Spunky Sam

A new blog

2008-03-15T12:04:00.002+11:00

Hi everyone,

I won't be updating this blog anymore, but I will leave it here for until I can work out if there is a way to merge these posts with my new blog.

The new blog is called 'Catch the Clouds' and is about anything and everything - but still mainly about my boys!

I just think it is going to be easier to update one blog, rather than trying to keep up with two.

Hope to see you over at the new blog.

Trace

16 Months

2008-02-02T23:03:00.000+11:00

Second child syndrome must be setting in already... I can't remember the last time I posted a proper end of month update for Sam.

He are a variety of photos taken during January. From the cheeky little boy who loves to do whatever his brother does, including eating at the 'nee naw' table (ie think of the sound that a fire truck makes, this is a fire station that converts into a table and chair).
There is a photo taken at Queenscliff when we went to look at the old steam trains there. Josh got up there, so of course Sam did too! Then he wouldn't come down until Kel had to get up there and grab him. In the middle we have a photo at the beach. I think he ate a lot of sand that day... and ended up very wet (even though he was only supposed to be wading up to his knees). The next photo is his first time getting his face painted - what a scary clown! Then there is another pram photo, followed by eating icecream at Torquay! What a mess he made - but he loved every second of it.

Every night I sing Twinkle Twinkle to Sam... it is the first tune that Tad plays. Sam has even learnt how to do all the actions, including blowing a kiss at the end of the song! (Well I do the kiss, he does the blowing!!!)

We have been very lucky that Sam is still having two day sleeps... the first one is usually about 9 or 10am, the other one at about 3 or 4pm. We give him his bottle and he walks around to say good night to everybody (which involves tilting his head toward them waiting for a kiss). When he wakes up it's his job to crawl under the cot to find his empty bottle, then he goes and puts it in the sink! He is a very tidy boy (I don't know where he gets that from!!). He is always getting paper towel to wipe up any spills.

We have been having a yukky time with teeth lately. It took a while to realise what the problem was. Sam kept waking up in the middle of the night crying. He just lay there wimpering, and I would tuck him in and put Tad on and he would go back to sleep for a little bit. Then it would happen again. I gave him Panadol, which seemed to help. It wasn't until yet another wake up that Kel decided to put teething gel in, and that is when he felt a tooth. It is up the top on the left hand side. Then the next time he woke I put some more gel in, and I felt another tooth, this time on the right at the back, and also another one on the left near the front. So poor Sammy has been getting three teeth at the same time - including two molars!!! No wonder he was miserble and clingy and wanting cuddles all the time.

Oh and I almost forgot.... he can talk!!! He just doesn't want to... or need to, most of the time! We have been trying to encourage him to say ta when we give him things, but lately he just shakes his head when we do that, and then asks for it again (by putting his hand out). There have been a few times when we have caught him off guard, and he has answered us with a very clear 'No'. One time was "Do you want to go on the naughty mat?". The other time was a bit strange... he must have been having a bad dream, and woke up screaming, followed by a very loud and clear "No". Kel even thought it must have been Josh who said it because it was so clear.

We have also noticed lately what a little temper Sam has. If he doesn't get what he wants he throws himself to the ground and cries. Today he even started banging his head on the ground. If he is in his highchair he gets his fork, or his bowl or anything he can grab and throws it to the floor.

Well that is Sam at sixteen months. I can't believe that he will be turning two this year!!!

Sam's Second Christmas

2008-02-02T20:56:00.000+11:00

For Christmas this year, it was still hard to know what to get for Sam. He plays with a lot of Josh's toys.

In the end, he got a fold out couch of his own, a little electronic piano (that plays frogs croaking as well as music), new shoes (always a hit with Sam!), a Tad frog of his own (though it has been updated now, and I like Josh's version better). A Little People farm set and matchbox cars (also another hit there).

In the end, Josh was playing with Sam's toys a lot!

Other things he got were a little ride on bike that converts to a rocking toy, a cookie jar shape sorter, a bag of sand toys, some books and clothes.

Sam was right into unwrapping presents... pulling off a little piece of wrapping paper at a time. It took him ages to open each present! And the Santa Sack didn't hold his attention long... we actually found some presents still in the bottom of the Santa Sack about a week later!

A few things you may not know about Sam

2007-12-21T21:50:00.000+11:00

Sam loves Post Man Pat on tv. He really doeesn't like Santa! (He did a death grip on me when we entered Santa's cave). He loves going in the rocking car and rocking slug which we have in the shed now. He loves the sand pit and could spend ages there. He loves baths. He loves animals - and is not scared to go up to Eddie and push him off his bed (and Eddie knows who is boss and lets him!).
He loves socks and shoes - probably because they mean we are going outside!
He loves wearing hats and playing peek a boo when they are too big for him.

He can show you his belly if you ask.

He does a lot of grunting, and not much talking... but we still get what he means.

Thirteen months (and a bit)

2007-11-12T22:01:00.000+11:00

I have been slack, slack, slack!

I missed the thirteen month post... and have almost made it to fourteen months!

Sam is such a clever little boy... he is picking up new things every day.

He can point at the cow on his wall when you ask him, he points to his mouth, he can let you know when he wants a drink, or wants to get up, or get down. He blows bubbles in the bath (with his face in the water!). He doesn't really say much in words, but he can still let us know what he wants. He does say mumma and dadad and bubub. He waves every time he sees the cats (because that is usually when I let them outside in the morning.

He loves stealing sultanas from my breakfast in the morning. Actually he is a lot like a seagull when anyone has food that he wants.

Ouch

2007-10-28T21:27:00.000+11:00

28/10/07 (Yes I am actually typing live this time!!!)

Sam's dressing came off only after a day or two. But it looked like it was healing nicely and sealed with a scab. Then he was chasing Josh down the driveway and fell over and (you guessed it) fell splat on his head. The wound had opened again and was bleeding. It wasn't too bad though. A bandaid helped to cover it. Then about half an hour later he fell over again, onto his head, and it started bleeding again...

And then in the bath tonight it got wet and started bleeding again!

We need a crash hat, some cotton wool, padded walls and a baby walker and then maybe he won't fall over again!

Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks...

In summary... a trip to Torquay beach, Werribee Zoo (the pram photo), putting the picnic baskets away from Sam's birthday party, and a photo taken today in the backyard (in the car).

It's started already!

2007-10-28T21:25:00.000+11:00

22/10/07

Yesterday morning started like any other... Josh playing with his track, Sam trying to get into his room, Josh cracking it with Sam and slamming the door and locking him out of his room. Only this time Josh opened his door again and (I'm assuming this bit) pushed Sam who (I'm guessing) hit his head on the corner of the wall. I was in the kitchen at the time and in the 5 seconds it took to get to the hallway there was blood everywhere. His head had split open on the right hand side of the forehead. I told Josh to go and get Dad. Apparantly this translated to "Get up Dad, Sam's bleeding, I need a paper towel". We went down to the local doctors and were taken to the emergency/treatment section. Luckily Sam wasn't upset, and was even smiling at the nurses. We had to wait about an hour before we saw a doctor. And then three turned up! Luckily he didn't have to have stitches. We had to wrap him up in a big sheet to hold his hands down and keep him still. Then they held the wound together with steri-strips and glued his head together!

He is fine now, running around and playing like there is nothing wrong.

The one year results are in!

2007-10-28T20:50:00.000+11:00

We had our 12 month assessment at the health centre. In the red corner, weighing in at 10.6kg with a length of 76cm and a head circumfrence of 48cm we have Sam the Maximus!

He is doing great, doing all the right things. He has finally started to get that eighth tooth down the bottom, so it will look a bit more even soon!

He already likes to be a helper. I have been going through the bags of hand me down clothes in his cupboard. I take a top and put it into his drawer, he picks it up out of the drawer and puts it on the floor!

Our cheeky little one year old

2007-10-03T22:04:00.000+10:00

Its that time of year again! Footy grand finals, Melbourne Show, the beautiful, sunny spring days... these are all things that take me back to the days leading up to Sam's birth.I loved eminiscing... thinking back... "this time last year I was watching a movie, and secretly recording how far apart the contractions were", "this time last year we were just about to head off to the hospital" (yes we were up at that time - getting ready for the party!). Then waking up in the morning and thinking "this time last year I was starting to push', and then a couple of hours later "this time last year I was STILL pushing" and then "this time last year he was born!". And remembering the little sheep like cry that he had!

I rewound the home video back to the first footage of Sam, the day he met Josh. It was amazing to see this tiny baby, making the smallest of movements, a little tongue poking out, eyes looking to the sides, fingers moving slightly. And comparing to now!!! A little boy who is always on the move (usually to where ever I am), who can understand what we are saying, and can tell us in his own way, what he wants (usually with a lot of grunting and reaching).

Sam woke up at 6:30am, and we had to wait until 7:30 for Josh to wake up to start the present opening. The first present that Sam saw was his train ball pit. We set it up the night before, and I had to keep reminding Josh that it was Sam's, not his! We dropped in the 50 balls that came with it, and couldn't believe it! They didn't even cover the floor of the train. Lucky we had another 200 balls from Josh's ball pit tucked away in the cupboard! Sam LOVED it! Actually, we couldn't get him out of it to open the other presents! We also gave him an Amazing Animals train. Josh picked out a giraffe toy that you pop balls in it's mouth and they come out the bottom(!). Oh and we almost forgot the Sam CD that we got. It has songs with your child's name in it. It was a bit strange to hear the Sam version, when we were so used to hearing the same songs with Josh's name in it!

Sam had a morning sleep, while we got ready for the party. We had a Teddy Bear's Picnic theme for Sam's party. Even before he was born, I knew that I wanted to attempt the 3D teddy bear cake that I had seen on the Internet. We planned for a picnic in the park... but the weather had other ideas! A quick call to Lisa and Laura (who live right near the park) for a Navan Park weather report told us that we were going to have to change plans... and quickly. It was just too windy! A mad rush of text messages and phone calls, followed by a mad rush to clean up the house and we were ready for the guests to arrive. Sam had even obliged by having a nice long sleep until about 10:30am.

The teddy bears had a picnic in the lounge room, the humans had a bbq lunch under the pergola. The actual party seems like a big blur to me (I will have to check the video to see what actually happened!). We got some great items for Sam's time capsule, including letters, poems, a copy of The Australian Car Buyers Guide 2007, a copy of Rolling Stones, a recording of Playhouse Disney and a 5 inch floppy disc. I can see that one being very interesting on Sam's 18th birthday... we will have to try and locate a computer that has a floppy disc drive. Even now, most computers do not have one! I think they are already more obscure than a record! To think that they only hold 1.44MB, compared to a CD - ??? & a DVD ???. My iPod holds 4GB and that is considered small now. There are not many files these days that will even fit on a floppy disc! Anyway, I am getting a little off track here! Back to the party...

Sam was spoilt with lots of presents, he just couldn't cope with opening them all at the party, so we left them til after his afternoon nap. That means a lot of people didn't get to see him open presents... so I am sorry about that. I know that it can be great to see people open the present that you bought for them. He got some clothes, a Finding Nemo dinner set, an alphabet puzzle, hand made puppets, a caterpiller pull along toy, a train beady toy, a teddy bear, another carriage for his Amazing Animals train, bath toys, a truck, a Teddy Book, a hand made beanie.

Look at all these presents!
Me and the boys!
Josh - sprung with cake!

The funny hat family

And now to talk about the cake... I was really happy with the end result! I think it looked great, and it really wasn't that hard! I just hired the 3D teddy tin, made the cake, and iced it with a special tip that makes grass, or in this case, teddy fur! Just one minor detail... the first cake I made - a caramel mud cake - was a bit of a disaster! Two packet mixes at $6 each, and my teddy came out looking deformed! He had no feet! I kind of forgot that mud cake doesn't rise... so it wasn't quite enough mixture. So I had to madly rush about making another one, this time a madiera cake. Luckily I started the cake on Friday morning! The caramel mud didn't go to waste though - I just chopped it up ready to dish out. And it was delicious!I think the best compliments I got were when guests arrived and walked right past the cake not even noticing that it was a cake! They thought it was a teddy bear!

My favourite photo - brother love.
Josh had just blown out the candle, and I think Sam was in awe!
Sam got to have a little cup cake all to himself. He sucked on it for ages!
He must have wanted it to last!

One thing that I noticed was the comments about Sam's walking. To me it seemed that he had been walking for ages, but even Aunty Kel who only saw him five days earlier said that he was walking heaps better then the last time she saw him. He is a man on a mission now! He will still start crawling if he is in a hurry, but most of the time he toddles along. And if he can grab
somebody's finger to take them for a walk he can really get up a head of steam!

I don't know who had more fun at the party - Josh or Sam... and it seems that Josh is spending a lot of time playing with Sam's new toys... but we all had a great time. And we can't believe that it has been a year already!

Just over a week to go

2007-09-21T14:57:00.000+10:00

One week and two days and Sammy Boy will be turning ONE!!!!

Thought I had better hurry up and post the 11 month photo! But that is what life is like at the moment, a blur! Time seems to go so quickly.

Yesterday was a big day in Sam's life... because I am going to count that one as the day he started to walk. Last time I said he could do a record of three steps, well now we are losing count. And he will just start walking all the time now, and stand by himself without even thinking about it.

I did get a little bit of photo of him walking last night... its not great quality... I might try to get something better another day.

Oh and he can clap now, with his hands! It is issued more as a demand though - clap clap - hands up in the air (as in "pick me up").

11 Month Photo

2007-09-21T14:53:00.000+10:00

11 Months

2007-09-07T20:55:00.000+10:00

Wow... 11 months. Time to get my butt into gear!

It is September again, the wisteria is just starting to flower again, Spring is in the air!
It is a great time to play outside. That is why I hope that Sam starts to walk real soon. We take him outside and he always ends up in the swing while we do the gardening or hang the washing.
He used to love the swing, but even he is getting fed up with it now.
I even let him play in the sand pit the other day. He absolutely loved it! It was just the constant "no Sam you can't eat sand", "spit it out Sam, that's yukky", got a bit tedious after a while.

We went on a few play dates in the last couple of weeks. It was good for Sam to play with some kids closer to his own age. I guess that's the thing with being the second baby... most of your 'friends' are three year olds! His friends are three months older than him and already walking up a storm. So I think that has really motivated Sam, because he got really adventurous the other night and took a few tentative steps!!! You should have seen the look on his face! He was so proud. He just knew that he was doing something clever.
The record so far is three steps before he falls in a pile of laughter.

Oh yeah and I have been told that he is looking older now (see I can't notice these things - I see him every day!). His hair is getting longer at the back, and yes it has the dreaded curl!

On the teeth front - we now have a total of seven teeth! Four on top and three on bottom.

A new trick that Sam did tonight... I told him to clap... and he did... with his feet!!! And yes, he thought that was very funny! He can't clap with his hands yet but.

What else? He loves looking at the fish tank, he cracks up at the cats, he likes to follow you into the toilet, he has become a real mummy's boy, he likes to drink out of Josh's straw cup, he loves having a bath, he talks on the phone to me at work, he puts his hand up to his ear and pretends to talk on the phone, he loves car keys, remote controls and mobile phones (but I think all babies do!).

His current routine is to go to wake up some time between 6:30 and 7:30am. Then he has a breakfast of toast, or weetbix or baby muesli. He is back to bed at 9am with a bottle. He wakes up some time between 10 and 11, then its lunchtime. This could be anything from left over veggies, to baby food, to yogurt. Back to bed with a bottle at about 1pm. Then he wakes up between 2 and 4pm. At 6pm if I am working the boys come down to the train station to meet me. Kel says that about this time Sam starts sooking, like he knows that I will be home soon.
Then I give Sam his dinner which could be anything, similar to lunch. Lately he has been having a bath with Josh, then a bottle and into bed at 7pm. He usually wakes once during the night at about 1am for a quick bottle and nappy change (but I am hoping to wean this one real soon!).

Ten Month Photos

2007-08-21T22:21:00.000+10:00

Ten months (a bit late)

2007-08-21T21:46:00.000+10:00

Sam is definitely a baby on the move now. He loves getting into mischief... and if he disappears for a second a few of the places he might turn up include the bathroom (standing against the bath), Josh's room (the track wrecker) or standing up and looking into the fish tank.
Sam had some rough nights in the past week and we found a tooth coming through on the top. Finally some more teeth to even out his mouth! I was beginning to think that he would only ever have two teeth! And those two teeth are huge now. So we started doing the teething gel and pain relief thing to try and help him sleep a bit better. It didn't seem to be helping though. That is when I noticed last night that he has a tooth coming through on the bottom too! Poor bugger has two teeth coming at the same time... and we had only been putting the gel on the top gum.

Sam is being a very clever boy and sometimes stands for a couple of seconds without holding onto anything! Usually when he forgets and gets distracted by something. And he is finally getting the hang of crawling properly, but will still commando crawl when he wants to get somewhere fast!

The photo proof

2007-07-17T14:42:00.001+10:00

I got into a black and white photo mood last night.

Gee it is hard getting Sam to sleep when he just wants to stand up all the time! He has hit his head so many times... but he is finally learning how to fall with grace!

It's started!

2007-07-13T23:09:00.000+10:00

Sam has started pulling himself up on things... and I can see that it won't be long before he starts cruising.

I put him to bed tonight and a little bit later he started crying. I got his bottle ready and his crying was getting worse and worse. I finally got to his room and open the door to see my baby STANDING UP IN THE COT!!!

It was kind of funny... he was crying because he couldn't work out how to sit down again!

And he can wave now too!

Nine Months Old

2007-06-30T20:47:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I was feeding Sam his Weetbix for breakfast and he must have had enough... the next thing I knew I was wearing his weetbix! He thought it was very funny, and Josh thought it was very funny and tried to copy!

I can't believe that in three months time Sam will be turning one! He still looks like such a baby because he still doesn't have much hair.

He still commando crawls, but today he did try to climb up on me and get into a standing position. So who knows, maybe he will just go straight to walking.

Eight Months

2007-05-29T15:56:00.000+10:00

Sam is eight months old now. He has two teeth. The second tooth just appeared one day. I was using my finger to 'clean' his one tooth and thought 'hang on, that feels like more than one tooth to me'. I had a closer look and I was right!

He has been doing a really good job of sitting lately. We can place him on the floor in a sitting position and he will stay there for ages. He can even use his hand to stabilise himself.He has been heard saying a new word in the last few days 'dada'. And he makes a funny clicking noise with his tongue too.

He has started eating three meals a day now. We have made our way through a big list of fruits and veggies. He seems to like most foods that we give him. The only exception being rice cereal. If we try to add rice cereal to something to thicken it up he doesn't really like it as much.He loves chewing on rusks. He almost goes crazy when we give him one... like he is about to chew our hand off!

He has been seen rocking on his knees a few times but no proper crawling as yet. Though that doesn't stop him from getting around! Turn your back for a couple of minutes and you don't know where he could end up! Though most of the time he just tries to find where Josh is.

We had another zoo trip the other day (Sam's fourth trip to the zoo in 8 months!!). He liked watching the butterflies flutter around his head and the seals swimming back and forth in front of the viewing window.

Sam is fascinated with the Eddie and Rocky and Kitty too. The other day he crawled up to the sliding glass door while I was out hanging out the washing. The door was open and he crawled up to the door frame and reached up and grabbed Eddie's head. I think he nearly poked him in the eye. Eddie is just as fascinated with Sam too! He puts his head right up close and sniffs him. He is so gentle with him though. But he does stay out of the way when Sam is in his walker! He can get very fast in that thing and always tries to chase Eddie.We have had to reassess our childproofing with Sam in the walker. Suddenly he can reach Josh's chalks, playdoh, books and drawings.

We still haven't had regular sleeping through the night. We got lucky one night, but it was just a once off. Usually he has a bottle around 10-11pm, then another feed around 3-4 and then I feed him before I go to work at about 7 (well for a while it was regularly at 6:50am every morning!). He has his meals and bottles throughout the day and then I feed him again at about 7pm and he goes to bed.

I took Sam for his eight month check up today. Here are the stats:

Weight: 8710g
Length: 69cm

Head Circumference: 46cm

The Tooth Fairy has been!

2007-05-07T16:43:00.000+10:00

Last week I had to go to the dentist and get a wisdom tooth removed. It was a pretty simple procedure, and I got to take the tooth home. The tooth fairy even came and took my tooth away and left me $10!!! (which doesn't quite cover the cost of having it removed!)

Anyway, this tooth fairy has been very busy lately, because not only did she take my tooth away, but a couple of days ago I spotted a little white dot in the bottom front of Sam's mouth!

Lets just hope that it isn't my wisdom tooth growing in there!

Six Months

2007-04-14T14:05:00.000+10:00

Look how far you have come in six months! Boy the time has gone fast.

Here is a photo of Sam in his swing. He loves it!
Sam has started commando crawling now! He is a boy on a mission, especially when he sees Josh's toys lying around. But it has been a bit disgraceful to see how dirty his clothes can get after crawling around on our kitchen floor!

And the other big milestone I have to report is that Sam has started eating real food now. His first food was rice cereal, and he has had some pumpkin now too. He really likes pumpkin.

First Word!

2007-03-19T20:49:00.000+11:00

My great news is that Sam has said his first word!!!
And I am VERY happy, because it is "Mumma"!!!!!!

I could just sit and stare at him saying mumma all day long!
It was almost a shame to put him to bed tonight!

Five Months

2007-03-10T17:39:00.000+11:00

OK, we are a little bit late, considering it is the 10th March now....

But somewhere between the 28th February and the 1st March Sam hit the five month mark!

The biggest thing to happen in our lives lately is that I have returned to work. I survived the first week at work, Kel survived the first week of being home with the boys alone, Sam survived on the bottle while I was at work and Josh survived!

We did have a few hiccups along the way. At first Sam wouldn't take the bottle - but I think hunger got the better of him after a while! I had a bit of trouble expressing milk at work at first - but that got sorted out too. I could only get about 220mls for the whole day which is one full bottle, but it is better than nothing. We have ran out of frozen milk now, so Sam has had his first taste of formula milk too.

I am in the office on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. I am home on Tuesday and Friday and do a total of 8 hours work spread across those two days. This means that I can still spend time with my boys, and get some work done without being on the computer all day. When I am home I feed Sam, and when I am at work he has a bottle of either breastmilk or formula (depending on what we have available). He doesn't seem to be getting confused about things - as long as his belly is getting full he doesn't seem to mind where it comes from!

We still have the rolly polly baby. He can even suck his toes now! And he has sat for a couple of seconds with a little bit of support behind him.

He is still waking through the night but the routine is something like this...

First feed at about 7am, then 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm. Then he sometimes wakes for a feed, or I will wake him at 10pm just before I go to bed. Then he can usually last until about 4am on a good night. On a bad night he wakes twice for a feed (the extra one at about 1am).

He has a cold at the moment though and has needed to have a few cuddles through the night. He is a bit rattley and sounds like he needs to cough... but how do you tell a 5 month old how to cough?

Not long now until Sam's half birthday! And of course we will have to have a party to celebrate! Can't have one for Josh and not have one for Sam now can we? ;)

So keep that weekend free (probably the 31st March) and start thinking about an item for Sam's time capsule... it could be a letter, poem, picture, song or any other idea that you can come up with to represent your hopes and dreams for Sam for the future. (Items can be emailed or sent by mail if you can't make it on the day)

The rolly polly baby

2007-02-20T14:49:00.000+11:00

Well I think I did jinx it last post...
He has started waking up again a couple of times each night. With only two weeks til I go back to work I am really hoping that he will start sleeping through again.

I think the main reason is that he has started rolling from his back to his belly and then he gets stuck there and gets very frustrated and cries. He seems to have forgotten how to roll back onto his back! He has ended up in all sorts of positions too, with his legs sticking out of the bars, or one arm and one leg, and sometimes he completely flips around 180 degrees!

He has found his feet now too. That just makes him even more rolly... as soon as he puts his feet up and grabs them he ends up rolling onto his side.

His first night in the big cot!

2007-02-04T23:03:00.000+11:00

We finally found the time to clean up Sam's room, find a place for all those stuffed toys which had been taking up residence in the cot and put all the new clothes away.

That means that Sam is now sleeping in his cot!!!

He had a day sleep in it, and is right now asleep and will hopefully stay that way until the morning.

I hope I don't jinx it, but the last few nights I have been letting him go a bit before I go into him. It has meant that when he woke at about 2 or 3 that he would go back to sleep until about 6am.

This morning I woke at 7:15 and had to actually go in there to check on him. He was just lying there awake!

Four Months

2007-01-30T16:20:00.000+11:00

Weight: 6850g

Length: 64cm

Head Circumference: 42cm

These measurements all put Sam into the 50th percentile - meaning he is all in proportion and an average sized baby!

He can roll from front to back and half way over onto his side when on his back.

He can hold things in his hands, and puts things into his mouth.

He is a big time drooler! He has probably started teething.

He is a thumb sucker.

He always has big grins when he sees his Dad in the mornings.

He still wakes up through the night for a feed. Sometimes it is only once, sometimes it is twice, and on a bad day it is three times!

He goes in the big bath now so he can streth out and kick and splash about.

And just quietly... he had his first taste of real food the other day... a lick of chicken gravy off Dad's finger - umah! But he did love it!

A belated Christmas post

2007-01-16T16:41:00.000+11:00

Sam was only three months old for his first Christmas, so he didn't really know what was going on! Santa had a lot of trouble filling his Christmas stocking.

We thought we would get a good Santa photo this year because Sam is too young to be scared of Santa. The problem was that we had to wait so long in line to see Santa, that we had to wake him up when we got to the front of the line, and of course, once he was awake he wanted MILK! So he really wasn't very happy at all! He actually ended up grabbing handfuls of Santa's beard!

Sam got an Elmo play gym from us (which Josh likes to play with more at the moment), a toy dog that plays songs and games (a bit like Josh's Tad), a bib and rattle, some dummies and teats for his bottle, Other presents he got were a mobile, clothes, a vibrating bouncer chair (which magically put him to sleep in the middle of a very noisy room), stacking rings and a book.

A Good News Day!

2007-01-16T15:16:00.000+11:00

Today we got the results of the followup ultrasound... and you can probably guess from the title that it was good news and everything is normal! Yay!

Last night Sam slept through the night from 8pm to 8am. Another Yay!

It has been really great seeing Josh and Sam play games together already... I can't wait til Sam is a bit older and they can really play together. Josh plays a hide and seek game with Sam where he hides behind my chair and pops up on different sides. Sam always looks around for Josh and smiles when he see him. He really loves his big brother :)

A New World Record!

2006-12-31T14:53:00.000+11:00

Last night Sam set a new world record... he was the current record holder and now he has made another personal best!

Now you may be wondering what he did that is so fantastic? Well I wouldn't say fantastic... but it sure was an achievement!

I never thought I would see anything like it again, but Sam is a boy who is full of surprises!

It all hapened at about5am. It had been a bit of a restless night, Sam hadn't been feeling great. I was changing his nappy and when I lifted his legs to take off the old nappy it relieved a bit of gas for him. So I thought I would help him out a bit and hold up his legs again. Another noise! And a little bit of poo, nothing to worry about though. Third time lucky though.... and this enormous rumble and loud squishing noise and I looked and he had shooted the poo all the way across to the wall! It was like a splattering of paint all down the wall and all over the carpet.

I was truly amazed! How can so much come out of such a small baby? And at such force and speed!

If it wasn't at such an ungodly hour I might have even taken a photo (you are probably counting yourselves lucky now!).

3 Months

2006-12-31T13:28:00.000+11:00

Wow! That last month went so fast! To me it seems like Sam has been around forever, so it seems strange to say that he is only three months old. Also, I have been telling everyone that he is "nearly three months" for so long that it seems like he should be four months old by now!

Our big news is that Sam rolled for the first time today!!! The first time I only saw out the corner of my eye, then he did it one more time, then we grabbed the cameras and waited and waited, but of course he didn't do it then!

Well he has just woken up so I will have to do a Christmas update later.
Happy New Year everyone!

Two Months!

2006-12-04T10:07:00.000+11:00

Here are the photos of Sam taken on the 30th November - two months old!

Smile :)

2006-11-29T17:54:00.000+11:00

Sam has started smiling now :)
He gives us really big grins, and sometimes he even lets out a little laugh!

He likes being tickled up his arm and under his chin.

I don't remember if I mentioned this on the blog or not, but just after Sam was born they checked his hips (as part of the normal routine) and they said there was a 'slight click'. They gave us a referal for an ultrasound at 6 weeks. We had the ultrasound on the 15th November and have just gotten the results. This is what it says (so you will have exactly the same information that I have)...

"Both hips are demonstrated. There is a lateral placement of the hips. The acetabular angles at 61 degrees are within the normal range. The appearances suggest slight physiological immaturity. A repeat examination in six weeks may be appropriate".

So we will be booking in a follow up ultrasound in 6 weeks time. I am not too worried about this. I have a friend who has been through this before with her daughter and everything is fine now. One of her hips corrected itself by the followup scan, the other one still had problems so she had to wear a brace for a few months. To see her now you wouldn't even know it.

Last night Sam had a feed at 10pm and then not again until about 4am, then breakfast at about 9am. I think that is great! Though he has had a few hungry nights when I have had to get up three times - and because I am not used to that anymore it really takes a lot out of me!

Josh went to give Sam a kiss yesterday, and instead of kissing him on the head like he normally does, he kissed him on the lips. Well Sam chose that exact moment to spew up some milk! It went all over Josh's face and into his mouth!!!

Keeping our fans happy :)

2006-11-20T13:51:00.000+11:00

Oooh I have had some requests for more updates on Sam (well one request anyway!)

Here is a picture of Sam having a bath. He has started to really enjoy his baths now, and they smell so nice when I use the Jurlique bath oil that my friends bought us. It does seem a bit too nice to use on a baby, but it is very nice on my hands too - so that is a bonus! I could really tell that Sam had grown today when I gave him a bath and his head was touching the top and his toes were nearly touching the end of the bath. Looks like it won't be long til he has to go in the big bath!

Sam gave me a very nice birthday present last week... he slept from 11pm until 5:30am.
We spent the day in the city and I took him to work for show and tell. I managed to get a lot of people to give him cuddles who don't normally hold babies... he he he!

Now that my birthday is out of the way it is time to start thinking about Christmas!!! We will have to take the boys to see Santa and get a photo taken.

5 Weeks old - the stats

2006-11-03T17:44:00.000+11:00

We went to the health centre today for a weigh in. My little booby monster has put on 600g in two weeks. He has now passed the 5kg mark.

Everything is going great.
He still spends most of his time either asleep or feeding.

Weight: 5280g
Length: 55.5cm

Here is a photo of Josh and Sam... it is really hard to get a photo where they are both looking good at the same time!

Late Again!

2006-11-02T12:35:00.000+11:00

Now you may or may not know this, but as a family we really struggle to get anywhere on time... especially if it is a morning appointment!
Yesterday we had a playdate at Mumbo Jumbo (indoor play centre) and we were half an hour late. Here is a run down on what happened - just to give you an idea:

We were just about to walk out the door when Sam did an explosive poo which left his back feeling very warm! I went and changed him, including a full outfit change. I then picked him up and he spewed all over himself and all over me! That meant I had to get Kel to change Sam while I changed myself. We finally got everyone in the car and went past the petrol station and it was extremely cheap so we just had to get it then (they always put it up by about 10c on Wednesday afternoons).

The days of just deciding to go out - and just walking out the door, are long gone in this house now!

Now we have to make sure we have a change of clothes for Sam, Josh (and me!). Nappies, Pullups, food, drink etc, decide whether we will need one, two or no prams, and by the time all this happens, Sam is usually ready for a feed so that takes another half an hour!

So now I hope you will understand if we are late occasionally :)

One Month Already!

2006-10-30T19:24:00.000+11:00

Its the 30th of October and look how much my little man has grown! He is starting to fit into 000 clothes now, and he has those gorgeous chubby cheeks! I think he must be going through a growth spurt at the moment because he hasn't stopped drinking in the last 24 hours (only a slight exageration!).

Today I definitely thought his eyes looked blue. But some days they look grey and sometimes an almost green colour.

Josh loves giving Sam cuddles and every morning he says "Hi Sam" and then tries to teach him how to say "Hi Josh" in return!

I think we have already got a nickname for Sam too... our little Samboy!

This little Samboy can make big stinkers though! And I have to go and change one now!

A Star is Born!

2006-10-19T17:35:00.000+10:00

Yesterday Sam was featured in the Ballarat News. He is famous now!

And here are the photos that were taken in the hospital...

We went for our first walk in the pram the other day... down to the shops. Josh walked along next to the pram, and when he got tired he sat on the front of the pram.

Tomorrow we go to the Health Centre for a weigh in. I am pretty sure that this little milk monster has put on lots of weight!!!

Testing

2006-10-17T14:12:00.000+10:00

Just checking that the new URL works...

The Birth Story - Part 2 (Warning... lots of gory details)

2006-10-17T13:34:00.000+10:00

OK, now I have time for Part 2 of the Birth story... (if I can remember back that far!)

I was supposed to be going home on Monday morning, but on Sunday I told the midwife that when I wee'd it was coming out really slowly like a trickle and I couldn't really feel that it was coming out, I had to look to see it was happening and when it was finished. She was a bit concerned by this and wrote it in my notes and kept asking about it through the day. Monday morning four doctors walked into my room and surrounded my bed. They asked lots of questions about my wee and suggested that I try double voiding (which is when you go to the toilet, then go for a little walk and go to the toilet again). For the life of me I could not do that... nothing would happen. A few times I felt like I needed to go and nothing happened and it was so frustrating! Also the midwife had felt my tummy to make sure my uterus was going down and it was still above my belly button. They said they like for it to be below the belly button before you go home. She said that it could be my bladder being full that was pushing the uterus up still.

Someone from Urology came and performed a Residual test where they can measure how much urine is still in your bladder after you wee. I had about 400mls left, which is pretty bad. My roommate got to go home just before lunch time, and we had had our babies at the same time, so I was a bit depressed about that. All they would say was that I might be able to go home that night. So Kel came down with Josh and we waited for the verdict. In the end they wanted me to stay another night to make sure everything was ok.

About 8am I was on the phone to Kel (who was trying to find out what was happening) when I said 'I have to go' and hung up the phone as EIGHT doctors surrounded my bed!!!! Now they were getting serious and said that my only chance of going home that day was if I could learn self cathererisation to perform when I got home, and for me to take it easy and not forget to go to the toilet. I agreed to this because I was desperate to go home. They were being extra careful because the registrar had seen a situation where the mum had ended up needing a catheter full time. They said it was probably caused by swelling and nerve damage which meant that my body couldn't tell when I needed to go to the toilet. It can result in urine being left in the bladder which leads to infections.

They did another residual which got 150mls this time, so an improvement, but still not great. They wanted me to get below 50 mls with the catheter when I got home.

I had to wait until 2pm for someone to come and show me how to use the catheter. They said if I couldn't do it, then I would have to stay another night. I went into the toilet with the lady and I tried, but I just couldn't do it. I was in tears, and she ended up doing it for me and got 100mls. I told her that I thought I nearly had it but that I was just scared to push it in further coz it hurt. I was sure that I could do it if I was at home and had a mirror to look in. She had to go off to talk it over with the midwives and doctors. About 4pm we still hadn't heard anything! Kel went off to find out what was happening. Josh was really getting sick of the hospital by this stage! And so was I! I had all the bags packed and ready to go. In the end we took all the bags to the desk and stood there while they typed up my notes. Then I was free

My first try of the catheter at home wasn't too bad. I was actually proud that I managed to do it myself! I got 50mls that time, then 25mls the next day and 10 mls the day after that. Then I stopped doing it, because that is a bloody fantastic result! And everything feels like it is back to normal now. I was supposed to have a follow up on the Tuesday, and we drove to the hospital but someone stuffed up the appointment card and told us to come back Wednesday Not bloody likely on a 32 degree day! It was such a waste of a day (and petrol), but I will be going back the next Wednsday (tomorrow), because I do want to be sure that everything is A-OK. We also booked in an appointment for Sam to have a hip ultrasound at 6 weeks because they found a slight click in the left hip.

So there you go! I'd better put in a photo for the people with weak stomachs who don't like reading the gory stuff!

He's not a Blob anymore!

2006-10-04T21:32:00.000+10:00

Welcome to the world Samuel Maximus!

Born 30th September 2006 at 9:42am after 11 hours of contractions, including 3 hours of pushing and a little help from an epidural and a vacuum extraction. A successful VBAC!

On Friday the 29th September I had a nice quiet relaxing day while Kel took Josh, Brandon, Hayley and Riley to the Melbourne Show. I made an appointment at the hairdressers and got my hair cut and straightened. Then I went visiting people, and went home and watched a movie. It was about 6pm when I realised I had been having these strange sensations that seemed to come and go. Kel and the kids got back at 6:30pm. We had fish and chips for dinner and then we went through all the show bags. They had picked out a pink cowboy hat with a tiara on it for me to wear to the hospital!!! By this stage I was starting to get a little bit uncomfortable. I put Josh to bed and told him a secret... "I think the baby is coming".

Me and Kel sat down and watched a movie (The Terminal). I started to write down the times of the contractions so I could see if this was the real thing. After a while Kel noticed that I was leaning over the edge of the couch every 5 minutes or so. I finally came clean and told him. I didn't want to tell him straight away because I knew he would panic and want to go to the hospital straight away. We kept watching the movie and writing down the times... here they are: 8:25 8:29 8:33 8:42 8:47 8:55 9:00 9:07

Then I stopped writing them for a while... I think this is when I sent a message to Kellie to tell her not to drink tonight. She was planning on going out tonight!

9:53 9:57 10:02 10:08 10:12 10:16 10:22 10:29 10:33 10:36 10:42 10:49 10:54 10:56 10:58

About this time we rang Stephanie (our doula) to give her some warning and see what she thought we should do. She said to ring the hospital, so I did. They said to make our way in, but that we didn't have to rush in. I decided to have a shower while Kel went to pick up my sister and his Mum.

I really didn't feel like I was ready to go to the hospital yet. I was rushing around trying to do last minute things and feeling like I was forgetting something. Eventually we got everything together and loaded into the car. I whispered one last goodnight to Josh and we were off. Here is the last pregnant photo of me wearing my pink cowboy hat...

The drive to the hospital was pretty uneventful… except for the few times when the battery disconnected and we lost power for a second! And we found out what the speed check sign says when you are driving too fast. It was a bit uncomfortable sitting through those contractions, but we made it to the hospital ok.

I had the pink hat on as we walked into the Emergency Department at 1:30am on Saturday 30th September. We walked up to the triage window and Kel told the man that I was in labour. You should have seen that man! He had no sense of humour at all! I don’t think he even believed that I was pregnant (the window was higher than my belly). He kind of looked down to check I had a belly! Then he walked off. We stood there waiting and eventually they opened the door with a wheel chair for me! I wasn’t really that bad that I needed a wheelchair… but anyway, I had never been in one before and I am all for new experiences! (I was going to have a lot of those over the next eight hours!)

They took us to the maternity ward (along with another girl who was in labour too and looked a lot worse for wear than me). We were shown to our labour room and I just walked around the room while we waited for the doctor.

The first thing they did was to have me lie on the bed for a CTG monitor to check that I actually was in labour. Thankfully they decided that I was in labour because I would have been really annoyed if they told us to go home!

We showed the midwife and doctor the birth plan and I got a bit disappointed when the doctor kept saying no to things that I wanted like the bath or spa, and to not have continual monitoring. Luckily we had a wonderful midwife who helped to hold the monitors in place while I stood up or leant over the bed.

At 3:30am I had an internal, and they said I was 4-5cm dilated! I was very happy with this news. Then they broke my waters. That was the funniest feeling! It just kept coming and coming and we needed more and more towels to mop it up! Every time I moved some more would come out!

The next part is a bit of a blur, but somewhere along the way while having a contraction I suddenly started pushing! It was totally involuntary; my body just started doing it. Now that was strange!

At about 7am the nice midwife was supposed to be finishing her shift but she said that she wanted to stay for the birth. That motivated me; I thought it must have been going to finish very soon! Unfortunately I was still pushing when she had to go home. But she did promise to come and visit me the next night.

That pushing part is damn hard work and unfortunately you can’t just turn it on or off. I was leaning over a beanbag on the bed for a lot of it, and then we tried lying on my back, and on my side. Nothing seemed to be working and it didn’t really feel like the baby was coming down, no matter how hard I pushed. The other thing I noticed was that I was very vocal… something else that I had no control over. By the end of it I had no voice left!

They called in The Very Nice Doctor in the morning to check me. They were a bit concerned because the baby’s heart rate was a bit slow to recover after the contractions, and I was exhausted. He said that the baby’s head was turned toward the left (looking out the window) so this was making it harder to push him out.

The plan was to go down to theatre and try a vacuum extraction. Then if that didn’t work they would perform a caesarean straight away. By this stage I was happy for them to do anything to get the baby out!

I was wheeled down to theatre and given a spinal block (I remember having a few loud contractions while being wheeled down the hallway). Then there was one last contraction and then nothing . It was amazing to think that I was still having contractions but I couldn’t feel a thing. The other funny thing was that I could have sworn that my legs were lying straight, but when I put my head up I could see my feet (wearing pink socks!) up in the stirrups. The anaesthetist was a little bit worried and asked me if I normally have blue lips… but it was just because I had been drinking blue Powerade during the labour! I vomited once from the spinal and that was blue too!

The Very Nice Doctor used the vacuum to turn the baby around to a better position and they told me when I was having a contraction so I could push. It was very hard to push when I couldn’t feel a thing, so I just did what I thought was pushing! It seemed to work and after about 5? contractions a little pink slippery bundle was placed on my now flat belly! I looked down and yes, he was definitely a boy!!

They took him over to the side to clean him and wrap him up. It was a while before he made any noise… and when he did he sounded like a little sheep!
His head was pulled out of shape from trying to come out for so long and he had a nasty bruise from the vacuum, but they said that wouldn’t take too long to go down. We got to enjoy some nice family time together while they stitched me up. I have no idea how many stitches I got, but The Very Nice Doctor did take quite a long time down there!

So in the end, I got my natural birth (with a little bit of help) and I had no drugs for pain relief until the very end.

The final measurements were:
Weight: 8 pound 7.5 ounces
Length: 47cm
Head: 35.5cm (half a centimetre bigger than Josh!)

His Agpar scores were 7 and 9.

Everything is looking fantastic!

2006-09-28T14:31:00.001+10:00

I had a doctor appointment today and everything is looking fantastic!!! :D She said the baby is three above (was four above last week, which means it is starting to engage) so maybe that kerb walking did work! (I went for a walk and had one foot on top of the kerb and one on the road while I walked. Josh followed along behind me! Very funny) And the babies back is on the left hand side, so all that uncomfortable sleep has paid off too :D She thinks I will go into labour this week. But we asked the Magic Eight Ball at Kmart and it said Monday and it said a boy - so there you go!

Its another really nice day today... I feel like I need to be outside, but I don't really want to do anything out there! I've just been wondering around the garden, and feeling very... I don't know the word.. unsettled? Can't sit still?

Tomorrow Kel is taking the kids to the show. I think he is mad, but anyway! I don't know what I am going to do with myself. Might have to go visiting.
Oh and I keep feeling like I need to go to the toilet... but nothing happens. I think its coz the baby is sitting so low now.

The Baby Shower / Blessingway

2006-09-27T16:38:00.000+10:00

On Sunday I had a babyshower / blessingway. It was lots of fun, and a nice relaxing time. I didn't want a traditional baby shower this time, so instead we had footspas, massages, and lots of food!

I still had blue toenails left over from Magnetic Island which were looking a bit worse for wear, so Lisa kindly redid my nails in a nice purple colour.

Esther gave me a very nice back massage with oil.

I had the nursery set up with the massage chair and the foot massager, lavender oil burning and nice relaxing music so that everyone could have a turn of just sitting back and relaxing.

I had everyone bring a bead and I made a necklace that I will wear while in labour. Here is a picture of the finished product:

Then we all got creative and had to design a picture to paint onto my belly! Everyone really got into this activity (I think people like getting back to their childhood!!). I chose a design and then everyone had a turn of painting on my belly. Here is the final result...

Here is a closeup of my belly - after a bit of wear and tear! (It looks a bit like a mosaic) I ended up having to pick Kel up from Mark's house (yes I am crazy and went out in public with my belly art!!!) and when I drove home the steering wheel was rubbing on my belly! I can't believe that my belly has grown so much in such a short amount of time - it was fine when I drove on Thursday!!

As everyone left they were given a candle and a name of somebody to call - like a phone chain, so that when I go into labour everyone can light a candle and send positive thoughts my way.

Now I just have to wait for the big event to begin...

Some information

2006-09-26T22:29:00.000+10:00

This is some info for people who have been asking about Ballarat Hospital...

Ballarat Health Services - Base Hospital
On the corner of Sturt St, Drummond St and Mair St (Main entrance is on Mair St)

If you are driving from Melton, just keep driving on the Western Freeway until the 1st Ballarat exit. Keep driving along this road, it will end up driving around past McDonalds (this is when it becomes Sturt St). Keep driving until you get to Drummond St and turn right. Then turn left at Mair St. The car park is off Mair st.

The car park costs $2.00 but is usually full!!! There are other on-street car parks with parking meters.

The maternity ward is on the 5th floor.

Visiting hours are 2:30pm til 4:30pm and 6pm til 8pm.

There is a cafeteria on the 1st floor that visitors are welcome to use. There is also a kiosk in the foyer opposite the emergency department.

The phone number for the hospital is 5320 4000.

That's all I can think of at the moment. If there is other info you need, just let me know and I will update the website some more.

The Official Guessing Game

2006-09-15T20:42:00.000+10:00

OK, here is a link to a website that lets you log your baby guesses.

http://expectnet.com/games/TraceAndKel

You can enter in your guess for:
* Gender
* Weight
* Length
* Birthday

There will be a prize for the lucky winner!

Terms and Conditions:
Only one guess allowed per person.
Entries must be submitted by the 30th September, however you cannot backdate an entry.
The judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into :)

Happy Guessing!

Nearly there!

2006-09-13T20:28:00.000+10:00

I am thirty seven weeks now... only three weeks to go (or less I hope!).

I thought I had better update the site again especially since our hospital visit last Wednesday.

We had the 36 week appointment at Ballarat and this guy (I am not even sure he was a doctor!!!) was checking the position of the head. He had no idea what he was doing, and could not tell where the head was. So he took us to the room next door where we got to have a scan. The problem was that he still couldn't tell where the head was! The funny thing was that I was looking at the screen and it looked like a head to me! I could even see eyes and a nose and a mouth. The 'Dr' said he would have to go and get his boss so he left the room. While he was gone, Kel got up and grabbed the scanner and started giving me an ultrasound! It was so funny, and even Kel could see it was a head! But he did hurry up and sit down before the dr came back! When the 'boss' came into the room it was great. He felt my belly and straight away knew it was the head. Then he did a quick scan, pointing things out. He said that the baby still had a bit of vernix, which means that it isn't quite ready to come out yet. And then he said we have a GREAT baby!!! It is in the perfect position and everything looks set for a natural delivery! I am so glad this boss guy came along, otherwise the whole trip would have seemed like a waste. This guy was able to put my mind at ease, and we left feeling very happy! Plus I will know if I see a guy named Marvin when I am in labour to steer clear of him!!!

I have still been having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, and a very sore back at night. Sleeping is getting uncomfortable. But I am looking forward to a half hour massage that I am having at work tomorrow!!!

34 weeks 4 days

2006-08-27T22:40:00.000+10:00

Here is a photo to compare to a while back when I was wearing the same outfit. Doesn't quite fit anymore!

I got a gym membership for 2 weeks for $5! Bargain! Every night I have been down to the pool and done a few laps and then floated around in the hydro pool - bliss! It is so relaxing! Especially after all these braxton hicks contractions I have been having.

I girl at work had her baby on the weekend... she was only due a week ahead of me! Now that is scary! Three more weeks left of work now.

The turntable baby

2006-08-24T09:31:00.000+10:00

Do you want the good news? Or the bad news?

The good news is that after spending a week in QLD swimming, snorkelling and just generally floating around on my belly in the middle of a blow up ring in the pool... the baby is no longer posterior!!!

The bad news is that it is now breech! (head up instead of head down)
So now I have to start researching techniques for turning a breech baby, which I think involves lying down on an ironing board with my head down and my feet up! Sounds interesting!

Anyway, the plane ride up to Townsville went really well. I only got a little bit of swelling in my hands on the way up. I made sure to get up and go to the toilet midway through the flight - it was the first time I had been in a plane toilet! It sure is squishy in there, especially when Josh came with me!

Nothing much else to report... I have locked in my last day of work as the 19th September. That means exactly 16 more train tickets to buy (which sounds better than saying four more weeks of work!).

I go to Ballarat in two weeks time for my 36 week checkup and chat with the OB. I will be having another scan at around 37-38 weeks to see what position the baby is in. Head down and anterior position would be very nice, otherwise it is looking like another CS for me.

Not Again!

2006-08-12T21:01:00.000+10:00

I had my normal 2 weekly checkup on Wednesday (32 weeks) and everything is going fine. Blood pressure is 110/70 (for all those people who like details!). The only problem was that she thinks the baby is posterior...

I kind of had a feeling, after an especially active day from Blob my belly started to feel a bit different. For those who don't know, posterior is when the baby's back is on my back (rather than toward the left hand side where it normally is). Josh was posterior and it is one of the reasons that he ended up in a caesarean.

So I have been doing my research and started scrubbing the floors, lying in the middle of a bean bag on my belly, and next week I am hoping to go snorkelling every single day (while on holiday on Magnetic Island!!!). If the baby is still posterior after all this then so be it, but least I have done everything I can to try and turn Blob around.

Pink or Blue???

2006-08-05T20:31:00.000+10:00

Well as you know, this time around I decided to keep the sex of the baby a surprise.

I want the whole feeling of giving birth and then getting to look for myself to see what it is. I also wanted to see if I would have any feelings about it being a boy or a girl.

I have had some people tell me it is a girl, some swear it is a boy!

There is a lunar prediction thing you can do on the internet that is based on conception date and where the moon is at that time - that one says a girl.

Then there are the old wives tales, like the way I am carrying the baby all at the front like a basketball - that says its a boy.
Or the fact that I didn't have morning sickness - that points to a boy too.

Things have felt pretty much exactly the same as with Josh, so that kind of makes me think it is a boy.

Some days I think girl, some days I think boy.
Some days I wish I had just found out!!!

So I am going to ask all of you to leave a comment and tell me whether you think Blob is a girl or a boy. Should we buy pink clothes? Or just stick with all Josh's old blue stuff? What colour should I paint the old drawers that I have been sanding back?
(Can you tell that I am desperate for some comments here?!?)

Ten Weeks to Go

2006-07-26T16:57:00.000+10:00

I had an appointment with my local GP today (as part of the shared care system).

She did a urine sample (well I provided the urine, she did the testing!)
took blood pressure, measured the fundal height and listened to the heart beat.

Everything was great. And she was cracking up when she was looking at my belly and the baby was moving all over the place.

She also had a good idea of getting an ultrasound at 38 weeks, or even at the start of labour to check the baby's position... then if it is posterior I can make a decision about whether it is worth trying or not (since that is the reason Josh wouldn't come out).

Here is a special treat... some video footage of Blob's acrobatic antics: http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y74/traceandkel/?action=view&current=7b98ed9f.flv&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch7

29 Weeks – The Third Trimester

2006-07-20T11:30:00.000+10:00

A lot has happened in the past month…

We have now booked into Ballarat Base Hospital. I know that it is a longer distance to travel (about 40 minutes compared to 10) but I really feel that we have the best chance for a VBAC at Ballarat compared to Bacchus Marsh.

We went for a tour of Ballarat and I just got a really good vibe from them. They were really supportive of me trying for a VBAC and said that there was no way I could have had Josh naturally and there is no reason why the same thing should happen for this baby.

Ballarat has a really nice maternity ward with five Birthing Suites, a spa (which I hope I will be able to use) and a kids play room (Josh was already eyeing off the toys!).

I had my first appointment at Ballarat last week. First I saw the midwife who took my blood pressure and explained how things will work. Then we saw the Dr. It was the same Dr who my friend had for her baby and she LOVED him! He explained the risks of VBAC and basically explained that he will let me go to about one week overdue. I need to go into labour by myself (no induction) and I would need to have continuous monitoring. This is to watch out for uterine rupture. I am happy with everything except the continuous monitoring, so I might try and negotiate on that one.

The best news I got from the Dr was that the baby is already head down, and he said that it does not feel like a 4.2kg baby (which Josh was). That is great news for me!!!

I am now doing shared care, which means that every two weeks I see my local GP to have a check-up for blood pressure etc. It will save a long drive every two weeks! I go back to Ballarat at 36 weeks.

This baby has been so active lately! I think I have been having Braxton Hicks too. I didn’t have them last time so I’m not sure exactly, but it feels like my whole belly just goes really hard.

Where's the ball?

2006-06-18T16:39:00.000+10:00

On Friday night I went to visit my friend's new baby - a very cute 7 pound baby girl. While I was holding her, Blob started kicking like crazy!
Now I thought that must mean this baby is a boy because he is taking after Josh and bashing my friend's kids up, but other people have said that it means it is a girl because she must have been jealous...hmmm only time will tell!

We have been trying to explain to Josh that there is a baby in my belly, but he is just not interested in hearing anything about the baby... while his cousin Riley is interested in an entirely different way... At Hayley's party yesterday, after playing with some balloons, Riley came up to me, lifted up my top and asked me where the ball was!!!!! So funny!

Lock me up now!

2006-06-12T20:55:00.000+10:00

My pregnancy brain is getting worse, I think I should be locked up... it started with me losing Josh's Thomas fork... which he had used on Friday night. I looked everywhere for it and the only thing I could think of was that I scraped his leftovers from his plate into the bin... sure enough, after scrounging through the rubbish bin (outside bin too! ) I found it . After a dishwasher cycle it is good as new!

Then I went looking for by bathers today to go swimming. I couldn't find them anywhere. I had them last Monday for swimming, and I left them in a shopping bag on the washing machine. It seems like Kel saw the bag there and thought it was rubbish and sat it on the inside bin. Then apparently I took the bag outside and put it in the outside rubbish bin... so that one was a joint effort! And that was before rubbish night, so no more bathers! I am spewing about that one! I spent ages trying to find the perfect bathers. I had my requisite padded top, bikini with pink rash top to go over the top. And I lost the lot, as well as a pair of shorts (since my swimming boardies don't fit anymore) I went out today to try and find some more, but I can't find anywhere in Melbourne that sells swim wear in Winter!!! I'm sure I could find them in a surf shop, but they would cost $80 just for the top half!

Josh has kindly given me his cold (must have been those sloppy kisses)... so it is really hard to breathe. I can't take anything like Codral, so I just have to put up with it with some Lemsip, and eucalyptus oil in the oil burner. I think we are going to go through a pack of tissues between us.
I hate not being able to breathe through my nose, especially at night. These last few nights Josh has had the vapouriser in his room, but tonight I am taking it. We bought one of those new plug in things from Coles today so we will try that in his room tonight.
Sweet Dreams!

PS. The photo is taken at 22 weeks and 4 days. (I think we are coming up to 24 weeks this week).

22 Weeks and 3 days

2006-06-03T16:05:00.000+10:00

Not much has been happening in the past two weeks. I saw the OB again, after the ultrasound. Everything is going fine. The only thing that he mentioned that I wasn't too happy with was that about my weight... now any sensible man would know not to comment on a woman's weight, especially not a pregnant woman's weight! He basically said he only wants me to put on between 12 and 14 kg for the entire pregnancy. When I told him I put on 20kg with Josh his eyes nearly popped out of his head!

So even though he is a bit silly for going on about the weight thing, I can't help but think about it in the back of my mind and try and eat healthy foods and cut back on the junk food. The funny thing is that I am actually weighing less this time that I was with Josh at the same stage.

Anyway, I won't have to see him again until 29 weeks after I have the blood glucose test for gestational diabetes.

We went to the movies the other day and saw The Da Vinci Code in Gold Class! It was so nice to have a night out, and to relax in those nice recliner chairs eating wedges and sour cream, pizza, and sticky date pudding for dessert! (That was my day off from being healthy!). So much better than just popcorn and coke!!!

I worked out the other day that we have four months to get Josh out of nappies before Blob comes along! Wow - four months! That doesn't sound like much to me! I still can't believe that we are going to have a little baby. I wonder what Josh will be like? I will get to see soon, when a couple of my friends have their babies. I think that he will probably be jealous at first, especially when I am sitting in the rocking chair feeding the baby, but I think he will be really helpful too, like when I need him to get me nappies and stuff like that.

Well I am feeling hungry - again! (What is new?) Better go see what I can find.

Our Cheeky Little Baby

2006-05-13T22:39:00.000+10:00

Oh wow, what a week, well actually it has been two! For some reason my Blog site became blocked (they thought I was a SPAM Robot!!!) and then the site was totally gone. I was not happy Jan! (And that is an understatement).

The worst part was that I hadn't even printed any of these pages yet, so that is the next thing on my list of things to do.

So, where was I?

We had an ultrasound at 20 weeks. This is the big one where we found out the sex of the baby... or did we? No, actually this time I wanted it to be a surprise - and the baby did too. It was lying on its belly most of the time being very secretive!

Blob did put on quite a show though, giving us a wave, the thumbs up sign and even sticking its finger up at us (how cheeky!).

In the photos you can see the hand print, and the foot print. The middle picture is of the thumbs up, but it is a bit hard to see. There is also a really good profile shot.

I have been feeling so many movements lately... especially at night time. Kel has even felt the movements now. This morning Blob had an elbow or a knee, or something, sticking right out just above my belly button. It stayed there for about 10 seconds, it was so cool!

I had the closest thing I've come to a craving the other day, actually it was after the ultrasound, me and Kel went out for lunch together to the local Country Club. I had the yummiest Lemon Squash, and since then I have been wanting lemon cordial, lemon slices in water and sour lollies! I wonder if that means anything?

I started going to an antenatal aqua class last week. It was so nice and warm in the water, and I actually got a good workout too!

Well I am going to save this now and hope that it works.

A Belly Photo - 15 weeks 3 days

2006-04-17T21:30:00.000+10:00

Here is the first official (published) belly photo. I am actually in shock because I look the same as I did at 20 weeks with Josh.

I think I felt the first movements on Easter morning while waiting for Kel to wake up. I was just lying there and I felt little bubble movements... but then again, it could have been gas!!!
But I did feel it again this morning.

Today I was sorting out all the baby clothes into different sizes. It was so weird to look at all these tiny clothes that Josh used to wear, and I could even remember the first time he wore some of the outfits, or I knew straight away what size it was.

We will definitely be right if we have another boy! We have got Josh and Riley's old clothes. We do have a few girls outfits that we had bought last time, or that used to be Hayley's. But anyway, girls can wear blue right???

We really don't need any bibs... I think we have got enough to wear three a day for a month before we would have to wash any! And we have lots of hats, and HEAPS of shoes (thanks to Riley's donation).

Fifteen weeks - and maternity pants already!!!

2006-04-10T20:45:00.000+10:00

I am in shock today... I went to get dressed this morning and the pants that I wore one week ago don't fit me anymore. So I had to get out my maternity pants! I am only fifteen weeks and already wearing maternity clothes!!! My belly has just popped right out over the weekend. The other thing that is wierd is that my old maternity pants were too big! Like, even the thighs were baggy, so I must have lost weight since I was pregnant with Josh - strange because back then I was going to aerobics twice a week, and all I have been doing this time is going for a walk at lunch time. I haven't put on any weight yet, but I have a bigger belly and boobs!

I have been doing lots of reading lately. A book that I just finished was called "You don't have to have a repeat cesarean". Reading that book has made me feel confident that I should be able to attempt a VBAC. I read in two places that when a baby is brow presentation it is impossible to deliver naturally! It makes me wonder why they couldn't work that out earlier for me. And having a posterior baby (the baby's back on my back) makes for a very difficult labour. I knew last time from 38 weeks that Josh was posterior but they didn't tell me anything to do to try and get him to turn around. I have now read a whole heap of stuff about 'Optimal Fetal Positioning' to encourage a baby into the right position. The most important thing is to sit with my back perfectly straight - not slouched. Since I spend most of my waking life sitting down (at work and on the train) I had better keep that one in mind.

Everybody Knows!

2006-03-24T20:27:00.000+11:00

On Wednesday we had our 12 week scan. It went really well, and the Ultrasound (US) guy was very good. He obviously loves his job - he just got so excited when the baby moved around!

I can't believe how much the baby has grown in three weeks! It has arms legs now, and was rolling around onto it's stomach, then back onto it's back.

Then we headed for the OB. It was a long wait this time, and a pretty uneventful visit, except for us trying to talk him into giving us a referal for the US so we didn't have to pay the $60.

The next US is at 18-19 weeks. Then we see the OB a week after that.

Today I finally told everyone at work. I printed a copy of the US and put it on my wall at my desk. It took two hours for anyone to notice (that is what it is like working with a bunch of guys!!!). And of course they noticed when I wasn't there! Lenise said that she thought that I was the week before, and another couple of girls made the same comment! So I guess I couldn't hide it much longer anyway! I actaually got sprung on my lunch break last week by someone from work while I was looking at baby stuff at Big W! Luckily I think she just thought I was looking at stuff for Josh, coz she was there buying stuff for her boy.

Nothing much else to report... no morning sickness, I have started to put away the clothes that I won't be wearing for a while, and I bought a few pairs of pants and loose tops.

Ten Weeks

2006-03-12T15:55:00.000+11:00

Well things have been plodding along nicely. Slowly we have told more people. Now I just have to tell the people at work. Though they probably have started to guess already - we had a drinks night on Friday night and I was asked why I wasn't drinking. I said that I was trying to be healthy. I don't think they bought that one! I will probably tell them in a couple of weeks time, when we hit the twelve week mark.

I told the rest of the family at Ben and Anna's wedding. I wasn't going to, but I had been getting some comments - I actually think this was the world's worst kept secret! And it turned out that half the people at the wedding knew and were coming up and saying congratulations, so after all the formal wedding stuff, I told the future great-grandparents the news.

I have been taking a photo each week in the same position in the same clothes, so I will be able to see how I grow each week. This week I think the belly is really starting to show, my pants have been getting tight, especially by the end of the day. Oh and those nightly toilet breaks have started already. It seems to be 2am every morning.

I think I will go and update Josh's website now, and put in a link to Blob's website. How exciting, it means I might actually get some comments to my messages!

I can see you Blob!

2006-03-01T18:37:00.000+11:00

Today we had our first scan - to try and work out dates. I was amazed to see proof that there really is something in there! Blob certainly lived up to it's name - looking like not much more than a blob with little buds for arms and legs. The sonographer was able to show us a beating heart, a stomach, a bladder, the cord and we even saw the baby move a little bit. I am in awe that all this has already been created at 9 weeks and 2 days of age - that is the date that came up after he did the measurements. So that means I am a little bit ahead of where I thought I was... hmmm interesting.

Here is a photo - the very first photo of Blob!

Checking out the facilities

2006-02-25T18:30:00.000+11:00

We are coming along nicely at about 8 or so weeks now. I have been to see Dr Samuels on Thursday. We had a nice chat about birthing options - I don't think that I have mentioned yet that I am hoping to have a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After cesarean). A lot of people think along the old lines of "Once a caesar, always a caesar" but there has been a lot of change in that area in the last twenty years. I have been doing lots of research so I know all my options. I can probably go into that another day, today I just wanted to talk about my first OB (obstetrician) visit, and the visit to the hospital.

Dr Samuels is a man who looks like he is in his 50's and he has a strange accent that we can't quite place. The best part is that he fully bulk bills all his visits and the ultrasounds. He told me that we can talk about VBACs more when we get closer to 30 weeks. Hopefully this baby won't be posterior (babies back lying against my back) or big (like Josh was). Otherwise it is quite likely that I will have an elective cesarean.

I am booked in for an ultrasound next Wednesday to try and work out dates. They aren't too sure of dates at the moment and they want to nail it down a bit more accurately. I'm not really too fussed about the dates, but I will be very happy to catch an early glimpse of Blob.

Today we took a tour of the Bacchus Marsh Hospital, where we are planning on going this time around. I really wanted a change of scenary from Werribee, plus Bacchus Marsh is a lot quieter, and I am more likely to get a room to myself. They have two birthing suites (with double beds) which look like hotel rooms. They are new rooms built last year. Then there are two labour rooms, which are pretty basic rooms to have the baby in. Then after the baby is born, you spend 24 hours in the birthing suite, then you are moved to the ward. It sounds like a lot of moving around to me, but anyway... Another plus about Bacchus Marsh is you don't have to pay for parking! And it is only 15 minutes drive from our house.

Those wierd pregnancy dreams!

2006-02-15T16:08:00.000+11:00

You have got to laugh at some of the dreams you have when you are pregnant. I was reading over some that I had with Josh the other day. I'm glad that I wrote them down, because there is no way that I could remember those dreams now!

I had a dream last night that I was hugely pregnant, and the baby was pressing its face against my stomach so you could see the impression through the skin. Then I told Kel to get a camera. While he was gone, suddenly the baby was lying on my belly, it was a girl with dark chin length straight hair, and she looked like she was a two year old! I put her on the boob for a feed and she started talking to me, complaining that I was doing it wrong!!! Cheeky thing!!! I was not happy that I had given birth to a 2 year old!!!

I'm about 7 weeks now, nothing much happening yet... I have been getting up to pee the last couple of nights, and I have been more hungry, but that is about all. Oh and I think I noticed a new stretch mark yesterday. I wouldn't have thought it possible, but I was in the change room at Target with all those mirrors and lights. It is a darker colour than the other ones. Boo hoo, I guess that I will be getting lots more of those over the next 8 months.

Big Brother

2006-02-05T21:12:00.000+11:00

Over the weekend we told most of the family (and a few friends) about Blob. Kel made a thirt for Josh that said "I'm gunna be a big brother". Then we just let Josh tell everyone! It was funny waiting for them to notice the tshirt!

I'm at the weird stage now where it doens't feel real. I haven't really got any symptoms yet, so I just keep hoping that everything is ok. At least when you get morning sickness you know everything is ok!

Tick Tick

2006-02-02T21:44:00.000+11:00

Here is my ticker. It will tell you how many days along the little blob is.
Hopefully if it works properly, you should be able to come back to this over and over and it will be on the current date.

Hmmm only 246 days left according to my ticker! That just seems like so long away! Not much has changed on the outside, nobody else can tell that there is a little Blob growing in me... but I have noticed that my sense of smell is really sensitive at the moment, my back is aching (not sure why) and my boobs are sore!

A funny thing happened at work today. Well I should start at the start... I woke up in the middle of the night with the feeling that somebody was poking me in the ribs from the inside. It hurt and it was keeping me awake for about an hour. I asked Dan at work about it (coz he is studying to be a nurse), but I didn't mention the fact that I am pregnant. I will tell them at about 12 weeks. Anyway, he took my blood pressure, and it was good, and he suggested that maybe I was pregnant and that the baby was trying to get out! :) So funny, I will have to tell him that story in another 8 weeks!!!

Introducing - The Blob

2006-02-01T21:16:00.000+11:00

Wow - This is my first entry for Blob's Blog. Today is the 1st February 2006, and at 5am this morning, after waking up with a bursting bladder, I did a pregnancy test. It was a test left over from last month, because I just didn't believe the tests last month and ended up using three before I actually believed that it was negative. Anyway, this time I wanted to make sure there there would be no need for squinty eyes, or magnifying glasses, so I waited until day 35. It was a mean feat, and I must thank my buddies and chocolate for helping through it! I did the test, and I swear it was only 30 seconds later that this bright pink line showed up! Amazing! What is even more amazing is that the faint line in the test is the 'control' line, and the dark line is the 'test' line. So there is no doubting this test result!!! Not that I needed to test anyway... I had a feeling that this was the month for us.

I took some measurements today - my vital stats, so that I can compare them when I get big and fat. The main ones are: 63.2kg, and a bellybutton measurement of 86.5cm.

Oh and if you are wondering, we are due in October 2006. That is all I am giving away... since nothing is set in stone anyway, and I have been known to go 10 days overdue anyway!

It feels so weird that by the end of this year we will have another addition to our family. I have already started to get ready, by doing up the back room for Josh. We will leave his room as the nursery and move him into the back room when he goes into a 'big bed'. Now that will be an adventure!