Category: Being a Dad

Photo Friday: Our two babies…

Renee BartonLeave a comment

Every day we are astounded at how different our boys are. We are constantly reminiscing back to when Jesse was a baby and how different Jasper is to his older brother.

Apart from their completely different colouring and features, they are also very different in size. At just 3 weeks Jasper has already come back to and surpassed is birth weight, weighing in at a monster 4.7kg. Compared to Jesse who didn’t weigh that much until he was 3 months old!

Jasper is already wearing clothes of his brothers that Jesse was wearing much later. So we decided to have a bit of fun with this.

On the left is Jesse at 9 weeks old and on the right, Jasper in the same suit at 2.5 weeks old.

No doubt we will notice many differences as they grow up but there is no denying they are already very much in love with each other.

P5080175

 

 

The Terrible Twos: Is it a real thing?

Renee BartonLeave a comment

I’ve heard a lot about the ‘terrible twos’. I’ve seen other people’s children throwing epic tantrums in the grocery store and I’ve seen the memes on Facebook about ruining a toddler’s day by giving him the wrong coloured sippy cup! But is it a real thing? Surely my kids won’t do that…right??

Our big boy Jesse turns two at the end of the month and it is safe to say he has a lot going on in that little mind and body of his at the moment.

Not only is he experiencing a whole host of develmental milestones, he is experimenting with his independence and all the while adjusting to life with a newborn in the house. As are we all!

Over the past few weeks, our usually happy and calm toddler will suddenly burst into a full blown tantrum; stamping his feet and squealing loudly when he doesn’t get what he wants. And we’ve previously mentioned his night terror episodes where he becomes almost possessed-like, stuck in an eratic state between sleep and awake. Some days Kaine and I look at each other and say “who is this child?”


So yes, it would seem the ‘terrible twos’ are a real thing. And despite our best efforts, we are not immune to the crazy behaviour of a two year old.

For example, here are a few things that have caused meltdowns lately:

  • Offering food he does not want to eat.
  • Attempting to remove footwear for sleeping even if they are seemingly inappropriate i.e extremely warm slippers on a hot night.
  • Removing clothes for a bath.
  • Giving a bath.
  • Taking him out of said bath before he’s ready even though he didn’t want to get in it in the first place.

As a parent in this day and age, I am really grateful that we have so much content at our fingertips. A quick surf on google and we found some really great articles on techniques for managing night terrors and dealing with tantrums. There’s also a lot of opinions we didn’t agree with but as first time parents we find it really helpful to do the research and then implement what feels right for us.

With tantrums, there seems to be two schools of thought; ignore the negative behaviour completely or acknowledge the child’s emotions and help them to understand it. We are choosing the latter. Providing he isn’t hurting anyone or damaging anything we are letting him execute his tantrum and offering support and an explanation he can understand.

We’ve realised we can’t necessarily stop the tantrums. And nor do we want to really. We’ve learned it’s an important part of development and learning.

We can only hope that there aren’t too many public meltdowns in the middle of Woolworths because we wouldn’t let him have the box of shapes or bag of chips he wanted! God help us!

Let’s talk about night terrors…

Kaine BartonLeave a comment

Let’s talk about Night Terrors!

This little guy looks pretty content this morning… happily guzzling his bottle as he watches some early morning ABC Kids. In fact, he has been his happy normal self this morning.I wish we could say the same about our little Jesse during the night.


Unfortunately, it would appear that throughout the past two nights, Jesse had been suffering from night terrors! And it is absolutely horrible!!!

On a couple of occasions through both nights, Jesse has ‘woken up’ and started screaming, and kicking and thrashing about in a trance-like state that we just couldn’t seem to snap him out of. And the reason I put ‘woken up’ like that, is because according to the literature we’ve read, he actually isn’t awake.

Night terrors are most easily explained as being caught in between wakefulness and sleep. Essentially, the brain disconnects from the body when we sleep, but when someone is having a night terror, it essentially means that there is an incomplete disconnect. This is why Jesse looks awake and his eyes are wide open, but really, they are mostly asleep and completely oblivious to their surroundings.

And unfortunately for parents of kids who suffer from night terrors, there isn’t a hell of a lot we can do!

The best course of action is to let them ride it out themselves. Night terrors can last anywhere between 5 – 20 minutes. Which does mean if your child is showing symptoms for as long as 20 minutes, it can be quite upsetting for the parents. But, unfortunately for parents, trying to sooth your child, or touch them, or wake them, or talk to them can often make the terrors worse.

While we didn’t realise Jesse was suffering from night terrors two nights ago, after some research and taking to a doctor, we were better prepared last night in case we had a repeat. But, despite being prepared for another episode (which did eventually come at about 11pm), we still felt helpless and upset that Jesse was thrashing around and on the verge of hyperventilating, yet we couldn’t do anything to help.

I guess the best thing (if there is any upside to night terrors) is that children who get them don’t remember what has happened the next day. Which is why Jesse has woken up in his happy, chipper self.

I sometimes wish that we parents had the ability to not remember what happened either.

We officially think night terrors SUCK!!! And with some of the literature we’ve read saying most kids outgrow night terrors by the age of 12, we can only hope that Jesse doesn’t have them for that long.

If you would like some more information on night terrors, we found this article very helpful: Month 21 Worry: Why does my toddler wake up screaming?

Welcome to the Family

Renee BartonLeave a comment

Due Date Delivery

My due date started like most days did in my last couple of weeks of pregnancy. Fairly steady contractions throughout the wee hours of the morning as I lay in bed wondering if today was the day. However unlike most days, they didn’t stop. Even once I was out of bed and going about my morning the contractions continued. Mild, but enough to know they weren’t braxton hicks and steadily increasing in intensity.

I knew the odds of babies coming on their due date was slim, but I could only hope. It was my last 24 hours to have the baby with my sister still in the country.

P4190089

Well, he must have heard my prayers because just hours later, I was holding my baby boy. Once he decided it was time there was no stopping him. My contractions were getting stronger so at about 10.45am I started timing them. At 12.15pm we headed to the hospital and at 1.32pm Jasper James entered the world.

Our First Night

I was in a state of disbelief. From feeling like I was going to be pregnant forever to giving birth all within a few hours, I was definitely shell-shocked. Blissfully happy though.

P4190276

That afternoon, Jasper met his big brother and we had some family and friends visit. And when it was time for sleep, Jasper did just that. But I was still riding the wave of adrenaline. Between that, the hospital noise and the noisiest sleeping baby in the world, mama didn’t get much sleep that night.

By lunch time the following day we were bundled up in the car and headed home. Did they really just let us lose with a baby…again??

P4190502

One week on

When there is a newborn in the house the hours and days just seem to disappear. We have spent the week hauled up at home in a beautiful little love bubble. The days lost in a blur of feeding, changing, baby gazing, visitors and of course continuing to ‘maintain’ a toddler.

Jesse has adapted exceptionally well so far. He is very gentle with his baby brother and loves to give him kisses and touch his ears. We know it’s a big adjustment for him so we are mindful to be patient and carve out special time that is all about him.

Jasper is sleeping and feeding like a champ. In fact I couldn’t believe how quickly he took to breastfeeding and how good he was at it from birth. With over a kilo on his brothers birth weight, I suppose that is a benefit of a bigger baby.

Mum and Dad are both doing well and settling into our new way of life. One week post partum and I’m feeling better each day. My labour experience was another beautiful one, albeit faster and more intense. A bit of gas and my support team got me through and there were no complications or issues (polite way of saying everything remained intact!). They weren’t wrong though when they said after-birth pains are worse with subsequent births. Ouch!!

Almost immediately after birth, the banter of a third child started and is now an ongoing joke in our household. Time will tell who wins that one…

For now we are absolutely smitten with our two gorgeous boys are feel incredibly blessed.

Photo Friday: First days at home…

Kaine BartonLeave a comment

Wow, what a whirlwind the past week as been.

And now, we have a brand new human at home that we are fully responsible for (why did the hospital let us go home?!).

The first days at home have been surreal, but also amazing, as Jasper, Jesse, Renee and I all bond and bind as a foursome instead of a threesome.

Also, I think we have the cutest baby on earth at home with us (slightly biaised opinion of course).



Falling in love all over again…

Kaine Barton2 Comments

The morning started like any other morning has over the past week and a half. I slowly opened my eyes as my senses alerted me to the light of the morning sun starting to peek through the blinds and the sounds of birds chirping and early morning mowing rolled through the bedroom.

Like most mornings, I quickly came to realise that Jesse was laying in bed next to me. Rolling over to face him I began to watch his chest rising and falling with each breath. His tiny little mouth slightly open and letting out little snore like sounds. His whispy hair flicking back and forth as the fan oscillated back and forth.

Renee was still sleeping. Breathing the heavy breaths of a woman who is 39 weeks pregnant and constantly exhausted. Sleeping soundly because at that moment, she wasn’t experiencing the contractions that have kept her awake some nights.

It was peaceful. It was serene. And I didn’t want to disturb what was such a beautiful moment.

So I lay there. Awake, but as still as I could be. I lay there and found myself staring at Jesse… his eyes… his ears… his tiny little mouth and lips… his whispy blonde hair… his red, puffy cheeks… his nose…


I stared at him, wondering how we came to create such an amazing little person… How did we create this gorgeous, spirited, amazing little man that has captured our hearts so much?

I stared at him until I realised I was falling in love with him all over again.

It was almost like an out of body experience. Like I was floating above watching myself staring at this tiny little human that was silently sleeping in between us. It felt like a dream. Like it wasn’t quite real and that I needed to reach out and touch him just to make sure he was real and he was truly ours.

But I didn’t need to. Because he is real. He is ours. He is the cheeky little monkey that we have  grown to love more and more each day over the past 22 months.

And then he opened his eyes and all of a sudden, those gorgeous blue eyes were staring back at me, like he knew what I was doing all along.

The countdown begins…

Kaine BartonLeave a comment

The countdown has begun.

The countdown to my last day of work before I start my leave to welcome Baby Barton #2 into this world has begun.

And damn I’m getting excited!

Thursday, 6 April 2017 will be my last day at work for the next 6 weeks. That’s right… the start of 6 weeks of holidays leave is almost here. But while I may not be at work, I will still have plenty of work to do!

I wish I could say that it’s going to be a holiday… but those of you who have had the pleasure of having a newborn at home know that a lot of the time, it’s the farthest thing from a holiday! Throw into the mix the fact that we already have a toddler and that we will for a few weeks have the distinct pleasure of having two under two… it’s sure to be a recipe for disaster! Or that’s at least what I’m preparing myself for.

Nah… in all honesty, I’m really looking forward to it. At the end of the day, it will be some much needed family time together, without the stresses and distractions of work. We will just have to deal with a different type of stress… the stress of a newborn.

With all that said, it still doesn’t quite feel all that real as yet. I mean, all the signs are there… we’ve completed the new nursery for Baby Barton #2. We’ve washed the tiny baby clothes we had away in storage. Renee’s belly is growing by the minute… but it still doesn’t feel like we are going to have another tiny little baby in our arms any week now. It still feels as though it hasn’t fully sunk in as yet.

Another baby? Really? Is it actually going to happen?


Of course it’s going to happen… maybe it just hasn’t sunken in yet because I’m still so focused on other things. But it’s going to happen!

The big question from here is… when is it going to happen?

Well, the official due date is 19 April 2017. But, Renee is currently full term and with our last pregnancy, Jesse decided he wanted to meet the world early. So what about this time around… well, I am going on the record with the following predictions…

Baby Barton #2 will be a girl, born on 12 April 2017, weighing in at 6lb 5oz and will be 51cm in length.

It won’t be too long before we find out if my predictions are right!