Introducing Maxwell ShenJie Too (朱深杰)

At 11:12am this morning, Belinda gave birth to Maxwell! He was induced 12 days late in what turned out to be a relatively easy natural birth - especially compared to Preston's.

Maxwell weighs in at 3.82kg (8 pounds 7), and looks fairly similar to P at the same age. You can see P's birth pics here, and in comparison, I'd say Maxwell has a smaller mouth and a slightly bigger nose.

We had some minor concerns during the birth, mainly to do with Belinda's reaction to the Epidural, but everything seems ok now.

I'm too tired to write much else, so here are some pics

D.

It's eviction day!

Tonight we go into hospital and start the induction procedure to help our baby be born. He should be out by tomorrow afternoon I suspect.

Here is my final pregnancy photo - don't I look ridiculous? I'm surprised I don't topple over, or bash into more things than I do.

Approx 41½ weeks, and I've put on 15kg during this pregnancy, but ONLY in my abdomen! I'm hoping most of it is baby/tissue/fluid/blood and that my tummy springs back ok (doubt it though)...

So, we are just enjoying our last few hours of (relative) freedom before our lives change. Got some movies ready to watch to pass the time while the induction starts to work, and I'm determined to finish my Mr Men alphabet cross stitch that I started when I was pregnant with Preston!

News and photos will follow as soon as there is any :)

Hospital assessment update

Today we went to the hospital for an assessment of the baby's activity and space issues. I had another blood test to check my platelets which have actually dropped a bit which is not great, but i don't know if that is simply due to being overdue and with a larger demand on blood volume etc. I also had a scan to check for amniotic fluid quantity, which is still fine.

I was hooked up to a machine for about half an hour that read the baby's heart beat, movements and my uterine contractions (I apparrently had 2 during that time!). Everything looks amazingly great - I just have a baby who is too happy where he is to bother coming out.

But he can't stay in there forever so we have booked an eviction for Monday night. Same deal as with Preston - time's up Mr, so if he doesn't come out on his own before then, we go through the induction procedure to trigger labour. Should have a baby in our arms by Tuesday (if not sooner!).

Latest update - still no baby

Well, it seems like I'm following the same pattern I did with Preston. My babies are so happy and cosy inside me they don't want to come out on their own!

I'm 6 days overdue. So far this week I've had another blood test to check my platelet levels are increasing so I don't have a hemmorrhage. Still waiting on results, but I'm very curious as I've been taking special supplements that theoretically should improve them and I want to see to what extent. I also had an ultrasound yesterday to check there is still enough amniotic fluid for the baby to survive (there is). The current estimated weight is about 8 pounds! Then today I had a membrane sweep with the midwife which I won't go into the details of, but let's just say it was a very invasive procedure designed to speed things along. So far, no contractions but I do feel a bit strange in the hormonal-change sort of sense so something might happen soon?

We are booked into the hospital at 10am on Friday for a morning of assessments to see where to go next. If nothing has happened by then, I'm hoping they will induce over the weekend.

Preston has been very good lately - he is definitely growing up a lot. One new thing is that he is now quite petrified of noises like alarms. We had some power cuts recently which set off the neighbourhood burglar alarms and he got a huge fright so now anytime we hear a loud noise it upsets him. He is concerned almost daily that a powercut might happen. Co-incidentally, the developmental email I get from babycenter.com this week was all about frights and night terrors so it must be something reasonably normal for his age.

I'm overdue!

Well that's no surprise. I think I've done really well to not get at all impatient before the due date. But now it's time to hatch, come out come out!!

The last few days, I've been getting lots of crazy acrobatics in my tummy that make it go in the most unnatural shapes. Not really any proper contractions or anything that feels like I'm about to start dilating though.

Tomorrow if nothing has happened, we are going to have a nice Preston day at Kelly Tarlton's as it will likely be his last chance for full attention from us....

Induction plan in place for backup!

YIKES - I'm due tomorrow! That is so scary. I have so much to do today that means! But I'm pretty sure I'm not going to go into labour in a hurry, and to be extra prepared, I now have an induction plan in place.

IF nothing happens, I have a scan booked on Tuesday to check there is still enough fluid etc, then a midwife appointment on Wednesday, and then a session at the hospital where they assess everything on Friday. Then I will be induced probably over the weekend or Monday. So that's my backup, now this little guy just has to get himself ready to come out on his own.

Yesterday I felt like things are definitely starting to get going - I had a whole day of fatigue (first tiredness in ages), plus the craziest tummy somersaults and lots of weird pains. It didn't feel like I was going to go into proper labour, but it did feel like some action is taking place. The head has dropped down more as well, and my tummy is pretty big. Not long to go now, either way :)

9 month Swimsuit Edition photo!

Wow, the day you've been waiting for is finally here - my Swimsuit Edition shot of my 9 month/39 week tummy! I can't believe how ridiculous I look, and that I actually went to the pools recently...

The blue togs photo is from today, and the pink togs are from Preston's pregnancy. I seem to have dropped lower this time, although the baby is sitting in a different position to Preston (he's lying with his back to my side, while Preston had his back to my tummy).

Above: February 2009
Below: November 2005

In general, I feel fine - in fact I feel like I'm just carrying on as usual each day and that one day soon my day will be rudely (and painfully) interrupted! I'm not feeling tired (my vitamins are amazing), just super hot and disgustingly sweaty and smelly.

Preston's growing up and being super clever and funny. His most frequent saying at the moment is 'Mummy I've told you THREE TIMES ALREADY' (ie, I should stop trying to ignore him and do what he says), and he also loves to correct people using the word 'actually', eg 'Would you like to do a puzzle?' "ACTUALLY that's called a JIGSAW puzzle". It's pretty funny! And tonight he wanted to show me his new pencil case with his new pencils in it, but I got totally owned when I asked to have a look and he said "Only looking, no touching, it's VERY expensive"... oh dear....

38.5 weeks - there are claims i affect the tides now

Yes, I'm getting rather large now. Preston took this photo of me today so I thought I'd post it. Random people I see in the street comment on how perfectly round my tummy is and how I'm 'ALL BABY' (the standard comment that has run through my two pregnancies).

Hmmm, as far as my comparison photos go, I seem to recall (dread) that my 39 week photo is the swimwear edition....oh dear. Well I suppose you'll have to check back here on Friday to see me in my togs.

Not long to go now. Seeing the midwife tomorrow, and I assume another barrage of blood tests too.

Preston and I had a fun day today - we went for a walk, which after about 10 minutes Preston claimed to be 'tired and needed a piggy back'. Those of you who know Preston know that he does not get tired (in the sleeping sense), so I suspect he was actually being LAZY.

Anyway, after abandoning our walk I decided to properly tire him out by going to a playground. By chance there was another little girl who he knew from his daycare, so they played together for ages which meant i could relax in the shade! Eventually, we left after having a nice picnic lunch, and came home. But unfortunately for Preston, a power cut spoilt our afternoon - he was absolutely petrified of the neighbourhood noise of people's alarms going off that he insisted we both hide in my bed. With his hand firmly over his ears for quite some time, this actually ended up working out quite well as he fell asleep for ages. Eventually I decided to wake him up and in his waking delerium, he asked if the power was all fixed and had the noise all stopped - he was very relieved that it had!

So we ate an afternoon treat and then cut up last year's animal calendar and put up cute posters on his wall. He thought Blu Tack is a pretty cool invention.

Some cute pictures

Here is Preston and Amber being cute - they were running down the path holding hands and turned around to us :) They are still such best friends!
















This is the fairy birthday cake I made for Mia's 1st birthday in the weekend.

It was such a fun morning party at the park! Preston learnt how to use a rope swing which he was very proud about.

Stupid blood test results

Well it seems that this pregnancy has been plagued by fuzzy results from all tests which has been very annoying. Nothing actually wrong has eventuated from these fuzzy results, but they have all been a little stressful while waiting for further clarifications.

So my last round of blood tests revealed two things that may or may not be a problem:

• Group B Strep
• Gestational Thrombocytopenia

What are these strange things? Well, Group B Strep is a normal gut bacteria that about 40% of women have and it doesn't seem to have many symptoms unless you get an actual infection from it, but during labour it can pass on to the baby and if an infection develops it can be quite serious. I haven't been tested for this before, and neither have my friends with children, and apparently it is one of the 'new' maternal tests that are being done now. It is routine in the US and if you don't have the test done, they assume you are positive and treat during labour as a precaution.

So the test shows I am a Group B Strep carrier. I can only assume that I exposed Preston to this when I had him but since I didn't know about it, it wasn't a problem. Now that it is a known factor, I have to have treatment which I'm not very happy about. As soon as I go into labour, I get IV penicillin as a precaution on the off chance that on that day I suddenly develop an infection. Antibiotics during pregnancy and breastfeeding pretty much goes against all my values so I'm in two minds of what to do. I suppose I could risk not taking the treatment and hope for the best, or do I take the medically sensible route to prevent emergency? I'm quite concerned about the effects of antibiotics on the developing baby's digestive system and subsequent risk of allergies and health problems.

The other thing the tests showed is that my platelet levels are dropping and I may be at risk of developing gestational thrombocytopenia which is a blood clotting problem and could lead to haemmorrhage. This is a bit annoying too obviously, but thinking back, every surgery I've had (and Preston's birth) has always been followed with the comment "Oh you lost quite a lot of blood which we weren't expecting". But I think it was manageable and I didn't need a blood transfusion (as far as I know). So I think for me, this risk is fairly normal.

However, I've been doing my research and I've found the supplements that should do the trick for both issues, to prevent any outbreak of the strep b, and also to raise my blood platelet levels. I have to have another blood test this week so I'll be really curious to see how things have changed.

None of this requires you to be worried, it's just the results of over-testing for things and being super-aware of what could potentially happen.

Not much happening

Not much to report really, but I haven't written an update in a while. No I haven't had the baby yet!

Went to the midwife this morning and all is well - the baby's head has started its descent into the pelvic bone area so that's good. There is not a lot of room left in my tummy now so every time it moves, a foot or elbow pokes out (painfully).

Had a blood test yesterday with the most elderly nurse I've ever seen, but surprisingly she was extremely efficient and generally painless, even though I had worked myself up A LOT.

So two more weeks to go, give or take - who knows, it could happen today!

I've been doing lots of tidying and sorting and throwing away - Preston's room is sparkling and clothing of all age groups has been neatly folded and stored. We have a cupboard full of soft toys that Preston doesn't play with, so hopefully the new baby will find something from that collection to make his favourite. (please don't get us any soft toys!)

36 Weeks gratuitous tummy photo

Here I am! 36 weeks (8months 1 week apparently), and 4 weeks to go. I'm getting rather uncomfortable now, and although the baby can't do somersaults anymore, instead I get poked and prodded and headbutted and wriggled from all directions on the inside.

It's a wonder I can still do normal things like eat and digest when it seems there is no room left! The other day I had some thing frozen and i got a tummy freeze - it felt like my stomach has been pushed up somewhere into my upper ribcage - and if i don't swallow all my vitamins with enough liquid (and sit down quietly until they are all processed) then i get gross tablet reflux. Blecchh!

As soon as Preston woke up this morning, he asked me if the baby had popped out of my tummy yet - I think he was a bit disappointed.


Just for fun, here is my 36 week photo from last time. (November 2005)

They are both taken from different angles so its a bit hard to compare. I haven't put on weight in my face like I did before.

Another scan

Went to the midwife the other day and she was minorly concerned that my tummy wasn't measuring correctly (the height of the uterus apparently and rather 'conveniently' for biology is supposed to increase by 1cm per week of pregnancy). Normally I am about 1cm short, but that's no big deal as both Dan and I are small anyway so it's unlikely we'd have an 'average' sized baby. Interestingly, I was reading my blog from the same stage last time and I also had the same concern at this point. So off I was sent to the scanning place to check the baby was growing properly.

Turns out, Mr #2 has folded himself tightly in half and has his knees to his nose, instead of being nicely stretched out, so that's why my tummy was not as high up as it should be. And no wonder I get elbowed and kneed in weird places so often! The measurements were fine - in fact they are even a little bigger than what Preston was at the same stage! The current estimated weight based on yesterday's measurements is 5 pounds 6oz, and at the standard growth rate, that would be around 7½ pounds at birth. Preston 's estimated birth weight from the same scan was 7 pounds (he ended up being 8½ pounds because he was 12 days overdue). Anyway, all looks fine so that's great.

40 days to go...

Wow, only 40 days to go! It's funny thinking that this time with Preston, I was keen to have him, but now since i know what I'm in for, I'm happy to wait out the 40 days, and even extra if required. I just hope our new little friend doesn't decide to come early! I packed my hospital bag just in case though...

My tummy is getting bigger and filled with a super squirmy, arm and leg stretching baby. It's pretty uncomfortable being elbowed from the inside in both directions at once. I think he is lying head down but his back to my side, while Preston had his back to my stomach.

I've been sorting out all Preston's baby things - we have clothes and toys galore, so since there is nothing we actually need, we are thinking of asking family who might want to give us gifts that instead of gifts perhaps a token donation could be made to a bank account for the new baby to go towards the cost of experiences Preston had such as swimming lessons, baby gymnastics, etc.

Preston is getting quite excited about having a new baby brother and talks to him every day about things like instructions for games they can play together, or rules for who is allowed (and more importantly NOT allowed) to play with his favourite bears, or to teach him what foods are delicious. It's very cute, and he loves to cuddle and kiss his brother in my tummy. I just hope he continues to be so loving once the baby is born!

We've had lots of people staying or visiting over the holidays and that has been very fun for Preston, who has managed to make himself be the centre of attention pretty much at all times. There has been a bit of behaviour fall-out for a few days after each lot of people leaves and the boringness and discipline of mummy and daddy is realised. Bed time has been particularly tough and many nights it takes us until 10 or 100pm before he finally gives in and goes to sleep. Tonight he went to sleep at about 7pm which is so unusual - in fact i fell asleep on his bed as well! I hope he stays asleep for the rest of the night - in any case, I suppose we are in for a 5am awakening...

And Preston's finger is better! Last week most of the scab on his fingertip soaked off in the bath, leaving just a tiny speck of scab between the underneath of the nail and the cuticle. So we decided he could go without a bandage now - he thought that was pretty strange after having it wrapped for 3 months, and today he must have had some bandage anxiety as he found himself a bandaid and put it on! Anyway, the nail bed and nail has completely grown back which is absolutely amazing and if you didn't know any better you wouldn't notice any difference. Upon close inspection though, the roundness of the very tip of the fingertip is not quite there, but I think it is still healing and probably over the next little while it will fill out a bit. We are so grateful that all has turned out so well! But slamming doors completely freak us out.

Preston's birthday at daycare

Preston was at daycare on his actual birthday, but it sounds like he had such a fun day! The older children were going on a walking field trip to the library and since you need to be 3 to go on these outings, Preston was very excited to finally be included. The teachers have a rope with knots tied along it so each child holds onto a knot, and this was a pretty fun novelty for Preston. They had to walk half an hour to the library - and I knew that it was highly unlikely Preston would manage this! We usually get to the end of our driveway and he is insisting on being carried. However, I assume that when not in the presence of parents, he does what he's told.

So they walked to the library for story time, and then went to a cafe for a fluffy and bread roll! What a fun birthday treat. And THEN, to make it even more exciting, they caught the bus back to daycare! Public transport is also a great novelty - every so often Preston and I catch the train and he loves it. The highlight of the bus trip was the 'mean bus driver' - hahahaha.

Preston tells me he was 'very tired' after all that and he apparently fell straight asleep at nap time. For afternoon tea, I had whipped up a very quick and cheap imitation of the 5 little duckies cake from Preston's party so that all the children could have an afternoon tea party together. They all loved it, and I'd bought them all a party hooter thingy so it went down well.

What an exciting 'actual' birthday day!

31 week tummy

Here it is! My tummy at 31 weeks. It's 10 days after this photo from when I was pregnant with Preston. I think I'm probably about the same. From reading my blog at that stage, my pregnancy sounds pretty much like what's going on at the moment.

Every day, almost without fail, I get multiple instances of people (mostly strangers) saying these phrases: 'oh, you can't tell you're pregnant from behind!' and 'what a tidy bump, you carry so well' and a mixture of 'you're so big' and 'you're so tiny'. And then I get quite a few commiserations about having another boy like 'oh well, you can always try again next time' (yeah right!), and a lady in a shop the other day said 'oh no, that's awful! What are you going to do? Two boys will be terrible!' Er, well there's not much I can do apart from get on with it and enjoy a fun life with my boys!

Today we had Preston's 3rd birthday party which was lots of fun. He and his friends went to Lollipops Playland in the morning for a major energy-expenditure session, and then we had a big picnic at the park with heaps of family and friends. It was a great day and Preston has been completely spoilt. After staying awake all day, he was happy to have a bath and jump into bed with no complaints, nice and early tonight, hooray! Check out my cool Duck and Nintendo cakes I made.

And in the bath tonight, Preston's old fingernail managed to soak off, revealing a virtually normal looking newly grown nail bed and nail underneath! YAY! It's slightly bumpy and I'm hoping as it regrows again that it will be flatter, but essentially the new nail bed and fingertip has grown back enough to look like a normal finger. There is a small scab left at the fingertip and it looks like that will fall off in the next week or so, but in the meantime it is just allowing some extra growth and healing underneath.

Preston's Finger News

Preston's finger has been making some great progress over the last few days. The sewn on piece has shrunk down quite a bit and it seems that it is getting thinner from the inside-out - meaning that the inner core is healing nicely and is working its way to the outside layers. We expect the outer skin layers to come off like a scab and leave a reasonably normal looking finger underneath. Our checkup at the hospital today confirmed this - they are extremely impressed with the healing and say it's just a matter of time before the scab falls off and we can see what is left.

One exciting bonus is the doctor said we can now get it wet in the bath or shower! All this time, we've been wrapping Preston's arm in gladwrap to keep the finger dry which he does not like, and so we've been a bit sparing on the cleanliness... Anyway, Preston was SOOOOO amazed to be allowed to get his finger wet after all this time, that he asked me about 20 times before his bath if I was sure it was ok, and then about 10 times once in the bath. He eventually plucked up the courage to dunk it (I realise now he has a strong sense of what is right and wrong when it really matters) and then proceeded to have the most fun bath in ages (we've generally avoided baths and have showers instead) and spent the whole time singing "I'm allowed to get my finger wet!".

However, things got a little over-excited and in a moment of bathtime adventure, he slipped over, and slammed the side of his face against a bottle lid at the bottom of the bath. He now has a big red imprint of the lid on his face below his ear which hasn't bled too much but has bled under the skin. Sigh. I hate accidents! Anyway, we have quite the collection of bandaids and first aid equipment now so all is well.

A day at a farm

Today we went to Manea's 3rd birthday party at Butterfly Creek. Preston was absolutely amazed to be allowed to hold a baby bunny!

6 Months Pregnant

Right, so I'm 6 months pregnant. I was reading my blog from when I was 6 months pregnant with Preston and I seem to be experiencing the same things - I have a 35cm long super kicking baby in my tummy! It's rather uncomfortable and I have a lot of pressure at the very base of my abdomen where the skin is being forced outwards. I can feel a foot every now and then when it pokes out against my skin which is pretty cool. Probably the only additional symptom this time is that I have at least one nightmare every night about Preston's finger accident (I think I had nightmares when I was pregnant before though, but not so many), and my sleep is very bad at the moment.

Just for fun, here is my 6 month tummy photo from August 2005 compared to my 6 month tummy photo November 2008. I even wore the same tshirt for more accurate comparison! (But I forgot to stand in the same position, doh!).

August 2005

November 2008

Preston loves kissing his baby brother!

New scan pic and Preston's finger update

Here is a cute picture of our growing baby at 23.5 weeks. You can see the side profile of the face and a little hand up by the forehead. I had to have this extra scan to double check for any heart abnormalities after my annoying (and stressful) nuchal measurement problem. Luckily there is nothing wrong! Now I can get on with this pregnancy and I finally feel like I am beginning to look forward to having a new baby in 100 days... And there is the potential this baby may be slightly bigger than Preston as the growth rates are slightly above 50% and I'm pretty sure Preston was around the 40th percentile most of the time.

Preston's finger update: We are kind of in limbo about how this is going. We went to the hospital on Friday and had a look at his finger for the first time in two weeks and they said the prognosis is 50/50. It should either look withered up and fall off, or show signs of circulation, and it is kind of in between. There are parts that are black and dried up, but then other parts that look reasonably hopeful about healing. I think what is happening is that the sewed on bit is acting like a perfect covering for healing to take place underneath, and the very outer layers of skin that are like a black scab will shed off and hopefully reveal as much finger as possible under it. I'm going to be very sad when any pieces fall off...

Preston's Accident

Here is Preston being a cute Katamari snow person.

Sorry for not blogging for so long, but we've had rather a stressful time recently as Preston had quite a nasty accident. We were supposed to be having an exciting holiday at the mountain where Preston enjoyed his first snow experience, but it ended early after Preston lost the end of his finger in a door. It's all been very traumatic for us all (mostly Dan and I, as somehow P has dealt with it amazingly well), but we had some excellent public hospital service and surgery and I think we will be ok.

After the accident, we had an ambulance ride to Taumarunui Hospital, where they repackaged P's finger and piece of finger for a stressful drive to Middlemore Hospital for surgery. We were not even sure if surgery would be an option, but luckily the plastic surgery team at Middlemore were outstanding and decided it would be worth saving - and even managed to slot P into a quick midnight surgery before the more complicated dog-savagings and knife fight wounds were scheduled.

Preston's been a real trouper and has had his hand fully bandaged for about 10 days and has figured out how to do things with his left hand. We had the scary unwrapping on Wednesday where we would find out if the surgery had been successful. It was extremely disturbing for me, but P was unfazed and enjoyed helping the nurse with all the medical bits and pieces. It seems that the finger piece is attached perfectly and while it is still a horrible sight, the doctor was quite confident that it will 'take' and survive. At least it wasn't shrivelled up and dead - it looks like circulation is functioning so I'm very hopeful that all his extra vitamins etc i've been giving him for cellular growth and repair are doing their job.

Now we have a long process of having the dressings changed at the doctors every 2-3 days until it is properly healed.

Halfway!

Here's a cute picture of Preston and I with my 20 week tummy! As a comparison, here is my 20 week photo from when I was pregnant with Preston. I wasn't even wearing maternity clothes at that stage... I guess since I got soooo big towards the end that my muscles and ligaments are a bit over-stretched so not as elastic and firm as I was the first time around.

Nearly half way!

Wow, can't believe I'm nearly half way through my pregnancy. With Preston, every week seemed to drag on forever and I couldn't wait, but now that I know what I'm in for it's less 'exciting' and more practical, plus I'm usually too busy with Preston to be thinking about much else! On Friday when I am officially 20 weeks, I'll post a picture of my growing tummy - I'm sure it's bigger at this point than with Preston (I'm probably saggier I guess).

Here is the latest developmental news from Babycenter.com:

Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you. Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now. Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on her skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.

And this is what Preston should be able to do at the moment:


Names one color - well he knows pretty much all the colours
Count to 3 - er, we taught him up to 20 ages ago, and he counts backwards from 10
• Names one friend - he knows the names of EVERYONE
• Carries on a simple conversation - at great length, and often quite complex conversations!
• Alternates feet going up and down stairs - yes
• Uses prepositions (e.g., on, in, over) - yes, he thinks it's hilarious when we purposely get it wrong and he corrects us
• Speaks clearly most of the time (75 percent can be understood) - that's about right, maybe a little more
• Stacks eight blocks - block stacking is soooo last year, but he likes to build towers with his Duplo and Lego
• Is toilet trained during the day - pretty much
• Wiggles thumb - i'm sure he could do this when he was a baby as he would have done that for his baby sign language
• Expresses a wide range of emotions - most definitely!
• Draws a stick figure - the drawing has kind of been put to the side a bit (although he does a lot of art at daycare), and instead of drawing at home, he's become the master of technology. His precision with the stylus on the Nintendo is amazing and he is really good at lots of games. He also loves his computer and plays fun educational games and likes to type his name whenever possible. I'm sure he'll get to drawing stick figures eventually - it's just the computer literacy came first!

Clever Preston's morning news

At daycare, they have morning news where the kids get up and talk about something interesting. Usually it's a new toy they've brought along or something. I was there this morning at news time and Preston managed to completely bewilder his teachers! He says:

"Good morning everyone" (good morning Preston),
"I bought a snow suit on the internet." (the teachers were completely confused and laughed at the thought of Preston understanding the concept of internet shopping. I said it was true.)
Then, "Daddy's friend Jonny came to stay in the weekend to play Rock Band." (They didn't understand what this meant so made him say it 3 times to be sure, and each time he repeated it clearly. Eventually they decided that Dan and Jonny are in a band. Preston said he plays too, and they were confused even more so I explained it was a playstation game.)

I just thought it was so funny that he is so high-tech that other people just don't get him sometimes.

18 week scan

Here is our baby at 18 weeks gestation. We had our anatomy scan today - all is looking great! They wouldn't do the 4D scan like we had with Preston because it's too early (we had Preston's scan at 20 weeks), but we have to have a heart scan at 24 weeks so should get some better detail then. The heart scan is just because the baby is at a slightly higher risk of having a heart defect since there was the enlarged nuchal area, but from what could be seen today, the radiologist didn't expect there to be any problems at all. Also the nuchal area has resolved so that is a relief too.

So they scan through all of the baby's anatomy to check for problems and to check function. Everything was in the right place and doing the right thing so it makes me feel much more confident that all will be ok and the stupid stressful scare we had was just a precaution and there's nothing to worry about.

We've got a video of the scan, so I'll get Dan to edit the interesting bits and post it up.

It feels a lot more real now that I can see a properly-forming baby growing and can feel it kicking me. I told Preston this morning that the baby was kicking me and then I had to take it back as i could see his little mind ticking over the fact that maybe he could kick me and I might not be mad!

Preston's checkout

Not much to do today so in an attempt to keep the peace, I gave Preston a big toy that we bought him ages ago to pull out whenever we needed. It's a supermarket checkout! It has little pretend groceries and a till with money, buttons, lcd screen and even a little scanner area that you put the groceries on to find out how much they cost. Then when you're ready to pay, you can choose to pay by cash (notes and coins provided) or by credit card with the little eftpos machine. Oh, and there is even a microphone so you can say "Preston to checkout 3 please!" which he finds extremely entertaining!

We have our 18 week scan tomorrow which is exciting! I'm feeling lots of kicking now that is growing in intensity daily. I think I'm going to be in for another pregnancy kick-a-thon like I was with Preston.

Been doing knitting and cross stitch lately - I must get Preston's Mr Men alphabet chart finished before his birthday (since it wasn't done for the last 2!), and I've decided to do some more of the dinosaur I started last year.... it's very tedious but I completed a leg last night so now I feel motivated to do another.

Will add photos/video of our scan tomorrow.

locked in the car, and holidays

Had a bit of a crisis on Friday. I picked up Preston from daycare and he was being a mischief and running around inside the car, pressing any button he could see. I put my bag in the car so I could reach in and I eventually caught him and buckled him into his carseat and shut the door with a sigh of relief. Then my relief turned to horror as I saw that in his button pressing, he'd locked the car! With him strapped in, and my keys in my bag! OH NO! Luckily daycare was still open so I ran back in and called Dan, who had just battled through rush hour traffic to get into town. I had to make him battle the traffic all the way home again so he could pick up my spare remote (lucky I just bought one) and come to save us (before battling the traffic again back into town, poor Dan!). This all took quite some time as you can imagine, and all I could do was talk to Preston through the window. All he wanted was a cuddle, and he was getting extremely upset that I wouldn't just open the door and give him one. I decided to try to get him out of his seat so he could get my keys, and explained to him how to undo his carseat. Of course, they are completely childproof so he was getting very upset and yelling over and over, "Mummy I'm not strong enough! I need help!". I tried to get him to take his arms out from under the straps, and he got one out, but the other was just too tight, and this made him even more upset. We were completely helpless. I was trapped outside and he was absolutely beside himself trapped inside. Luckily, Dan turned up eventually and saved us! We all had a big cuddle and found some yummy treats for poor Preston. What an ordeal!

We went away for the weekend to One Tree Point for a Dad's birthday / Father's Day combo. Andrew and Natalie came up too so it was a big family weekend with lots of yummy food and beach fun. Check out some cool photos Dan took at www.flickr.com/regen, especially my fancy profiterole tower I made for dessert!

Here is Preston having fun sliding down a sand dune at Ruakaka beach:

This wasn't taken over the weekend, but is an example of how cool Preston is:
We've been invited away for a weekend at the snow next month, hooray! So today Preston and I bought this from Trademe so he can be dressed for the mountain. He's very excited about wearing it to make a snowman.

As big as an avocado!

Our baby is about as big as an avocado from head to bum (legs are not counted in the length as they get all folded up and are too hard to measure). I have more than an avocado sized tummy however and am rapidly outgrowing my normal clothes. I've got a whole lot of maternity clothes all ready but I'm not sure if I want to jump into them yet. But... some really nice maternity jeans just arrived by courier and I tried them on and they are sooooo much more comfortable than anything else I've been wearing lately so they might become my new favourite jeans.

Each day is a little better

This recovery is pretty slow, but all my sickness symptoms have gone, just leaving me with painful lung-lining. I think what has happened is that when you are pregnant, hormones race around and loosen up ligaments and things so that expansion can take place without much effort. While I was sick and had absolutely violent coughing attacks, I think I have over-stretched the ligaments or whatever around my lungs and I just have to wait until they heal properly. Breathing is still difficult and I'm ok as long as I don't exert myself too much. Sleeping is pretty painful though and I wake up feeling like I've been steam-rolled. But during the day I'm ok and I've even been at work today with no major problems. And I'm back to pre-pregnancy weight now - I've eaten a kilo of protein powder and put on 4kg in a week - that's some pretty fast weight gain! It's all gone to my bulging tummy and I definitely look pregnant now :)

And, no morning sickness for over a week! Hooray!

Preston's been reasonably good - he had fun at swimming today with all sorts of new tasks to do, like lying back and pushing off from the wall with his feet, jumping in and swimming around dan and back to the side, and the usual running/jumping/diving fun. Summer time at the pools and beach will be really fun this year! (Except i'll be so pregnant and uncomfortable).

I've just finished my last assignment for my Food Allergies Diploma and I think I have to do an exam and then I'll be done :)

Preston at his computer and with Clifford

Here is Preston at his computer playing games. He's going to be programming before he goes to school!

And here is Preston meeting his buddy Clifford the Big Red Dog (from the stories and TV shows) at the mall. He was so excited to meet Clifford and kept saying things like "Clifford, follow me!" and "Go down the stairs Clifford!" It was very cute.


I'm also feeling much better now - thank you to everyone who has sent me messages of concern. All my sickness symptoms are gone, apart from what feels like a painful diaphragm and I think I may have pleurisy which is an inflammation of the casing around the lungs. Seems time and pain relief is all that can be done until I'm better, but each day is much better so hopefully it wont be long now. Yesterday Preston and I had a really nice day together - we went to Sylvia Park and did some shopping, had a picnic morning tea, played in a few places and had pancakes and a fluffy for lunch. Then after his sleep we enjoyed the sunshine and blew bubbles and decorated the patio with chalk drawings. So things are much better!

On my way to being all better

Things are getting better now - i've put on 3kg in the last 3 days! Yay for no throwing up for 3 days, and also my 3x daily protein drinks with almost capacity powder to water ratio are really helping. My tummy has grown back and I can feel some kicking now which is good.

Preston is very clever these days so I thought I'd write about his latest things. He is extremely computer literate and knows the difference between using the mouse and using the arrow keys for directions in games. He plays lots of online games by himself at www.playhousedisney.com which are games of all his favourite tv shows on the Playhouse Disney channel (the one with no ads, so really good!!) He understands all the instructions by himself and gets through all the games and their varying difficulty levels - it's very impressive to watch. He also likes typing his name and knows how to correct any mistakes! And his current favourite bedtime activity is taking Dan's DS to bed and he gets out the little stylus and plays his game until he falls asleep.

getting a little better today

I haven't thrown up in two days, and i've been having protein shakes 3 times daily containing pretty much maximum powder:water ratio that still remains in a drinkable consistency. I've had nearly half a kilo of protein powder in the last few days! This morning I was very pleased to see I had put on 1.5kg since yesterday, and the way I've been eating and not being sick today, I'm sure tomorrow I'll have some more weight added.

I've been feeling a lot better today, although this cough I have is just so bad and my ribs are aching. Coped much better with Preston today as well because I had a bit more energy.

The results for my tests came in the mail today in an envelope stamped Private & Confidential all over it - the privacy rules are just ridiculous - I wish they'd just given them to me yesterday. So to spite them I opened the envelope in front of Dan and Preston (who are just as entitled to see them as I am, duh!!), and of course everything is fine. Karyotype is 46XY (you can figure out for yourself if that's male or female) with no abnormalities detected. If anyone knows much about chromosomes, let me know as I have the codes for the particular chromosomes with what I think is placement of the centromere perhaps.

Well I had better down my next protein drink before bed. Luckily they actually taste nice!

not having a very good time

I've had a really rought couple of weeks. We had a brownie sleepover and some girls came with germs which then combined to make a supergerm which knocked out a number of girls including me. I had only just had my procedure done so was probably more susceptible to infection. I can honestly say that I have never been this sick in my life and have had no appetite for about 10 days, no energy, i have a terrible cough that keeps me from sleeping (I even slept sitting up on the couch one night which helped a little bit) and doing pretty much anything - every time i cough i feel my uterus get crunched, and i still have morning sickness! I usually throw up in the morning, and then again once i've spent about an hour eating dinner. What a waste! I've ended up losing 4kg which probably makes me technically anorexic now, and i have no fat on my hips, legs, face, stomach anymore. My hips are extremely painful as I can only sleep in one position (to minimise coughing) and there is no cushioning anymore. I am just a bag of skin and bones! Things are very bad.

Poor Preston has taken the brunt of my lack of energy and lack of interest in parenting. I've spent days and days just yelling at him and wanting him to get out of my way and leave me alone. He has been particularly naughty but it's probably mostly my fault as I have had absolutely no desire to play with him or do anything at all for him. I've desperately needed family help at times when i've wished i wasn't a parent, but our Auckland family are unreliable/disinterested which is very frustrating.

I thought the pregnancy was all over the other day when after a week of violent coughing i had a few days of spotting, indicating potential miscarriage. Luckily when I went to the midwife today I heard the heartbeat so it's managed to pull through. I've been able to eat for the last 2-3 days and i'm downing protein drinks 3 times a day in a desperate attempt to put some weight back on. And i haven't thrown up my dinner for the last 2 nights so hopefully i'm getting back on track.

Still no final results for my chromosome test - seems like there is a lot of unnecessary red tape surrounding privacy and even though i've given consent, they can't be faxed to me or my midwife - they are finally being posted to me... that's not very secure either. What a waste of time.

Results are in!

Oops I've been so busy emailing and phoning people with the results, I've forgotten to blog them. The preliminary results came back fine! From what I understand, the placental cells are tested directly for about 8-10 known chromosomal problems (which is about 98% of the full results), so we know there is no obvious problem. The full results will pick up anything additional that would be an unusual problem, but we are confident that since the baby's structure is fine that there are no actual problems.

AND.... we know the gender! I know some people (stupidly!!!) don't want to know, so I won't post it here but if you want to know, just message me and I'll tell you.

And for those of you thinking of getting pregnant at some point, just remember that the test I had is standard procedure for all pregnancies once you are 35+ as your risk of chromosomal problems escalates the older you are.

So we are very relieved and can now get on with enjoying the pregnancy. I've managed 5 days in a row with no morning sickness, although that was broken a couple of days ago so I'm hoping it's just about over now.

Just had my uterus stabbed!

Yep, had my Chorion Villus Sampling (CVS) test today which involves using ultrasound to guide a needle through my abdomen, uterus and into the placenta where it digs around to loosen up some villi and then sucks them out to send away for testing. It was the weirdest procedure. Mostly painless, but felt pretty strange, and seeing it on a screen was also interesting. The baby jumped when the anaesthetic went in and didn't seem to like what was going on, but I didn't like it much either.

Good news though - results are faster than I expected and we get some preliminary results on Monday and then full results in 10 days or so.

Also the baby's good structural development and hand movement co-ordination ability makes it less likely that anything is wrong.

Will post results when they are available.

Appointment's set

Finally got an appointment after much mucking around from the inefficient hospital who after 2 days of sitting on my request, can't fit me in until NEXT wednesday! I insisted my midwife find somewhere else and I've now got an appointment this Thursday at Fertility Associates, yay!

To help me calm and relax and destress, I've booked in a two hour session at the beauty clinic tomorrow.

Hopefully the results will be speedy.

Waiting, waiting...

We are currently waiting for news of an appointment to have a chromosome test. It is pretty hard just waiting and trying not to worry. I was hoping to have an appointment today, but it doesn't look like that will happen, grrrr. The more reading I do, the more hopeful I get about a positive outcome, and then I read some convincing studies that make me more depressed.

Preston has had a fun weekend - yesterday he and I went on a shopping/lunch/playground trip to the mall and we had a nice time. I bought him a new pyjama suit, and this morning when he woke up the first thing he did was run into our room and say "Daddy, check out my cool new pyjamas! Mummy bought it at the clothes shop". We also made popcorn yesterday in a popcorn machine, and he exclaimed 'this is the most fun thing ever!'.

12 week scan

Here is our baby at 12 weeks! It is just as squirmy and active as Preston, so I'm sure that's a good sign. We got to see everything in a lot of details - fingers, toes, brain, spine, beating heart, internal organs, all sorts. It was really exciting seeing the baby at last and knowing that I'm not just making up my pregnancy!


Here's a top down view showing the hands (and a bit of a foot).

Everything looks great structurally, but I had an abnormal nuchal test (which calculates risk for certain chromosomal problems) so I have to have another test where they take a piece of placenta to actually check the chromosomes. Results in about 3 weeks. Hopefully all is ok though. Will keep you posted when I know anything.

"I'm Preston 2½"

Preston's getting slightly confused. We've been teaching him to say "two and a half" when he is asked how old he is, and that's going well. But he has also just properly learned his full name, but gets is a bit mixed up and says "I'm Preston Too and a half!"

It's so funny :)

He now has his own computer which he can operate with minimal assistance (it is easier for us that he has his own, as then we can actually get some work done!), and he has mastered many of the games on the Playhouse Disney website.

12 week scan tomorrow - will post a picture and details.

Preston's going to be a big brother!

Yes, that's right, we finally decided we'd better bit the bullet and brave having another baby. Yikes! We are due Feb 12 2009. It has been a long and hard decision for us as Preston is so energetic and time demanding, and Dan and I both still want to work so managing to juggle everything will be rather hectic. Anyway, Preston has been putting on the pressure for quite some time since all his friends either have new babies or have babies in their mummy's tummy so he feels he is missing out... "Mummy, when can I get a baby brother?" he says. Initially he only wanted a girl "NO mummy and daddy, NO BOYS, only GIRLS!" he determinedly instructs us, but now he'd quite like a boy so they can play trains and computer games together. He's somehow figuring out that some activities and tv shows are for girls (only) and some are for boys (only), but SOME activities (like Brownies) are for 'girls and Preston' so luckily there is a loop hole for clever boys.

So back to the pregnancy. I'm 11 weeks now and morning sickness is annoying but not as violently bad as with Preston. I've been feeling more nauseous than actually being sick, and it seems to get worse each week on Fridays which is my new week, eg week 7 - felt sick a lot of the time; week 8 - started to have occasional dry retches; week 9 - more regular dry retches and sometimes vomiting; week 10 - actual vomiting after eating; week 11 - feeling sick ALL DAY and throwing up if I eat. Luckily the last 2 days have been sick-free!

My major issue this time around has been emotional outbursts. I seem to be a lot less tolerant to misbehaviour (ie Preston's) and hopefully it's just hormonal and will go away soon (I'm getting better). I've taken this long to update my blog because I've been in such an angry state of mind that you'd all wonder what on earth was wrong with me when I'd be ranting on in an anti-parenting style. Poor Dan's parents - they were staying here when I was at my absolute worst. I don't think I've ever been so angry and mean in my life and Preston was being quite naughty and I just couldn't take it. They must think I am such a terrible mother.

I was reading my blog this morning from the same stage with Preston and it was quite interesting how similar my body changes are (although I didn't have the miscarriage scare this time). My tummy is definitely poking out and if I wear a dress I look really pregnant. I've had to retire my tightest jeans, and have been wearing other jeans not done up properly. I've done lots of maternity clothes buying from trademe and the end of season sales (I sold most of my maternity clothes after Preston was born as I'd worn them so much I never wanted to see them again), so I have a good stash of some comfortable and interesting options.

Even my cravings have been the same - cheese and crackers, cherries, necatarines and peaches. Although this time I've also added macaroni cheese and raisins.

We have our first scan on Friday so I'll post a photo then.

Preston is so clever these days. He is very computer literate and knows how to use a mouse to navigate and he plays games by himself on the disney website. We have also been playing Toontown together! This was a game Dan and I were quite addicted to from 2001-2002 when we were beta testers. Preston loves playing it with me which is really cool. He also uses the Nintendo DS (the one with the stylus) daily, and likes playing Rock Band and texting on the iPhones. Yes, our son is quite the techno-geek. But what did you expect??

He's also got the alphabet song totally sorted (I'm going to teach him the alphabet backwards soon), he can read individual letters and numbers, counting is good up to about 14 (then he misses out 15,16,17 before yelling 18,19,20!). He knows all his colours and shapes and is really into jigsaws. He's mastered a Hairy McClary jigsaw so I bought him another one in the series and then noticed they say 'for ages 4+'.

Another interesting thing - he's had a few nightmares lately and I asked him what they are about. He's had a recurring one which is actually quite funny but must be scary for him. He says "The baked beans were chasing me and I fell in and they started eating me!" Oh dear :)

Potty training is going well - he is totally getting there and we have hardly any accidents any more.

Next Friday we are having a Brownie sleepover for the Olympic opening ceremony and Preston is sooooooo excited that he can come on 'Brownie Camp' with us and sleep in his sleeping bag. He LOVES coming to Brownies with me if Nana can't babysit and they all adore him. Sometimes he gets a bit overwhelmed by all the excitement but loves joining in the games and activities.

That's probably it for now. I need to satisfy my macaroni cheese craving :)

Preston is 2 1/2 years old

And on this day he is 13kg and 89cm tall.

It's been a while since we have posted, so Preston has obviously gone through a whole bunch of development since last time. We've been trying to Potty-train Preston for many months now and have had mixed success. He's great at using the potty, but not so interested in initiating the use of it. This has definitely led to many many many messed up pairs of pants and lots of loads of washing!

Preston is also amazingly proficient at using technology, particularly my iphone. As I write this, he has found my iphone, opened it, unlocked it, browsed to the video section, exited out of the last video I was watching, and started up an Electric Company skit that I left on there for him! WOW.

His conversation is slowly starting to change dynamic too. Preston generally talks in the third person ("preston wants that") but Belinda has been teaching him to say things like "I want...". The last week he's been saying "I want a cuddle" and "I want my mummy" which is awfully cute.

This week Preston has also begun his foray into the question-asking phase. He's not quite 2 1/2 yet! Yesterday we went through the entire contents of a drawer and he asked "Who bought that?" for every item. Other favourite questions have been: "Where is [insert name here]" and "Who's is that one?"

A picnic on a perfect summer's day

Kitty!

Preston playing with Tosca. She's slowly getting used to him

Feeding the ducks

We discovered a cool quiet park where Preston can go to feed ducks. He has a great time yelling "Yummy Bread!" to all the ducks - as if they didn't know!

Preston auditions for the next Spiderman movie...

Preston's 2nd Birthday at the Zoo

We went to the zoo for Preston's birthday, and I made a Blue's Clues cake!

Preston at Mark and Leanne's Wedding

Preston was a very cute page boy :)

Preston and Amber looking cute!

preston_space invaders 1 small.jpg, originally uploaded by amysinger.

So cute in fact that they made it to the Honorable Mentions in the Knitty competition. Yay!

Preston's Space Invader Jersey gets another special mention!

preston_space invaders 3 small.jpg, originally uploaded by amysinger.

Yay! Well I didn't make it to the winning 12 photos for the calender, but it's very cool that 2 of my 3 entries made it to the Honorable Mention section!

Preston counts and calls the cat

Preston can count to 10! He has counted 1,2,3 for a while, and he hasn't quite got 4,5 but he knows 6,7,8,9,10.

The other day we were at Nana's and he fed the cat (read: tips biscuits everywhere). He had scared away the cat in his excitement, so Nana says "Preston, lets call puss puss." Preston responds by running away and she says "Come back, we're going to call puss puss". He was actually running to the phone, which he picks up to his ear and yells "pusspuss!!". So he 'called' the cat... so funny how his logic works!

Here are some recent pictures:

What can Mr Mischief do now?

Preston is such a mischief boy - he even does the shifty eyes action when he wants to do something sneaky. He has some amazing planning skills - he thinks two or three steps ahead so he can get the item he wants. He also has a good imagination and talks to his bears and other toys all the time and gets them to do things (like share his food, or jump on the couch, or 'fly' off tall objects....). His communication gets better every day - he copies words or phrases much more correctly, and is he says a word to us that we don't understand, he will eventually try another method to describe it, like tell us that it is in a blue bowl for example, and then we can figure it out. He's got the hang of intonation, so he says 'Muu-mmyy-yy?' with a sort of 'whyy-yyy?' feel to it, or 'Mama where are you?' with either a cheeky 'i want to play' inflection, or a 'wake up!' urgency if he's bored in his cot and I haven't woken up yet.

He's also figured out knock-knock jokes somehow! So the other day we came home and i said to knock on the door. Preston says 'knock knock, who's there, ME!' Totally cracked me up! He also tells knock knock jokes to his toys which is hilarious.

Preston is quite the tech-savvy toddler. Dan thought his iPhone would be safe in locked mode, but its intuitive touch screen is so simple to Preston to figure out, so he knows to swipe to unlock, then click on the photo gallery, then swipe through all the family photos - turning the screen for a better view where necessary. He can also operate the tv and xbox - the other day he wanted to watch his Mr Men DVD, so ejected the current dvd, put in Mr Men, closed it, found the remote, turned on the tv, chose the story he wanted to watch and pressed play - then sat on the couch with his bears. Some of this might have been fluke, but he knows what he's meant to do which is quite amazing!

Preston is really cute with other kids, particularly his faithful friends, Amber, Manea and Carmen. Amber is totally his best friend and he talks about her when they haven't seen each other in a while. At daycare, the kids each have a photo book with what they've been doing, and Preston and Amber have a special page titled 'Best Friends' and there are photos of them cuddling and the two of them playing without the other kids. They both light up so much when they see each other!

It's nearly time for birthday number 2... I can hardly believe it. I'm knitting Preston a big toy dinosaur (he loves dinosaurs) but I doubt I'll get it done in time - might have to be for another time instead.

What Preston's up to nowadays

Belinda's on holiday, so I thought I'd give a bit of a status update on Preston. He's definitely a chatterbox now. He can talk for hours on end, mostly gibberish to me, but he seems to know what he's talking about. If I listen for a while I can figure out what he wants.

He can climb now too - certainly able to get up to chair height, and almost to bed height. Its kinda scary. Even worse is that he can now open doors. I have zero luck trapping him in any place alone - so he pretty much gets constant attention.

Food -wise, he's totally addicted to tomatoes, grapes, and cheese. He'll eat everything though, including some palak paneer last night and chickpeas, celery and lettuce from the night before's salad.

He also loves being outside, and can fully sort all of his plastic shapes into the shape-ball. Pretty cool, since I haven't given it to him for a few months - he just picked it up and did it!

Preston playing with bubbles

Brownie Fundraiser: Cool pens and jewellery boxes!

Our Brownie group is fundraising for Mutual Aid which is a Guides NZ fund for supporting Brownies & Guides in poorer countries. This year, the Mutual Aid Fund is going towards building a safe and fun campsite facility for girls in Fiji to enjoy.

We have made some items to sell as our form of fundraising, so you get something nice for your donation. We've made cool scoubie pens for only $2 and also some very cute jewellery boxes for only $5. Check them out in my zStore in the Brownies section.