Our new arrival! It’s a….

… BOY!! Little Charlie Benjamin made his grand entrance into the world on the 31st March. He is the cutest little thing that ever there was! I adore this baby boy so much, I can’t even begin to say.

I’m a little embarrassed that it’s taken me this long to get a post together about our little guy. If you follow me on Facebook you would have heard the announcement in a more timely manner (you can see his first piccies in this update.) But yeah… he’s almost 2 months old now. Where has that time gone??

Having a newborn does something to me, I’ve discovered. I go into this kind of protective hibernation mode. (Hibernation without all the sleeping, that is.) But everything else suddenly seems much less pressing. It all goes onto the back burner. Life revolves around baby for a little while. The most important goal of the day is to try and sneak a bit of extra sleep. If I manage to get the dishwasher loaded and a meal on the table, that’s a bonus. And I thank God daily for whoever invented dry shampoo. #truth

I’ve sat down numerous times to pull some photos together for a post, and never got very far before either the baby cried or I started falling asleep at my desk or another child needed me. Being a Mummy of four is something I’m still getting used to. It’s been tiring of course. Little babies are always exhausting. But they’re also deliciously snuggly and cute and squishy. That seems like a pretty decent trade to me.

We named little Charlie after my Dad. The middle name, Benjamin, is one of the twelve tribes of Israel from the Bible, carrying on the tradition we started with the other two boys. (Jaxon Levi and Aran Judah.) And no, in case you’re wondering, we’re not planning on completing the rest of the tribes. Ha! This baby factory is closed for business. #sodone

It’s a funny feeling when you know a baby is your last. With every little milestone, there’s almost a bit of mourning that happens. Babies grow so fast it should be illegal. I’m already feeling all soppy about how big he’s getting already and I get nostalgic looking at the little clothes he’s grown out of. He’s out of the 0000 size clothes and into 000 already.

The kids absolutely adore their little brother. After having my first three so close together (3 kids 3 and under) and all the craziness that entails, it’s been nice having a bigger gap this time. Not only is it more laid back when your older children can look after themselves a little more, but it’s been so sweet watching them pour affection on baby Charlie. They are completely besotted with him.

We had this newborn photo session when Charlie was ten days old. Tasha from Toka Photography did an amazing job. (She also did my maternity shoot.) So talented!! I know I’m biased, but these have got to be the cutest newborn photos in existence.

Charlie was a perfect little angel for the shoot. He slept for almost four hours straight. He let himself be dressed, undressed, posed, re-posed, moved from background to background, and rearranged again. At first my heart would be in my throat watching the photographer arrange his arms and legs just so – I was SURE he was about to wake up any second, and the whole thing would go south. But he slept through it all.

Our nickname for our little guy is Charlie Bear. Hence the reason I love this next photo into a billion little pieces and up to the moon and back again. You guys. I SERIOUSLY CANNOT HANDLE THIS LEVEL OF CUTENESS. So. Precious.

What a teensy little bundle he was.

So, we’re a family of six now. I’ve gotta say; so far, so good. I love it. It’s pretty darn busy, for sure. But all those people who told me that going from 3 kids to 4 is easier than going from 2 kids to 3? They weren’t lying. We were already outnumbered, so what’s a little extra chaos thrown into the mix? I’m lucky I have such an amazing hubby who picks up the slack with the older kids when I’m exhausted, does school runs and gets dinner ready and supervises piano practices and a thousand and one other little things every single day. My Mum and Dad came up from Tasmania for a month to help out, and they were incredible. Plus I have some wonderful friends who helped me stock my freezer with meals before bub arrived, something I’ve been extremely thankful for on more than one occasion!

I feel like I’m starting to find my feet again a little. The pace of life in some ways is much busier now; in other ways it’s slowed right down. There are long hours spent feeding the baby on the couch while I binge-watch Fixer Upper and The Block and all the other wonderful home reno shows. There are long beautiful walks on the beach carrying baby boy in a stretchy wrap. With Allegra at kindy three days a week, it’s given me lots of time to snuggle with my littlest and enjoy this blissful baby stage before it’s gone forever.

I’m enjoying it so much that it’s hard to care too much about everything else that needs doing. My inbox has to be seen to be believed – and I’m like a little kid with my fingers in my ears singing “LA LA LA” really loudly so I can pretend not to notice for a little while longer. Work time is pretty much non-existent right now, because when baby goes to bed, I go to bed. No staying up late for me, not when I know that my little guy is going to be calling my number at 1.30am and again at 4.30am, which if you are interested to know, is a very dark and freezing cold time to be out of one’s cosy warm bed.

I spend quite a lot of time fantasising about sleep at the moment, I will not lie. I think I’m just getting older and less resilient or something. 😉

But I can’t complain really. I somehow survived on 3 hours sleep a night with child number two, who was the worst sleeper in history, so really, getting up twice a night is pretty tame in comparison. He’s a good little bear, is Charlie. (Then again, my first baby was sleeping through the night at 4 weeks of age. How’d I get so lucky with number one?! That, of course, is why we went back for more kids at such a rapid rate. It took us a while to catch on that the others weren’t going to be quite as easy. Ha!)

Of course, when all’s said and done, I wouldn’t change a thing. Every day is a blessing. I’m thankful and tired and happy and very, very content. Some days, when I’ve had a really good cup of coffee and the sun is shining, I can even feel my creative juices beginning to stir again.

I can’t yet quite see my way past the mountains of laundry and the feeds and changes and daily nodding-off exhaustion, but I know that somewhere not too far off, I’m going to find my rhythm again. There are creative projects calling my name and blog posts to write and a very exciting project in the works that I can’t wait to tell you all about; and oh, I have the cutest baby-boy nursery to show you…. soon, very, very soon…

… but for now, my baby bear wants cuddles, so you’ll find me on the couch, smiling at that sweet little face and nuzzling his deliciously edible soft cheeks and happily ignoring the rest of the world.

xo Karen