Carter 15 weeks and Linc's ouch

What happens when you flip over a bedhead onto a window sill...

Merry Christmas everybody

General update

Carter at 12 weeks old

First of all, an apology may be in order for the slack rate of blog updates; however, if you have had kids of your own, you would quickly realise that updating a blog is one of those tasks that gets put to the bottom of the pile as time becomes...well, NOT your own... So anyway, here's a quick update...

The cold that was passed on from the neighbours ended up giving Mum and Dad chest infections so they were both on antibiotics with Dad taking a total of 6 days off work. This made being at the beck and call of the kids slightly more challenging.

Carter had an ultrasound of his hip, and it turns out that everything is fine. So even though two baby clinic nurses said there was a click there, our GP didn't, and I guess that's why she is paid the big bucks.

Carter is doing well as far as weight gain, and general progress - he's fitting into clothes that Linc didn't wear until he was about 5 mths old.  His sleeps during the evening range from 4 hours to 8 hours with only very short sleeps during most days. What is annoying at the moment is where he doesn't go back to sleep for very long after he has had his early morning feed.

Lincoln still hates Santa, so a trip to the shopping centre ended up being a waste of time; we are going to try again shortly, so stay tuned. Linc still goes swimming every saturday and seems to enjoy it.  Although he's at a really dangerous point where he is not afraid of the water at all. Halfway through class when he's supposed to be sitting on the edge to jump in where Dad is, he'll get up, run halfway along the pool and jump in.  And no, he doesn't swim - he sinks.  Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is how he has progressed with his interest in the TV... In the Night Garden just doesn't do it for him anymore, and it's now Toy Story and Cars which keeps him entertained.  And he's been doing a fair bit of TV watching lately, as we have had over 200mm of rain in the past two weeks alone.

In a nutshell, life isn't easy at the moment - and when both kids are screaming, and you're tired (and hungry while your nicely prepared dinner goes cold) it's sometimes difficult to keep the stress levels under control.  But then each of them will give you a smile, and you quickly realise that there is no way we would change a single thing.  Bring on Christmas holidays!

Carter 10 weeks old

The two boys

A rare moment as the two boys share Linc's couch

4 November - Carter 5635g 59cm

Yep, you read right - Carter has put on over two kilograms in 8 weeks...! He is in the 90th percentile for height and weight, and 90th to 97th percentile for head circumference (41.7cm). He is still a little jaundiced, and has a slight heat rash. Oh, and his little umbilical hernia is still there (not so little actually) and we have a specialist appointment early next month to determine what we do about it.

While his 8 week checkup went quite well (although we have to take him for an ultrasound for a clicking hip, which was there, then wasn't, now apparently is there again) he has had a cold for the past week which almost saw us taking him to hospital (in an ambulance, apparently - so we would get in quicker)... It's a cold that has been passed around the entire household (caught from the next door neighbours - thanks very bl**dy much) and has made us all quite miserable - especially poor Linc who has had an awful cough (which he still has).

Carter laughing

It's so wonderful to see our little guy feeling so happy!

Carter smiles and Lincoln sinks

Breaking news... just got a message from my best mate whose wife has gone into labour - GOOD LUCK!  Another little fella' for Lincoln and Carter to play with (or to drag away from Belle!)...

Well Dad is back at work now (and has just turned down a week long interstate work trip) and things have begun to resemble some form of routine (although the grandparents are still here and are doing a great job of helping Mum out while Dad is at work).

Carter started smiling on Wednesday (20 Oct); it's easy to forget how much your baby's smile can light up your day! While he has been doing falling-asleep-smiles for a while now, these are proper, mouth-wide-open happy expressions...:

Carter smiling for the first time

Linc walking across the floating mat to Dad's waiting hands

Linc has also started swimming lessons. He had his first trial run yesterday and seemed to love it (although got a bit cold out of the water!). He even had his head dunked right under the water by the trainer (way deeper than Dad was prepared to do!)...

Carter's umbilical hernia

Carter's very own umbilical hernia (it pops out a lot more when he is straining his belly muscles)

Carter has had quite a 'sticky-out' belly button since birth - but it hasn't really gotten any smaller - so a quick consultation with Dr. Net results in a high probability that Carter has an umbilical hernia. We'll make an appointment for him to see the Doctor asap but, if it does turn out to be a hernia, it is unlikely anything will be done. They are very common and usually fix themselves over time. An umbilical hernia is a small defect in the muscle wall which allows some of the intestions to pop out (yum!)...If by the age of 4 years old the hernia is still present, a small operation is undertaken to fix the defect.

Lincoln at Batehaven

Carter and Linc relaxing on the bed

Carter (5.5 wks) and Lincoln (almost 21 mths)

Photo of Carter at 4 weeks old

A bit of everything...Carter 4610g 8 Oct

From the beach to the snow, the family has ventured near and far through this big brown land. Linc watched his 2nd Bathurst 1000, and got a lot more out of this time (last Bathurst he was only 9 mths old!) – nice to see Lowndes and Skaife win a really exciting race. But before we go into our adventures, a bit about how Carter is growing...and there is one word to describe it...porker. He weighed in at 4610g which was an increase of 910g in 16 days (average is about 150g per week)... While Dad is a bit dubious about the figure considering we used a different set of scales, it would still be fairly close to that figure.

The family also took a day trip (which turned into an overnight trip) to Batemans Bay, and stayed at a lovely resort in Batehaven (with an outdoor spa, which Dad loved!). Linc still isn’t a big fan of the beach – he doesn’t like the sand – and got quite distressed when Dad buried his feet...! Dad took him into the water up to the ankles, but unfortunately due to these weird wave things, it turned out being up to Linc’s knees; he didn’t like that very much either... that was our only foray to the beach, as overnight it poured with rain, and didn’t stop the next morning. So the family headed home at a snail’s pace just in time for Linc and Carter to see Ma who is visiting from Victoria.

A very tired Linc posing for a photo with his brother at Batehaven

Carter in his 'happy place'

And the snow? Yep, 40 km from home, in the Brindabella Ranges, Linc got his first taste of the snow today. He didn’t much like the feel of it, but he was quite amazed at the snow flakes falling from the sky. How good is it to travel 2 hours to the beach one way, and 40 minutes the other way to the snow!

Mum and Linc in the Brindabella Ranges

Carter's first cold, and the family's trips to Floriade and the Zoo

Carter smiling as he drifts off to sleep

Poor little Carter has caught a cold. Dad caught it also. And Lincoln... Luckily Dad reckons it's not a bad cold, but then again his immune system probably took care of it easier than little Carter's will. Lincoln is battling through it without too many issues, but still gets a bit grumpy. Mum took Carter to the Doctor, but there is nothing they can do at this age as they really don't like prescribing antibiotics when they are less than 1 month old. So, it's left up to Carter to overcome this bug, and so far he's doing ok.

The family went to Floriade yesterday and to the National Zoo and Aquarium today for Grandpa's birthday. It was a lovely time, but both trips were reminders of how much more effort and stress everything is now we have two kids (even though Carter was simply magic on both days and just slept for the majority of the time). Lincoln went on the big slide at Floriade, and even went on the Ferris Wheel (although he was a bit apprehensive once it started rising way into the air!). He loved the White Lions at the Zoo, and the Tiger, but absolutely loved the Goose, which kept trying to charge at him!

Lincoln enjoying a beautiful spring day at the Zoo

Saying hello to the Bengal Tiger

Teasing the naughty geese that kept charging at him and his Dad

Enjoying (mostly) the Ferris Wheel at Floriade

Carter sleeping beautifully at Floriade

Mum and Lincoln on the giant slide at Floriade! And while Linc looks terrified, he just kept on going back for more!

Update

Grandma and Grandpa (on Dad's side) have arrived back from looking after Dad's Aunty and are thrilled to be spending time with Linc and Carter (Cart?!). Grandma has become attached at the hip to Carter and simply adores him. Grandma also took Linc shopping yesterday and spent even more money on toy cars for him... we always knew she would spoil the grandchildren! Linc and Grandpa have hit it off and Linc had great fun yesterday grabbing all of his toy cars to put in Grandpa's hand..one after the other...!



The below photo shows Linc as he was walking around yesterday holding Tad and copying what he sees us do with Carter when we walk around holding him and patting his back - it was hilarious. Linc still can't say truck - it's still grrrrrrrrrruck. But he also says uck uck uck which is his universal word at the moment - it means 'get up' 'let me outside' 'pass me that toy' etc. etc.  He also tried his first real apple on Saturday - he almost choked to death on a big piece of it, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

Lincoln 'burping' Tad

Carter is still only sleeping for a few hours at a time, and we're still fine-tuning our routine; hopefully one which will fit in with Dad when he goes back to work! I can see Mum is going to have her hands full when that time comes. He loves his bath time and just sits back and relaxes - which is in contrast to Linc who didn't really take to bath time all that quickly.



Carter relaxing in the bath



Carter's 1-4 week checkup - 22/9/10 3700 g

Carter had his 1-4 week check up with the MACH nurse yesterday.  He appeared to pass most checks, but is still a bit jaundiced and has a slight click in his hip which will need to be monitored.

Carter - 22 September 2010 3700 grams

He has gained 270 g in five days (avg is about 150 g in a week) and now weighs a whopping 3700 g.

Mum also continues to improve, with some very low blood pressure readings in the morning (113/74), and is now going into the evening without getting sick anymore (although her headache remains for most of the time)...

Collecting the newspaper and having chips for lunch

A beautiful day of 21 degrees and the family made the most of it, spending lots of time in the backyard (after Dad had finished mowing as it was quite overgrown!). Carter got quite a bit of sun and is looking a bit less yellow.

Linc has been collecting the newspaper from the driveway with Dad most mornings as it is not too cold - this photo is from this morning. Isn't it amazing how a haircut can change how someone looks - in this case, it's made Linc look so much older!

Linc at almost 20 mths old

Kingsleys for lunch today and Linc gets so excited as he knows we will let him eat some chips. This is Linc helping himself to some chips that were a little too close to the edge of the kitchen table!

Linc thinks the Kingsleys chips are pretty awesome too...

10 days old and things slowly getting into a routine

Mum is slowly getting better, but continues to get quite ill in the evening where her blood pressure is raised. However, she now feels almost normal in the morning with a fantastic blood pressure of 130/82.

Carter did very well last night, having a feed that finished at 2am and sleeping through until 6am! He's still a bit jaundiced, so we're trying to give him a bit more sunlight - which is hard at the moment as there has been a very cold wind hanging around, messing with some beautiful sunny days. Tomorrow will be 19 though, and Tuesday forecast to be 21!

Carter 1 week old...



Carter resting after a feed



Family

Where would we be without family...

Aunty Christine and Carter

...without Mum's sister, Christine, we would have struggled to find someone so wonderful to look after Lincoln while Mum was in the hospital. So thankyou to Christine and Andy, and Bec, Will and Lizzie, for welcoming Lincoln as part of your family while we were in the hospital.

It was a huge load off our minds as we knew Lincoln was in fantastic hands...what we didn't know is that he would mature quite a bit while going through his adventure away from home; he's now eating better than before, and just appears to be, well, bigger! Although I have heard from a reliable source that Lincoln was always bound to look huge after the birth of our little boy Carter! He's certainly not a baby anymore, and he almost feels too big to be putting on a change table to change his nappies!

Grandma and Grandpa with Carter

Also thankyou to Dad's Mum and Dad for visiting briefly on their way to support Dad's Aunty who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer (for the second time). Our best wishes for Aunty Marg and a speedy recovery!

It was nice to have Dad's parents here to lend a hand with Lincoln, and to provide another two sets of hands to assist with keeping Carter's number 1s and 2s to within the confines of the change table!

And finally, thankyou to all of Mum and Dad's other family members and friends for their messages of congratulations and wonderful gifts!

3430g 15 September

The birth has taken a heavy toll on Mum as far as her blood pressure goes.  She has had consistently high readings, sometimes as high as 160/105. This has made her sick, given her a thumping headache that panadeine doesn't touch and, as a result, she is not eating much. These facts, combined with a lack of sleep have made her dead on her feet, with very little energy to do anything.  To be honest, I've seen ghosts with more colour than she has. Despite the advice of the obstetrician (who said to leave it and monitor for a couple of weeks) she had a check-up with her Doctor today who has put her back on blood pressure medication; hopefully by Friday things should be looking better...

Carter's check-ups have all gone well. He is suffering a bit of jaundice, so we had him out in the sun for a bit today (a top of 15 degrees helped, but the cold wind certainly didn't!). He has lost 100 g in the six days since birth, which puts him at 3.43 kg; this is an excellent result, and it means he is feeding well (Lincoln lost 60 g in his first five days of life outside the womb).

And let's not forget little Lincoln. I can assure you all, that he certainly hasn't been forgotten in all of this, as he has been showered with new toys and five times as much attention from Dad (as well as the Grandparents who stayed with us for a couple of nights)! As a direct consequence of all the goings on, he has now turned into Dad's shadow and constantly follows him around. It was so heartwarming to see Lincoln give Carter a kiss today without even asking him to. He's such a lovely little boy. Let's hope he stays that way.

It's also coincidental that the Holden Special Vehicles E Series 3 was released today. I think that's a sign that Dad should buy one to ferry the kids around (wouldn't Mum look cool taking the kids to Radford College in that!)...

HSV E Series 3 GTS

Carter's first bath at home

Last night Carter had his first bath at home. And who should bath him, but Grandma who thought it was an extra special treat on her 60th birthday!

While Carter did have a bath in hospital, this one was a bit longer and quite a bit more relaxing as he didn't need to be scrubbed down from head to toe!  As per usual, Carter didn't like having his bits hanging out and screamed as he was undressed - but as soon as he relaxed in his bath (the laundry tub!) he calmed down and appeared to really enjoy it.

He's quite a spewy baby in comparison to Lincoln, and we've been caught a few times with spew on us - but he is still feeding quite well - so well in fact that he isn't feeding for as long as Lincoln used to - Carter just feeds till he's done and that's it - no more.  He's feeding about every 3.5 hours and sleeping very well - and I mean very well - he's the exact opposite to Lincoln - we used to struggle to get him to sleep; now we have to work to keep Carter awake!  Although I should say that Carter still has his days and nights mixed up, so is very alert at night time...

The birth

"So, do you want to have a baby today, or tomorrow?" Those were the exact words Mum's obstetrician used when she had her Wednesday appointment after her blood tests... But let's go back a bit first...:

Monday was the usual checkup with the obstetrician.  But on taking Mum's blood pressure, it was discovered that it had risen quite sharply since the last appointment. So Mum immediately underwent some tests, which came back all clear. However, she was then asked to do a blood test first thing Tuesday morning and to come back Wednesday morning to discuss the results.

On Wednesday morning the obstetrician advised Mum that it was better to have the baby sooner rather than later as the blood tests had showed evidence of pre-eclampsia - in this case, a reduced platelet count. The low platelet count wasn't too severe (136), but the obstetrician had just had another patient whose blood platelets dropped to 20 in a very short amount of time - and he didn't want that happening to Mum as it may mean a caesarean. So, rather than wait a week (in which time Carter probably would've come along naturally), they booked Mum in to be induced on the Thursday morning.

Mum was admitted to hospital Wednesday afternoon where they performed a procedure to ripen the cervix. Then first thing Thursday morning they wheeled her off to the birth suite to have her waters broken. A short time after that was done, Mum started having some light to moderate contractions, so everybody thought that we would be having a baby within a couple of hours. However, by 12pm, things hadn't progressed as far as planned. I should add that by this time, Mum was in quite a bit of pain!  So they started her on a very low dosage of oxytosin to give the contractions a little helping hand; at around the same time Mum opted for an epidural. The epidural dosage was also quite low, as everyone knew that Mum was very close to giving birth...and sure enough, within a couple of hours, Carter was born.

He was quite grey at the start, but soon started to go a lovely healthy shade of pink as he nuzzled into Mum to have some quality bonding time. His first feed was at 1523 and by this time, he had already started opening his eyes!  What was also incredible was his head control - from birth he has been able to lift his head up from your shoulder when you are holding him.

This is Carter at 4.5 days old...:

Carter Aston...photos...

Carter...only minutes old

Kisses from his big brother!

Lincoln drinking to a job well done, Mum!

Carter's hand - very different shape to Lincoln's (much more like Mum's hand!)

Mother and son

Father and son

Fast asleep...

The boys' first weigh-in...Lincoln V Carter...

 Lincoln V Carter vital stats:

39.5 weeks V 38.5 weeks gestation

3.07kg V 3.53kg

6lb 12oz V 7lb 12oz

48cm V 50cm long

35.5cm V 36cm head circumference
2.5hr V 5hr labour!

Introducing...Carter Aston born 9/9/10

On September 9, at 2.46pm, after a 5 hour labour (twice as long as Lincoln), the family welcomed Carter Aston into the world weighing in at a pound (460 g) heavier than Lincoln at 7lb 12oz / 3.53 kg. Carter is 50 cm long with a head circumference of 36 cm.

He looks more like Mum than Dad, and appears to have Mum's long pointed fingers with thin fingernails. He's been a fantastic baby and, while not giving us much sleep (which is to be expected!) has taken to feeding quite well.

Mum is very much looking forward to coming home today to spend some time with Lincoln as she misses him terribly! The baby capsule is in the Focus (thanks to Dad working till 11pm last night [do you know how hard it is to find a washer that drops down under the rear seats?!!] and we're all looking forward to kicking off the next chapter in our lives with the latest member of our family! Welcome Carter, love Mum, Dad and Lincoln.

Stay tuned for an updated blog header, and a full rundown of the events leading up to the birth!

12.8 kg 31 August

Linc continues to grow well and, just like his Dad, is built more like a greyhound than a bulldog. 31 August weigh-in was 12.8 kg, with a near miss as Linc would not lay down and almost slid right off the scales (see above photo!)...

He continues to have nights where he has difficulty dropping off to sleep without someone stroking his cheek with his wrap (see below photo - one for each ear!). It's definitely down to the fact that at this age, toddlers have trouble switching off at the end of the day. This was evidenced tonight by Linc reliving some of the events of today - like when he was sneezing in the car on the way back from the shops. He found it funny and so was doing pretend sneezes. But he never did it again all day, until tonight when he relived the event as he was trying to 'switch off'. Pretty amazing. Another thing that isn't helping is that his molars are STILL coming down, as well as teeth either side of his bottom teeth - that's why he has his dummy more often than we would like - without it he just sucks on his fingers until they are a bleeding mess.

Dad's second fathers day with Linc today - he was lucky enough to get a DVD boxset which Mum and Dad can watch in the 5 weeks Dad has off on leave for the birth of 2.0. Linc also got Dad a 'Wheels' subscription, 3 new ties and a shirt...very lucky Dad!

Almost spring...John Knight Memorial Park

Today the family got out into the sunshine (14 degrees!) at John Knight Memorial park to meet up with Clare, Steve and Fiona and their kiddies. Linc had a great time, but kept trying to run into the water as he doesn't understand that he will fall into the water and he won't actually be able to walk across it! No major injuries, although he did walk under a slide and hit his head as he was looking down - bet that smarted!

It was the ADFA open day also, so the RAAF Roulettes flew over the park a few times in tight formation which Linc was fascinated with.

And tonight we thought Linc might like to have a shower with Mum (as he did last night), but he got way too excited and ran into the shower before anybody was ready for him and slipped and fell flat on his bot bot. He also hit his cheek on the shower door, which is the most obvious injury... but I'm reminded of the famous quote by the father of the notorious Bruce Wayne ..."why do we fall over...? so we can pick ourselves up"... think about it. Hmmmmmm.