Gabrielle Gibson
Tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m Gabby I am a mama of 2, Alexander (2) and Edie (16 weeks). I’m also a fur mama to my Daschound Baggins (4) (yes that’s Baggins as in’s Frodo Baggins lol) My Husband Andy and I have been together for nearly 12 years and got married in Queenstown NZ back in 2017! (Yes another nod to The Lord of the Rings lol - I promise you it stops there. We aren’t one of those crazy cosplay couples ). Other than that I’m your average joe!
What were you doing before babies?
My life before babies was pretty much consumed by work, study, and Andy. I have a Bachelor in Design and a Bachelor in Construction Management and spent 6 years getting those straight outta college! On the work front I’m a Project Manager, seconded within Defence…that’s probably as in detail I’ll go in with that Baha! We are blessed with a tight group of friends and family so we are busy hanging out with them and traveling overseas at any opportunity. What a breeze life was before kids, am I right?!
How did you come to be a mum?
We were surprised with our Alex. I say surprised loosely as he was most definitely wanted but wrong timing! I remember feeling a bit off and Andy suggesting I should take a pregnancy test. I’d completely missed all the signs lol! I clearly wasn’t as in tune with my body, luckily my husband was keeping tabs . I wasnt expecting to get pregnant so soon we were hoping to wait a little while longer to start officially trying. When I found out I cried on the toilet I had only just started a new job and was stressing about my eligibility for Mat leave but I got over that pretty quick and became super excited! He was the first born grandchild on both sides and if you know my family they were so overly thrilled! He has had no shortage of love! I really enjoyed my pregnancy with Alex except for the fact that I was sick the entire time lol. Alex’s labour was quick but hell! I had dreamed of having a water birth but those dreams were thrown out the window as He got stuck so I needed assistance to turn and get him out! As soon as I was given the spinal block I was in heaven…I swore by epidurals at this point.! With Edie it was different, I planned her. The moment I felt myself ovulate, she was made. We are very blessed in that front. Poor Andy had snapped his Achilles 2 days before but I was not gonna let that stop us I again really enjoyed pregnancy, although I must say second time round with a toddler was challenging at times, both on the body and mind. I became envious of my first time pregnant self - I should have taken advantage of those spontaneous naps while I could My birth plan this time round was to opt for an epidural lol! But Labour with Edie was very quick… She popped right out! we were in and out of hospital that same day lol!
What has your feeding journey been like?
I’m lucky to have had no issues with breastfeeding. With Alex I breastfed him until he was 21 months. I had to stop as I was pregnant with Edie and it became too uncomfortable. I never thought I would be able to wean him off as he was such a boob monster. Luckily all it took was for me to tell him mama’s boobs were empty and that was the end of that! With Edie she is also being exclusively breastfed now in between meals and we love it. will probably keep going until she’s ready to stop!
What has sleep been like in your house?
Everytime I read this section I see that majority of the kids have been terrible sleepers. So that makes me feel better! Alex was a terrible sleeper until he was about 18 months BUT now sleeps like a king. I remember feeling so stressed and my husband and I feeling so frustrated due to lack of sleep! We honestly tried everything, read all the sleep guides and nothing helped. He would scream at the top of his lungs for hours on end the best advice I received was from One of our friends who said to me “don’t stress one day they will eventually sleep through” and it was true!! We dedicated 2020 Xmas holidays to focus on sleep and legit within 1 night of trying he did it! lol Now he wants and requests to go to bed! I never thought id see the day! Edie on the other hand has been a dream sleeper lol - I know you can hate me if you want but I did suffer!! I think because we aren’t as stressed about sleeping. We have accepted that with babies comes lack of sleep! I have accepted there will be periods where we will have terrible nights and that’s ok! It’s crazy how little sleep you can function from!
The hardest bits…
Both of my babies have been diagnosed with Profound Bilateral Sensoirneural Hearing Loss. Which essentially means they are both Deaf. My Husband and I unknowingly carry a gene known as Connexin 26 which means every child we conceive has a 1 in 4 chance of being deaf. Hearing this news broke our hearts. We didn’t know what this meant for us and for our babies. We didn’t know anybody that was deaf or about deaf culture. Alex failed his newborn hearing screening a few times when he was just a couple of weeks old. That test will forever haunt me. They kept telling us that it could just be fluid in the ears from birth and not to worry. It wasn’t until we had an ABR with the Audiologist at Canberra Hospital where we were told of his diagnosis. His first few months of life were filled with a lot of appointments, being fitted with hearing aids to then having MRIs and then the dreaded surgery day to fit his implants at just 6 months old! Navigating through the deaf community also has been challenging. There are so many opinions on what to do, implant, don’t implant, sign now sign later.. it’s endless. For us though we have agreed that as these are our children we will ensure that they will be given any and every opportunity to learn language and sign in the further. The whole experience was a rollercoaster but since the surgery he has absolutely amazed us. His hearing and language is as good as hearing peers his age, which is ultimately the best outcome we could ask for. Edie has just undergone her cochlear implants surgery and is approaching 1 month being “switched on”! She’s doing really well and we are so proud of how she has taken to her new ears. She is all smiles and loves hearing all the sounds honestly it’s been like the missing puzzle piece. She was itching to communicate and now she has all the tools to do so. It’s been tough having to go through this process again but we are confident that with early intervention her listening and language skills will be on par with her peers. Of course there are some tough days and “why me” moments but I remind myself at how blessed I am, to have these two beautiful little babies that I would give everything for.
The best bits…
For us it’s seeing Alex enjoy his life with sound. We’ve really come to appreciate the sense of hearing. He has amazed us with his abilities we once thought weren’t possible for him. If you told me where we would be a year ago I wouldn’t have believed you, I know that really cliche to say but it’s honestly true, we had no idea what our life would turn out. Hearing him tell us “I love you” on his own accord really melts my heart. I know every parent says this about their child but he is just so intelligent, his heightened sight coupled now with his ability to hear… just wow. At 18 months he knew all 10 numbers through recognition and counting. We would be in the grocery store and with his little voice he would yell out “TWO” or “FOUR” lol. People we stop and ask how old he was and when I would tell them it was like their eyes popped out of their head in amazement At this age he would recognise various types of car logos and tell you who in his respective family drove that car! it’s so random but pretty impressive. I love seeing his personality blossom he already has the best sense of humour and is so charismatic! I honestly could go on about how much I love this kid so I’ll save my child boasting to myself . With Edie I’m loving the baby stage!! I feel like as a first time mum you sort of get lost in the overload of information of how to raise your child, how they should eat, sleep and play. But the second time round we are just going with the flow and appreciating each stage. She’s such a good baby, this time is just flying past. I can tell that she is about to burst with character like her brother. The cheekiness is just starting to come through and I’m so excited to watch her grow!
How do you make time for yourself?
Honestly I’m pretty bad at not allowing time for myself, my family always tells me so. Lockdown hasn’t really helped with that either. Recently I have signed up for a home Pilates workout program which I have been doing at 10pm at night haha. When kiddies are asleep I love to have a cheeky scroll through tikotok for some brainless humour….ohhh and 30 min long showers…my only peace.
What’s next for you and your family?
In terms of kids I don’t think we are done at 2… well I definately don’t feel like I’m done having kids. But we will see how we go… watch this space… Andy and I are planning on learning Auslan so our family can become “bilingual”. Our big focus really is to get both Edie and Alex on track with their listening and language skills so that they are on par with their hearing peers, whilst also teaching them to be happy, kind, smart little humans!
Amongst it all We have recently bought a new house so we are planning to extend and renovate that. Mid year we moved out of our little townhouse are currently living with my parents!we love their company but We can’t wait to be back in our family home.
A piece of advice for our readers?
Parenting is challenging. Definately the hardest and most stressful thing in your life. But you wouldn’t change it for the world. Appreciate each stage of your child. They are only little for a small time! Another big one is, Not everything needs to be done by the book, there is so much pressure on parents to do things certain ways and everyone has their 2 cents they just love to throw in but you know your baby best!
Gabby has kindly provided some link for more information in regard to Profound Bilateral Sensoirneural Hearing Loss and AUSLAN.