General update - Addi one week old (2.95 kg), boys settling back into school life!

So the week since coming home from the hospital has flown by. Everything so far has been as expected; that is, sleepless nights and everything that comes with it (lack of patience, grumpiness, and some tears)... but in general, Addi has been wonderful and much, much easier than the boys were in their first week of life. Some of this would be down to Addi's relatively straight-forward birth and Mum feeling 'mostly' ok (despite very high blood pressure readings each afternoon until yesterday!) but also we are both much calmer, having done this before (twice) and just feeling more 'ready' for another person to join our family.

Addi's first bath at home - she didn't mind the laundry tub, but hated it when we tried the bath!

Addi had her one week check-up yesterday. She has gained 270g in the six days since leaving hospital (where her weight was 2680g) for a grand total of 2950g. This is outstanding as babies should gain at least 150g per week! She has grown 2 cm (50 cm) noting we are saying 2 cm even though her birth notes put her at 47 cm which we think was wrong and should have said 48 cm. Her head has also grown .5 cm to 34.5 cm. All her stats are in the 15th percentile apart from her head which is in the 50th.

There were no other issues found, aside from one: she has a tongue-tie (ankyloglossia) where the lingulam frenulam (the small piece of skin under the tongue) is abnormally short and may restrict movement of the tongue. This can result in difficulty feeding (but hasn't in Addi's case given she is gaining weight) and, later in life possible speech impediments and dental issues as the tongue can't clear food from the teeth as effectively. We'll get her checked out next week but will most likely get it fixed rather than take the risk of future issues.

Addi's tongue tie

The boys have settled into the school routine really well. Linc is finding Year 2 not much different to Year 1 (so far!) so it hasn't been such a big deal for him. Carter didn't even shed a tear on the first day as we dropped him off; although that night he told us he did cry when he got lost (which is fair enough) but he found a grown-up who got him to where he needed to go. He's very resilient and made us very proud...

In other news we have started researching for our next car to replace Mum's Focus; seems we could really do with a 7-seat vehicle to give the kids a little more space. The Mondeo is fine around town, but maybe not on longer trips. At the moment we're considering the Kia Sorento or the Hyundai Santa Fe. While we've looked at both, it seems the Santa Fe is the pick at the moment. We'll see how things go over the next six months.

Carter's first day at 'big school'

The momentous occasions keep on coming, with Carter starting Kindergarten today, and Linc going into Year 2!

Anybody that knows Carter could probably guess how he handled his first day in a new school, in a new class and with a new teacher...?! Took it all in his stride - that's how he handled it. He was not fussed in the slightest - some of this may have been down to the fact he saw his best friend Ewan not long after arriving to class and then they were inseparable - what a little champion! It wasn't the greatest start to the school year, pouring with rain, and traffic chaos meaning we had to park in mud and do the bolt to shelter (Addi took all this in her stride, sleeping all through it!)

As Mum took Carter to his class, Dad took Linc to his class; and as we were slightly late (due to the traffic/lack of parking) nobody was there - luckily another class/teacher was going by so he was able to follow them to the hall, where he was able to join his own class - and no problems there. That we could see. I mean, he was gone so quickly, but I can imagine any trepidation he had was gone pretty quickly once he saw a few of his old friends.

Happy birthday Linc!

Today's objective was to make Linc's birthday feel special, despite the fact Mum and Dad have had very little sleep and felt VERY ordinary. So we started the day by meeting Nan and Grandad at the local McDonalds for breakfast. The boys enjoyed themselves (Addi slept the whole time) and it was nice to have someone else cook breakfast!

Then we headed home, and Linc played his new Xbox game 'Forza Horizons'; he also challenged Grandad to some car racing in 'Forza 5' and Grandad ended up being pretty good at it! They also had a bit of fun with their new Skylanders Superchargers.

This afternoon we had family and some close friends come over for birthday cake. Linc loved having Jeremy here, and he was absolutely stoked to be able to show Jeremy his new GT Aggressor 24" mountain bike!

But his number one gift? His Timex Ironman watch!

We did it!

As this blog post title exclaims - we did it!

After many years of deliberations, in the first quarter of 2015 we decided to try for another baby; not long after, Mum fell pregnant; 9 months later, we have been blessed with the most beautiful baby girl ever....welcome, Addilyn Grace to the family!

Unlike the previous two pregnancies, this one progressed without too many dramas; the worst part of it was some ligament damage very early in the pregnancy - but thankfully no pre-eclampsia and no stratospheric blood pressure readings! But as the pregnancy seemed to fly by in the first eight months, it really seemed to drag on in the last month; especially when we realised that she may come on Lincoln's birthday, or even on Carter's first day at big school; so with that in mind - and the worsening ligament pain - the obstetrician agreed we could be induced. So on Wednesday we were admitted to hospital, some medication applied to get things moving, and a far from restful overnight stay in the hospital (although Dad was ordered to go home to get some proper sleep - yeah right).

Next morning Dad arrived at the hospital bright and early ready for Mum to be carted off to the birth suite to have the induction started. While Mum had some minor cramping/contraction-like activity from early morning, it wasn't until 8.09am that her waters were broken; and at this stage the cervix was posterior and 2cm - both factors that indicated things had a way to progress before anything serious started happening... 54 minutes later baby Addi arrived into the world in a real big hurry, demonstrated by the delivery occurring in the bathroom, and Dad having to run to press the emergency call button to call in reinforcements. Thankfully they arrived within seconds, and our obstetrician not long after who got there just in time to deliver a healthy 47 cm long, 2.73 kg (6 lb) baby girl with a 34 cm head circumference.

So without further ado, here she is...:

Last blog post...

... as a family of four...! I just wanted to make sure I got one last blog update in before the imminent arrival of baby 3.0!

Mum is 38 weeks today; a check up on Tuesday confirmed all is going well with the pregnancy, and even the blood pressure is well under control - 120/70 - can't get much better than that...

The reason I finally write today is that Mum has been feeling quite uncomfortable today, with a bit of cramping, but a little less pressure under the ribs - which may indicate baby has engaged and we are closer than ever to meeting our little princess! While our OB pretty much offered to induce next Tuesday if we wanted, we decided to hold off - at least for another week - as Carter's inducement was not a pleasant experience.

We have been absolutely blessed that the pregnancy has gone so well; the first eight months absolutely flew by, but this last month is really dragging on. It's certainly been a bit tough for Mum who has had to entertain two active boys who are well and truly ready to head back to school! Not to mention that on the weekend before the hottest week in over twelve months the evaporative cooler failed; despite my best efforts to get every last bit of cooling out of it (which resulted in periodic cooling of 10 minutes at a time after I was literally forcing the fan from on top of the roof!) the cooler motor finally ceased on the eve of a very uncomfortably hot night! A bit of charm with the ladies at Climate Master and we had big Dave the head technician arrive two days after my initial service request - not bad at all! $700 for a new motor (on top of $1100 for a failed rainwater tank switch three days earlier) is certainly very, very bad timing.

Mum is enjoying her time off work, and I have one more day to go before taking six weeks off. Can't wait...

PS- we just got the blog printed into a bound book for 2014-2015. The price must have gone up from when we got 2013 done.. it was $131, even with a 10 per cent discount!

Merry Christmas!

Coast trip!

For the first time in many, many, many years, we did a December coast trip! Despite the drive there and back being a little frustrating due to traffic and roadworks, overall we had a great time - the weather was perfect, so we spent heaps of time at the beach. We even saw an Octopus!

Mother and daughter having some quality time together on the beach!

Octopus tetricus (Sydney Octopus), common along the NSW coast

...can change colour, shape and apparent size!

A bit of a hot spell over the last couple of days, meant it was a great time to get the water snake out - especially timely to celebrate the end of the school year! Another hot one today, but not as hot as Adelaide which is heading for 44 deg (the hottest December day on record)...

33 weeks on Thursday, and Mum has now officially finished work for a year (or so). And it was just in time, as she has struggled to stay on her feet all day at work, so is now enjoying a well deserved break! Baby's legs measure at 33 wks and her head at 34 wks; all very average (and nothing wrong with that!)...