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...

  

Our little (un-invited) pet in the garden

It is finally summer in Melbourne :-) We are enjoying the warm weather very much, now that we have some fantastic outdoor areas in the garden to sun bake or sit and read a book.

As usual, the weather got quite hot around New Year's Eve - we had a stretch of 4-5 days with temperatures from 35-40 degrees during the day, and 25-32 degrees during the night!! 32 degrees at night when you are trying to sleep is not that comfortable! Hurray for our evaporative cooling, which kept the temperature in the house at a comfortable level.

We both had time off work during the Xmas break, so we were looking forward to relaxing a bit and maybe go on a few day trips to Bendigo/Grampians, but unfortunately first Yasmin came down with tonsillitis just before the Xmas break, and then Kasper caught it and was sick between Xmas and New Year. :-(

This year, we celebrated Christmas Day (25th) with Karina & Shayne at their place. On our way there we encountered a hail storm, and we could read in the papers that some parts of Melbourne had a "white" Christmas with lots of hail covering the ground so everything was white!! Some of the hails were as big as tennis balls, so the northern suburbs copped quite a bit of hail damage to houses and cars.

We had a wonderful time with Karina and Shayne, as per usual :-)

New Year's Eve we were just the two of us at home. We had planned a lovely gourmet menu, - for starter we had prawns with blue cheese wrapped in prosciutto and grilled on the BBQ, for main a juicy T-bone steak with home made garlic butter, Greek potatoes and bruschetta with artichoke hearts, red onion, tomato and parsley topping. For dessert, which we ate quite a bit later, a home made almond meal and pear tart, which tasted very much like the Danish "kransekage" that you get New Year's Eve, so that was delicious.

At 10 min to 12AM, we poured a glass of bubbly and went up the hill 50 m from our house, where we have views towards Melbourne CBD. Our plan was to catch the fireworks live while toasting in the New Year. As a bonus, it turned out that a lot of the locals of Sanctuary Lakes also had some fireworks, so for once we experienced a lot of fireworks while toasting in the new year! We could see the Melbourne fireworks in the distance, but the local show was definitely better :-)

This week, we both went back to work, so the holiday is over for now until February where we are going to Thailand, can't wait!!!

Yesterday, Kasper had lunch in the garden and when he got up to go back inside, he caught the head of a reptile on the lawn, and rushed back in. First thought was: "is it a snake?" But as it turned out, it was a little (or not so little) Blue Tongue Lizard, which are common in Australia. They live on insects and snails, and as we had a lot of snails here when we moved in, we assume that's why our little lizard has moved into our garden! It lives in the lawn edge, where there are some high pavers separating the lawn from the paved area.

Here is the little bugger:

January 8, 2012

There is a great article on the Blue Tongue Lizard here: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2000/02/01/2662923.htm
Luckily it is not dangerous, as Bailey seems to be quite interested in sniffing the grass in the corner of the garden where it lives... Maybe we can hope she will be able to scare it away...

Until next time...

New Residence in Sanctuary Lakes

It has been a while since we last posted on our family blog, so our move to a new house has prompted us to add a bit of activity to the blog...

We moved house on October 31, 2011. There were a few different issues that bothered us at the old location, such as hoon drivers, garbage lying everywhere in the estate without getting cleaned up, lose dogs running around, idiotic landlord, and the last 8-9 months we were there we had to put up with building noise and tradies' garbage as they were building a house on the block next to us. When we moved, they had just started building on the second vacant block next to us, so we were looking at another 8-9 months of the same noise and garbage situation, and basically had enough!

Needless to say, we were looking for a more quiet location, without garbage etc. and luckily we found a great location just 5 km from our old place in Sanctuary Lakes, which is a golf course estate. This means that most of the houses have been build either around the golf course or around the lakes. An added bonus is that the estate has its own security guards who patrol the estate every day/evening, so we don't have many problems with crazy drivers etc. We also have access to the estate's recreational facilities - indoor pool, which means all year swimming, yay, large gym and 3 tennis courts. Furthermore, there is a nice local cafe, where they have the best burgers (according to Elin) - their club sandwich is pretty decent as well :-)

The house is a double story house, and this is the first time we have lived in a house with upstairs and downstairs. It took Bailey a few weeks to figure out that she wasn't alone in the house just because we were upstairs... but now she seems to have worked it out and is a bit more relaxed about it. We have installed a security gate at the bottom of the stairs so she cannot try the stairs on her own. So she is usually transported in mum's or dad's arms up and down the stairs. It is quite nice having 2 stories, for one you get more exercise running up & down the stairs, and there is a better view from upstairs. We have golf course views of the fairway from the master bedroom, but even better views from the guest room with views of the Hole 2 green. Great entertainment when golfers land in the bunker next to the green :-)

The attached photo album will give you a good idea about our new home.

December 17, 2011

So far we are loving it here, it is more quiet, neighbours seem to be friendly, there are lots of large green trees when you look out the window, and our garden is bigger - it helps we only have one neighbour (3-4m gap between houses), and free space on the other 3 sides of the house.

Trip to Bright and Falls Creek, Autumn 2011

It's been a while since our last post, so it is about time we have a new post.

As some of you know, we had a very bad month of April, where I lost my job (for no good reason other than I opened my mouth and spoke my opinion), and then all of a sudden Coco went lame in her back legs and couldn't walk due to a disc problem in the back which is quite normal for dachhunds. After an expensive operation, it was initially looking good with her rehabilitation, even though we were looking at 4-6 weeks training. However, she got very aggressive and after a few close calls, I copped a bite in my nose landing me in the emergency rooms for a clean-up and some antibiotics to avoid infection!

This is how you look the day after your dog bites you...

Because of the aggressiveness and the bite, we took the very tough decision to euthanize Coco, so unfortunately we said goodbye to our little friend and family member on April 27.

My nose has gone down to normal size again now, but I have some very nasty scars, so I'm hoping they will disappear....

Apart from the whole Coco affair, both Kasper & I were looking for new jobs, and last week Kasper was offered a job as a consultant for Focus. He starts his new job on Monday 16th May. I am still looking for a new job...

Because Kasper starts work next week, we felt like getting away to experience and see something new (so we could all get our mind on something else than missing Coco) was a good idea before he starts his new job. We decided to take a 3 day trip to Bright and Falls Creek this week and we managed to find some pet friendly accommodation so Bailey could come along.

On Tuesday, we set off on our trip. You can see all the pictures here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=YasminTM&target=ALBUM&id=5606407188149327409&authkey=Gv1sRgCOyehrD_mqrnYA&feat=email

It was a very nice time of year to visit Bright with all the autumn colours, but we also lucked out and got to experience the year's first snow in Falls Creek!! :-) Very cold, though!

That's it for now. Enjoy the pictures!