023 they are more than friends they are my people , my family . I am so grateful that I got to spend another year with my rock , my hubby . I love him to pieces and I spent 2023 feeling loved and cared for. I don’t know how to explain how I feel without going all cliche but really my man completes me. I’m not sure what 2024 will bring - right now we have no plans , no trips , no waiting on a baby , no house hunting no weddings , or 21st’s so it could be a “q word” year I don’t want to say it for fear of it becoming the opposite 😂 happy new year everyone, here’s to a fantastic 2024!

29/12/2023

23 WEEKS! I missed a couple of weeks because the days just flew by too quickly - December is a busy month anyway. Blakely is now 5 months old and I did a small update for that so nothing new to report from that one - smiley, giggly happy baby who sleeps in her own room 🙂 the kids are currently on their summer holidays which are about 6 weeks long - I love that NewZealand Christmas is in summer and with the long summer break . I’m not sure I’d cope with a cold wet gloomy Christmas (not to be confused with a white Christmas!) one Surprise for the month of December was I found out I was pregnant. Completely out of the blue, while breastfeeding when Blakely was only 4 months old (nearly 5) after years of infertility, ivf and like no cycles …ever. I’ll go into more details in a video but some things were just a bit off and we joked I was pregnant and when I tested a second line popped up and my mouth hit the floor. Unfortunately I lost it and we guesstimate I was around 7 weeks. I bled ALOT and it went on for days . It’s made us think about our future and I wish it had held on as it just happened whereas now we know it can happen and have to make the decision. I am only 5 months post C-section so was probably for the best it didn’t work out . I want you to look at this 2 ways depending on your situation - either see this as a warning that it can happen to anyone and breastfeeding is NOT contraception OR see it as this is a person who spent thousands on fertility treatments , had PCOS , unexplained infertility, no cycles , medicated cycle after cycle fail then go on to have a surprise pregnancy 5 months after having a baby . For once I was that friend of a friends cousin who got pregnant naturally 😂 it only took 12 years . ( just to add Blakely was a “naturally conceived pregnancy” however we had just finished 6 rounds of Letrozole so I think that was a bit of a kick start)

27/12/2023

FIVE MONTHS OLD! Blakely is the happiest baby girl and I love her so much! She’s so smiley and giggly. She has rolled front to back but doesn’t do it all the time as she’s still not really a fan of being on her tummy. I’ve finally booked in her 3 month immunisations I feel so bad that I’ve left it so long 😬 no updates about her head as her appointment needs to be rebooked and her latest Plunket appointment was postponed due to her family having covid . I measured it myself and her head seems to have not grown at all since her last appointment 2 months ago … but we may just be measuring different to Plunket 🤷‍♀️ Blakely now sleeps in her own room at first I was a bit anxious but it’s ok now … I do zoom in on the baby monitor to check she’s still breathing every time I wake though . She’s just so lovely and growing up too fast

25/12/2023

This year vs last year ! Merry Christmas From the Orange Bunch!

The Orange Bunch

01/05/2024

27/04/2024

08/04/2024

19/02/2024

19/02/2024

15/02/2024

13/02/2024

01/02/2024

31/01/2024

30/01/2024

30/01/2024

21/01/2024

20/01/2024

17/01/2024

12/01/2024

05/01/2024

02/01/2024

29/12/2023

27/12/2023

25/12/2023

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