Little Mr Chatterbox

Happy New Year everyone!

We had a nice quiet Christmas and New Years period this year. Actually a bit too quiet. Kasper was so unlucky to get a bout of gastro just before Xmas, which resulted in him only being able to eat yoghurt and drink juice for 4-5 days, including Xmas Eve. So that was a cosy Christmas Eve :( Luckily he had recovered enough to have a few potatoes with a little pork roast and gravy, but no crackling and no red cabbage salad or anything.

While Kasper had gastro, we also had to keep him away from Oscar to make sure he did not give it to him... that of course meant that I was on full 24 hours duty with feeding and everything, so around 3rd Xmas day I was VERY tired!!

And just as we thought Kasper was fresh, he then caught a cold with lots of sneezing and coughing, and had that over New Year's Eve up until he went back to work Monday 5th January, so again he could not help with Oscar! In fact he is still coughing a bit, so it's been a tough holiday for him...

Oscar has grown a lot over the last month or so. Saturday the 3rd January, he was 13 weeks old, which is 3 months old. This also means he is now growing out of the triple 0 (000) clothes, which is in a way sad :-( but also good! I was at the community centre yesterday to weigh him, and he now weighs 6.3kg, so he is now heavier than Bailey, she again has the title of being the smallest one in the house :-)

Oscar has also begun to "talk" a bit more now, especially in the morning, but he can certainly also test out his lungs the rest of the day. There's no doubt there is a little one in the house :-)

Below is a video from yesterday morning of his morning "talk". So cute!

He is also starting to be a bit harder to settle at night, which means it usually takes between 1/2 to 1 hrs from putting him to bed until he is asleep with lots of screaming and crying in between :-( I think he reaches the point of "I don't want to miss anything" by evening so that's why, because during the day he is happy to take his naps. 

As he is also getting too big for his bassinet, we now have to get him used to sleeping in his cot instead, and we tried that for the 1st time yesterday, which did not go so well, so I think that will be a weekend project...

Special Xmas Gift - Oscar's 1st giggle

And so it is Christmas, and this is a very special Christmas for us as it is our 1st Christmas with Oscar :-)

And Oscar was a little gem, delivering his 1st ever giggle as a Xmas present for his parents. Yasmin, who was in the middle of peeling potatoes for our Xmas dinner dropped everything to get the video camera and catch it on video, and succeeded!!!

Result below;
Happy XMAS from giggling Oscar :-)

Videos of Oscar

Oscar is now 9 1/2 weeks old, and is starting to be more awake during the day, so we have to keep him active in his activity gym and play chair.

Last week, we had the 8 week health check up with the childcare nurse, and Oscar is now a big boy weighing in at 4.9kg and measuring 56cm, so he is growing fast!

Last week we also had great weather on the weekend, so the whole family was outside to enjoy the summer weather.

Oscar certainly felt the heat, so he was lightly dressed for a few days. It is also good to have cuddle time with daddy on the couch :-)

The weather is still changing a bit, so even though we had 30 degrees and could sit outside and enjoy the weather 2 weekends ago, last weekend it bucketed down and we had plenty of thunder and lightning.

Luckily, the weather cleared up enough Saturday evening for us to make a butterflied leg of lamb on the BBQ as the Spratt Family was visiting to meet Oscar.

Grillmeister putting extra marinade on lamb

The Spratts meet Oscar, L-R is Martin, Cher, Oscar, me (Yasmin) and Hannah.

The last week or so, we have also got the video camera going, and below are a couple of videos with Oscar. --- ***three days later: there were supposed to be a couple of videos of Oscar, however because of our shockingly slow internet connection, there is only 1 video. I will try to upload the other video by breaking it up into smaller clips later... 

Oscar playing in his bouncer, but then needs to attend to other (pushing) business > <

Oscar has also become a very good boy, and now sleeps almost through the night, waking up between 5 - 5.30AM, so mummy is getting a bit more sleep as well :-)

Welcome Oscar

Even though I was set to be induced on October 8, Oscar had other plans....

Kasper and I had a nice "last weekend without child" planned for the 4th and 5th of October with Yum Cha lunch Saturday and brunch at the local cafe Sunday before the arrival of our little man.

But Oscar had other plans - at 4.30AM on Saturday 4th October, my waters broke while at the toilet, and then we prepared to go to the hospital after a shower and breakfast (the midwifes advised to take it easy as first time mums usually take 10-12 hrs to give birth). 

We arrived at the hospital around 6.30AM, and after initial assessment, the midwife offered us to go home for a few hours and come back. However, as I was having contractions about 5 min apart, I wasn't going anywhere. And luckily we didn't, because Oscar was in a hurry to get out. By 9AM I was in so much pain I asked for an epidural, however when they examined me again, it turned out I was fully dilated and it was too late to get any pain relief, so I just had to suck it up and push the baby out!!!

After a lot of primal screaming (I'll spare you any further details), Oscar arrived at 10.16AM Saturday 4th October, weighing 2805g and 47cm.

Oscar newborn 4th October 2014

We stayed in hospital for 2 days, and was then allowed to go home Monday afternoon. It was really nice to get home, as it was not easy to get any sleep at the hospital with midwifes running in and out of your room and noise coming from other rooms and the hallway.

The first week at home was all about just finding a routine with Oscar. Having to feed a little one every 3 hours is tough, as if you are lucky you get a max. of 2 hours sleep in between. Luckily, as Oscar grows, we can slowly increase the time between feeds, and after week 2, we are feeling much better and getting a bit more sleep :-)

I am also slowly recovering from labour. I was quite sore all over the first couple of days, but feel so much better now. I think most of the fluids have gone now as well, and as a bonus (perhaps of following a specific diet due to gestational diabetes during pregnancy), my post-pregnancy weight is current 8 kg less than before pregnancy!! So I am quite happy with that :-)

Below is a video of Oscar after a feed. He usually gets a bit sleepy, but he is making some cute faces :-)

Below are a selection of pictures from the last week or so.

Cuddle time with mum

Oscar after his bath with adorable spiky hair

Oscar bonding with dad after his dinner

Ready for an afternoon nap

Pregnancy and Baby related stuff

It has been a while since we have updated the family blog. As we have a family extension on the cards shortly, I'd thought we'd post a pregnancy/baby related post, so you can all see how the pregnancy is progressing and how we prepare for the little new man arriving soon...

Since we are so far away and most family/friends don't see us regularly, here are some images from my pregnancy...

About 4 months pregnant (mid May)

About 5 months pregnant - on holiday in Hoi An, Vietnam in June

About 6 months pregnant (mid July)

About 7 months pregnant (mid August)

A bit over 8 months pregnant (20th September)

As most of you know, I've had gestational diabetes during my pregnancy, so the doctors have advised me that they will induce labour approx. 2 weeks before my due date to prevent baby getting too big, which means our little man should arrive in 2-3 weeks time... Very exciting.

Apart from the diabetes thing, the pregnancy has been pretty good without too many issues, so I consider myself pretty lucky. In most cases the diabetes should disappear after giving birth, so hopefully that will be true in my case.

Kasper also thought he would participate in the picture diary 

(no he is not that fat, he is blowing out his tummy ;-))

The last 2 weekends we have been attending birth preparation classes at the hospital. As part of this we also got a tour of the maternity ward at Werribee Mercy Hospital, where I'll be giving birth. Bonus is the hospital is only 10 min. from our house :-) We were pleasantly surprised at how modern all the facilities at the maternity ward is. I've found a few images online to give you an idea (of course I forgot to snap my own photos during the tour).

Werribee Mercy Maternity Ward

Werribee Mercy Maternity Ward - 

this is the type of room we will stay in for a couple of days after birth

Of course, we have been getting a room and baby gear ready for the little man as well, so unfortunately our usual guest room has been turned into the nursery.

The cot in the nursery

a transportable bassinet bed (which we will probably have downstairs for day-time naps)

Wing-back chair and ottoman for night-time (and day time) feeds

The bathroom has been turned into change room with change table and baby bath

After a lot of looking around, I finally found a pram (barnevogn) that had all the features that I wanted. The seat is removable and can face either outward (seeing the world) or facing the parent. The seat can also be converted into a bassinet so baby can sleep lying down when out and about. 

Seat in sitting position facing parent (can also be turned facing away from parent)

Seat has been converted into bassinet, so baby can sleep lying down

When removing the seat, I can add the car seat capsule with the adapter frame, which means that I can move the car capsule directly from the car to the pram without waking up baby if he's asleep, so I'm very happy with all this functionality.

Seat has been removed and I've added the car capsule adapter

Car capsule clicks right in, so I don't have to move baby if he's sleeping :-)

I think this is all the news for now.
We are getting very excited about meeting our little man. I should get some more information over the next few weeks regarding what day they want to book me into the hospital for inducement of labour...

Holiday in Kata, Phuket, part 2

Time share apartment in Kata

Originally, we were planning to be aboard a Chinese junk today sailing our way through Phang Nga bay, however, sometimes even the best laid plans are derailed. 

As it turned out, yesterday morning Kasper woke up with a massive ear infection and very sore throat, so we went to the doctor (recommended by Premier Property) where he got an antibiotic injection as well as pills enough to open a minor pharmacy to be eaten over the next 5 days. So needless to say, yesterday was spent relaxing in the room and taking care of the patient. I also managed to squeeze in a bit of afternoon pool time to work on my tan.

Due to his illness, we also postponed our little sailing trip, so that's now planned for Sunday instead. I am also happy to report that Kasper is already feeling much better today, so it looks like he will finally recover from his 3-week cold thanks to some Thai medicine :-)

This gives me a great opportunity to post some nice images from our time share apartment here in Kata Beach. Below are some images from our 1 bedroom apartment.

The property in Kata

Balcony outside living room

Kitchen

Living room

Living room with view to bedroom

dressing table in bedroom + entry to bathroom

The bathroom

The bathroom

The bedroom with view of second balcony

Bedroom with king size bed :-)

Bedroom TV unit + door closed

Door open to living room

Holiday in Kata, Phuket, part 1

There's nothing as good as getting away from average winter weather and getting a bit of warmth and sun to recharge your batteries. So even though Melbourne winter isn't really that bad, we booked a two-week holiday to Kata in Phuket with a 3-day stop-over in Singapore on our way back to Australia.

The main purpose of our trip was really to test our impulse time-share purchase in Phuket from when we were here in February... Premier Property has 2 properties available currently (soon to be 3) to choose from in Phuket. While we got a tour of their Bang Tao property back in February, we thought it would be cool to check out the Kata property and spend our free bonus week + the free week Yasmin won here...

Kata Premier Suites property - time-share apartments. We are staying in the top floor apartment above the sign (two middle balconies)

The property here in Kata has 18 apartments, so a nice and quiet place in walking distance to all restaurants, shops etc. in Kata, and only 500m from the beach, which is approx. 1.5km long - perfect for an early morning walk.

Area we live in - hard to believe you are in Thailand. Notice: no overhead electricity cables...

So far, we have mostly spent our days lounging at the pool working on our tans, but we have - already - picked out our favourite restaurant, which has extremely well priced food (European and Asian) AND well priced wine, which is a bit unusual in Thailand. It is called the Wine Connection. We went there last night for a nice dinner with a good bootle of Australian Shiraz for only 500 Bath!

Wine Connection Restaurant in Kata, Phuket

Tomorrow (Thursday 9th August), we are meeting with one of the member coordinators for Premier Property, so we expect to get some more in-depth information on how to use the time-share facility for properties all over the World.

We are also planning a sailing trip with a Chinese Junk to Phang Nga Bay on Friday, which is mainly known for James Bond Island. http://www.phuket.com/magazine4/tour.htm

More about this in the next blog entry...