Maxwell is 1 month old! And Preston goes to Kindy

Wow, I can't believe it has been a month already. I am feeling really good (a bit tired, but nothing too bad), and am actually quite a lot more positive about parenting x2 than I was expecting.

Preston is so good with Maxwell and likes to pat his head surprisingly gently and says 'Hi Maxwell it's me, Preston!'. The other day he wanted to play blocks with Maxwell and I said that he is too little to even know what blocks are and he is waiting for Preston to teach him. So Preston launched into an elaborate description of what blocks are and what they do and how they work - followed by 'so can Maxwell play blocks with me now?'

Maxwell is very good and eats well, and isn't too bad at sleeping. Evenings have been annoyingly unsettled lately, so by the time Preston is asleep and Dan and I want to relax and hang out together, Maxwell wakes up and cries for a while. Hopefully that will sort out soon.


He is quite alert and aware of everything around him, just like Preston was so we think we've got another little super-dude on our hands. He is sooo strong too.

And a nice surprise - Maxwell has learnt to smile much earlier than we expected and he smiles lots! Here is his silly grin - it's a bit hard to get a cute smile at the moment :)

Today I've decided he has grown enough to graduate from his Newborn size clothes to the 0-3 month size clothes. His growth rate has been a lot more than Preston's was - I think a few factors have resulted in this. I started my amazing milk-enhancing tea as soon as he was born, but with Preston, I didn't discover it until he was 6 weeks old. Also the pain of breastfeeding that i had last time was over in about half the time with Maxwell, so I haven't been 'witholding' feeding like I probably did with Preston simply because it was so sore I cried.

So Maxwell is doing amazingly well, and Preston is a great big brother. Dan and I are coping pretty well too.

And Preston is growing up fast as well. In fact, today was his first day at Kindy! Hooray! He's been looking forward to this for ages, and his name finally came up on the looong waiting list. He's been at daycare for a while and this is fun but now it seems like he is hanging out with lots of 2 year olds and under, and he is pretty clever with all the hi-tech stuff he knows, and even things like the alphabet (they decide to teach the kids the alphabet at daycare, but realised that Preston knew it all already and he has done for at least a year) - so he is totally ready to hang out with older kids and expand his learning.

So off we went to Kindy and what fun it was - so much fun messy stuff to play with that we'd never do at home, and a great big playground and sandpit and even bunnies, and this giant slide!

Pictures of Maxwell (up to 3 weeks old)

The Birth Story

Hi! I'm home from the hospital now and I have a gorgeous little boy who we are so in love with! We are so lucky. And now for the birth story...

We went in for our induction on Monday night, and the procedure was to be identical to Preston's induction so we knew what we were in for. I was given prostaglandin gel to work overnight - with Preston I was given it for 24 hours and spent the latter half of that labouring only to get 1cm dilated, so I wasn't expecting anything to happen this time, since I was only being given it for 12 hours. After a night of mild cramping but nothing too major, I was examined and to my suprise, I was 3-4cm! Hooray! And since I'd had some sleep, I felt pretty normal.

My waters were broken at that point to move things along a bit, which started proper contractions immediately, and I walked to the delivery suite (having several contractions on the way, and feeling very proud of myself). There I had my epidural put in which is a pretty scary experience, and this was in preparation for the hormones I was about to get which brings on a quick and painful labour (so epidural is to make it more comfortable). The epidural seemed to be a bit much for me and it numbed almost my whole body including up to my eye so this caused a bit of drama amongst the anaesthetic team since they couldn't figure out what the problem was. (Anyway, by the time I was ready to push, it was started to wear off a little so that I could sort of feel what was going on. My eye was a bit droopy and wouldn't dilate for the rest of the day but wore off and is fine now.)

The hormones kicked in really fast and when the midwife told Dan to get the baby clothes on the warmer I was really shocked - I thought it would take the rest of the day to have the baby, but no, apparently I was 8cm and fast approaching full dilation and we would have a baby before we knew it! I was still feeling pretty normal (although I'd had quite a few contractions before the epidural kicked in) and had heaps of energy and it all felt a bit surreal that I was about to give birth under such good mental conditions.

And it wasn't long before I was pushing out Maxwell! He had his hand up by his chin so I ended up with a bit of a tear but not as bad as with Preston. I couldn't believe it when I was holding him at last after such a long stressful pregnancy and nothing was wrong with him after all the tests we had to have.

I had told Dan I didn't want any horrible photos of me straight after the birth when I'm all fatigued and sweaty and gross, but I actually look normal and I felt great! It was a fantastic birth experience - really controlled (from all the medical intervention) which I guess is not really the norm of the birth experience, but it was so reassuring to have everything all organised and planned and then feel so full of energy afterwards and ready to be a new mother.

We transferred to Birthcare for 3 nights which was good - I didn't necessarily need to be there that long as I know what I'm doing and Maxwell is the perfect model baby who does everything right - but it was good for us to have some special bonding time together.

We can't believe how much of an easy baby he is compared to Preston - he sleeps a lot (what a novelty!) and doesn't cry much (we will have to buy a baby monitor this time) and then just like Preston, he knew straight away how to latch on and gulp down milk. I have so much milk that yesterday I thought I was going to explode! I've been doing controlled feedings today so now I have the supply under better manufacture which is more comfortable. Although both boys are/were such vigorous feeders that I again have extremely painful bleeding nipples :( A couple more weeks of intense pain and then they should be desensitised hopefully - I managed to feed Preston for a year! He's growing well - he has already put on 100g in 5 days, and comparitively Preston had put on 35g by 7 days. They were only 20g difference at birth, and born on the same day of gestation.

Here's a comparison of them both on about day 3 sleeping at Birthcare:












So now we are adjusting to being a family of 4. Preston is being so lovely to Maxwell - he sings to him when he cries which is soooo cute, and he is really interested in helping with any tasks for him, like getting nappies and things. He's so excited to show him off to people and he explains (with big arm movements for accentuation) how 'Maxwell just popped out of my mummy's tummy!'

Maxwell is so cute and adorable, and we just love him so much :)

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.