Baby Puke is Slimy

In late breaking news, we can report that baby puke is slimy (and travels very well).  It hasn't, however had what I like to call the 'Emma Effect'!

Happy Due Date

Another quick post to mark that today is Charles's official Due Date! He was three and a bit weeks early so, having had him home for a while we are now at the point when we were expecting to become parents.

He seems to have 'woken up' in the last couple of weeks and now has some consistent awake times (usually between about 11pm and 6am). I'm not sure what it is that he wants to do at that time as it is very dark, but he certainly doesn't seem that interested in sleeping.

Andrea and I have had to develop some strategies for catching up on sleep.  Andrea tries to have a nap during the morning when Charles finally gets tired.  I take micro-naps each time my boss tries to talk to me.  So far it is working out well.

Andrea was expecting to have four weeks of maternity leave before Charles came along, so she is thinking he should forfeit his first three weeks of wages when he finally gets a job. That way she can have a holiday then.

We are also getting more confident at venturing out of the house with him, so we can now start visiting folk (and more importantly purveyors of caffeine containing products). Not that the weather makes that very appealing at the moment. I am sure it can only get better from here...

We were very lucky to have a visit from Charles' Papa Charlie last week. He was up for work and came to stay with us for a night. Here they are getting to know each other. I think they look like they will get on really well!

Back to Birth Weight!

Charles had his second weigh in on the paediatrician's scales on Wednesday (yes, I know we are slack).

Well, he is back to his birth weight!  We are very happy as we have been very focussed on his weight gain since we brought him home (I think it is his lack of ability to say, "thanks folks, I think you are doing a bang up job").  Topping up after every feed (well, perhaps every second feed) seems to have done the trick.

We are not sure whether we are expected to keep up with the expressing and the top-ups.  We have another visit from the mid-wife on Monday and guess we will find out then.  In some ways, the topping up is good because we can be absolutely sure that we are getting food into him and we would hate to go backwards having made all this good progress.  On the other hand, it is a bit of a pain having to sterilise all the paraphernalia that goes with expressing and topping up, and we are not sure we want to get Charles into the habit of taking the bottle on a regular basis.  I guess we will see.

In slightly more worrying news for Charles, the paediatrician has issued the invoice directly to him.  We have had words with Charles about how he should go about paying it as we want to ensure he understands the value of money and that it does not grow on trees.  We are thinking that if medical insurance does not cover it, he may have to get a part time job.

All Clean!

Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find interesting topics to blog about real soon. After all, there is an election coming up. Ok, perhaps not...

Anyway, in real news, Charles loves his baths (which is lucky because he has to have them at least every 4 days (just before visits to or by people of authority). We have learnt to ensure that his towel is nice and warm and there is no mucking around in getting him dressed. We honestly thought we had broken him after his first bath. I guess the positive was to know that his lungs must be fine!!

As you can see, he looks at us with this 'not quite sure' look.  He really is very accommodating. 

Finally, just because we can, a nice pic with Dad! This is evening - a time when Charles likes to be awake. That ends around 6am. We don't have the heart to try and adjust that just yet. Not sure how long that will last.

The Biggest Gainer!

Charles is competing with Grandma to see who can put the most weight on.  It is amazing what you can do to babies without them getting too indignant!

Charles Samuel Moore

Charles Samuel Moore was born on 8 July 2008 at Auckland Hospital.  He weighed 8lb 2oz and was three and a bit weeks early! Probably lucky given his size.

As most know, he decided to create a bit of drama to mark his entry into the world and spent his first three nights in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU).  He had a little trouble with his breathing and the doctors think he had a chest infection of some sort.  The poor thing had to have IV antibiotics for seven days and it wasn't until 15 July that we finally got him home.

All seems to be much better now and he is progressing very well.  He is really taking to breast feeding and is putting on weight.  He does like his sleep though we'll see how long that lasts!

So far we have had two visits from the midwife team and they have been very reassuring of our rather rudimentary parenting skills.

Thank you to all who have been so generous in the last week and a bit.  We have been blown away by people's generosity and also patience as we get ourselves sorted out.  We are a little disorganised (to be fair we did think we had another three weeks to get sorted) at the moment, but we will send a personal thank out in the next week or so.

As is the point of these blogs, attached are a few photos from Charles' first week.  We'll post a set with a little less of a medical theme next time!

We would really like to thank Lynda Batcheler and AOC and Simon Rowley and the staff at NICU (especially night nurse Kelly) and Auckland Hospital.  Even though in the scheme of things Charles wasn't all that sick, it was a very stressful time and all concerned made a huge difference.

Thanks also to both of our families who have spent the last week and a bit running around after us and generally looking after us.  We owe you.