Rainy Daze

K scampered off for his morning at Henry's as happy as a clam. The fact that he gets a small milo to take along may have something to do with his good cheer :) I plan to head off to the bedroom and have a nap- as Cameron is sleeping at the mo. Yesterday Suzie came over to visit. She brought over her sling for me to borrow (what a lifesaver!!) and some warmer clothing and a baby sleeping bag. Cam had a lovely toasty night last night. I still suck at winding him - poor little devil is moaning and wittering in his sleep due to wind...Sigh. So I spent nearly 2 hours this am at 4:15am trying to wind him - with indifferent success. Sleep - waaaah! I have elevated the snugglebed, and will begin to lug him around in the sling rather than flat on his back in the stroller or floor and see if that helps. Breastfeeding is going well. Cameron ramped it back up again after slowing down when we got home. I have the feeling that the milk supply failed to meet his expectations after that, so he is making sure that it flows like water. This is not an issue during the day, but at night!! A towel has now been placed on my side of the bed haha. K remains fascinated by the baby, which is all to the good but now seeks attention (and stories) from visitors, which he didn't do before. I can't wait until he sees the Gruffalo dvd (BBC) as that is still his favourite book - although The Wonky Donkey is a close second!! I need to come up with activities to do while housebound, in the rain too! Had the downstairs heater on yesterday - brrrr it was cold. Boy, our power bill is going to go through the roof in the next 3 months!! Sigh..

I miss sleep

Ya know, Cameron is a great kid. He eats well, he sleeps well - but hells bells, getting a mere 2 hours of consecutive sleep several times a night truly sucks... particularly when poor Chris suffers from an acute case of grumpiness when he doesn't get enough sleep :)

We pored through our copy of the destitute gourmet before planning out the fortnight's menu. So far K has eaten 1 dinner out of 2. He wouldn't even look at Chris's delicious kebabs - and they were yummy! Yesterday we took K to Motat with the free voucher. Once again he loved MOTAT, actually weeping when Chris dragged him out the gates. We will go again when I am a little more capable of hunting down the wee squeak. Poor Chris had to race around after K and was absolutely knackered, with a sore back afterwards. Healing is going well, with me on panadol a mere 1x a day. Hopefully I can begin driving in the next fortnight and that will allow K to get out the house and not go stir crazy. Today was gorgeous and sunny and Colin and Ros came over with homemade bagels, salmon and cream cheese for brunch. It was super yummy and so appreciated.

And two in the hand....

Wow, juggling toddler and baby needs is a bit of hard work! Especially when your toddler doesn't understand why you "won't" pick him up, is having disturbed nights and can't understand why um doesn't liked being crawled over when she is feeding the baby. Add in a sleep deprived husband and it gets even more exciting!

Kieran had a fabulous day yesterday - it was the last one with his Grammy. We decorated the Gingerbread men, and K decanted chocolate buttons happily while the decorating proceeded - eating the fruits of our labours too - the little devil! We also went for a walk to the local park - but they were replacing the tiles on the base so K couldn't play. Alas!!! Sue flew home last night and is already missed by Mr K. He had such a great time with his Grammy! I have got to get driving as the more activities K can go to the happier he will be!! When it is just us at home he notices how much less attention he gets - and this saddens him. But he is so very good, and gives the baby cuddles when Cameron squeaks, and kisses and tries to play with him... although this generally involves driving toys over Cameron :)

I must sit down this weekend and work out a 2 week schedule of what we will do in morning afternoon blocks for the boys as hopefully that will help with the attention needs. The Porse sessions are a lifesaver too - as it means K can do something different, and Cameron gets some attention.

Baby!! Baby!!

Kieran is happy to see me home. He is also pleased that Baby!Baby! came with me. He is being very gentle with Cameron, and there is a lot of gentle stroking of the baby, counting his fingers and pointing out objects of interest (Head! Ear!). What he is not coping so well with is the lack of me picking him up. Bed and couch based cuddles just aren't the same. He is def enjoying having his daddy and Grammy around, although I suspect both of them will return to work looking forward to the relief from babywrangling :) Today K is at Henry's for the morning and we plan a baking session of "Man's!" also known as Gingerbread men this afternoon. A trip up to the library or the playground is also on the cards. I am chilling out this morning, as Cameron is being very good... eating and sleeping the way he is supposed to ;P

Yesterday we took K out for a walk to the playground in the drizzle. It was that or have all 3 of us go stir crazy. He ran us ragged - and we were mooching along at my invalid's pace too! Healing is going well, with a sharp twinge here and there reminding me not to overdo it.

Looks like we will do "The Mans"tomorrow morning with a potential trip to the library depending on the weather - Aaaah rain, sweet rain....

We're baaaaack!

Gosh, it's good to be home!! We headed into the hospital at the crack of dawn on Thursday. Everyone (except me) enjoyed a breakfast of crumpets. They processed us quickly and we were good to go at 8:50am... except Chris had not got back from dropping K off at Henry's. So, the surgical team sat around and waited for him to return :) The surgery went well, with the staff expressing some surprise at my enthusiasm to get started....and once again I vomited. At least this time it was at the beginning of the procedure so I got to enjoy the last bit of it and look at Cameron. He was hauled into the world at 9:53am, and his devoted father hied off to "do baby things". He is a bit smaller than Kieran - 3.2 to Kieran's 3.5kg's but is already a better feeder haha. I am recovering nicely from the surgery and the staff were just lovely - made the stay a good one. The catering service for the maternity ward however should be taken out and shot. Each meal was worse than the one before, with the coup de gras being the honey soy chicken with wedges. The chicken has been cooked so long the cartilage in the legs had turned to mush. The "wedges" were 2 whole boiled potatoes.. and the corn had been cooked for so long that it was gummy once you bit through the skin. A delightful meal :) It was so nice being home and I particularly look forward to not hearing the chime calling Nurses to a room going every 5 minutes, or hungry babies howling like timberwolves. Cameron has at least learned to peep his requests :) And now, it's off for some drugs and thence to bed!

Hello Cameron

Hi All. It's Chris here. I don't normally write blog entries but today is a special day so I'm making an exception :). Today we welcome Cameron Eoin Seal to the family. Cameron was safely delivered by cesarean at 9:53, weighing 3.21 kg (7 pound 1 ounce in the old currency). Both he and Shan are doing well.

Shannon is due out of hospital on Monday, all things going according to plan, and will no doubt update you all on how things are then.

Cheers

Chris

24 hours and counting

Sunday was a lovely lazy day and we enjoyed it immensely! On Monday K and I were collected by the lovely Suzie and headed out to Olympic Park for the Playgroup trip. K ran around like a maniac and had a wonderful time. I discovered that I was so pregnant that I could not do more than walk slowly after him, as fast walking was quite painful. Luckily there were many people present to give me the fishy eye and intimate that I was not all I could be as a parent. Naturally, just as Suzie rose to leave K literally sprinted for the hills and I would up standing there waving "bye bye" at him until he pathetically dragged his tearful self back. I grabbed his arm just as he began to turn to run away again - but still got the "bad mother" scowls from those watching. And yet, if I had chased him, I would never have caught up and..... aaaargh!!

On tuesday I drove K to his PORSE session... or at least to the top of the hill, where, as I pressed on the accelerator to pull out into traffic the car's engine just died. Pandemonium reigned. I would up pushing the car out of traffic all by myself (nope, no-one stopped to help!), which was rather tricky as I didn't want the car to whistle back down the hill with K in it!!. I fished K out and staggered down the hill where I called Henry to collect K. We got the car started once K was in Henry's car, and it behaved itself when I picked K up that afternoon. (problem with cold morning and choke) HOWEVER. I must have pulled or strained every muscle in my back, stomach and groin and the pain has been excruciating!! It has finally improved to the point where I can walk without active pain, though I spent much of today terrified that I was going into labour. Chris came home today and took me to get my bloods done at the hospital. I amused myself this morning by baking bread, doing dishes and laundry, packing my hospital bag, playing with K and having a nap. The house is pristine - or it was after I finished preparing dinner!! I have had a lovely bath with my son, shaved my legs while fighting off his offers of assistance and am about to go to bed... after all, tomorrow is a big day!