22 May

Today Max is 18 months old (or 14.5 months corrected). He's doing well - not walking or standing alone, no words (but LOTS of sounds), but happy and funny to be around. We've been told to treat him as a normal kid (as much as possible), so we hope to start Playgroup and swimming lessons next week (as soon as this month-long cold is over).

There's not a lot to blog about right now, so we won't be using this site anymore. Both Mark & I are on Facebook, so if you're someone we know, look us up there.

We wish all those who have premmies all the best in the world. If you're not already a member, join up to Austprem, where you'll find people who have experienced all we have, and more besides. Thanks to everyone who supported us throughout this long battle, and thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, gifts, calls, notes and comments.

Just to finish off, here are a pile of recent photos!

21 March

Max & I went to a Good Friday Brunch (thanks Shelley!). Had a great time catching up with lots of people we haven't seen in ages. Max got so tuckered out playing with everyone, he actually fell asleep lying on my leg! Never done that before. AND he actually stayed asleep despite being transferred to pram, then car seat! Bless.

18 March

Finally it looks like we're getting some more teeth! It has been a bit of a break between sessions, and so far, so good. Max also has his first cold - and is incredibly snotty, the poor wee thing. Strangely enough, we had some great nights, so maybe he was just extra-tired. Then came the massive, record-breaking heatwave here in Adelaide, and back came the bad nights. I think the heat did play a bit of a part, but the teeth were definately a factor for one or two nights, and the head cold for a few more. We will have to start working on this sleeping thing again now that the heat has passed (for a while?). We had another physio appointment - and this time he seems to have made some good progress. He was 'challenged' a bit with a new toy where he had to work out a bit of 'pressing buttons makes things happen' logic, and to our surprise, he actually managed to figure it out. He's crawling very well, managing the pulling-up onto furniture and getting back down pretty well, and is quite happy to push larger toys around the lounge - albeit a bit awkwardly as none of them are on wheels! Physio says that standing/walking could be a few months away yet - very hard to tell now. This past week was very busy - three 'first birthday' parties (Congratulations Kia, Jed & Mitchell!) over the weekend, and visits from Baba & Digo and Chocha Hush during the week. Max did very well overall, but, as always, much better when other people are around than when it's just him & me. I really want to get his room finished, and we have picked out a couple of bits of nice but basic furniture from Ikea, but my uni fees fell due, and so we put that project off for a while until the bank balance is a bit better. I'm hoping that I can sell the clothes and bits & pieces that have been donated for my 'Tiny Lives' Campaign this weekend at a local Easter car boot sale - some are larger bits of Max's (rocker, floor play mat, carry cot) and there are about six or seven tubs of clothes, so I really hope we can thin it right down and get some space back - and make some money at last! The latest Foundation newsletter shows one particular piece of equipment the NNU needs - a dedicated neonatal echo ultrasound probe. At the moment they have to use a probe built for a much larger child's body, and they can't press properly as it would hurt the baby. So, the readings aren't as accurate as they could be. A proper premmie probe costs around $17,850, and it's been on Flinders' wishlist for a while. I don't hold any hopes that we can raise that amount from a car boot sale, but maybe we can drop a little into the bucket. Max had several cardiac ultrasounds, and when his PDA was ligated, it was actually a lot larger than the surgeon was expecting. Maybe a more accurate screening would have enabled his doctors to have put him into surgery earlier, and helped his oxygenation at the same time.

16 March

BIG party weekend - Kia's First Birthday, Jed's First Birthday, Mitchell's First Birthday, Mama's (not first) Birthday. Just a couple of pics:

12 March

Max's 'due date' birthday. He's 12 months corrected today. To celebrate, he had a Milky Way bar - his only chocolate so far (and no more for a while, either!). He wasn't sure initially, but soon got into it.

11 March

Another little skill - this toy was given to him at Christmas, and up 'till now he hasn't been that interested - suddenly it's flavour of the month! It sings songs and talks when you push the various buttons, and Max loves pushing buttons. However, he prefers the on/off switch to all others, so we hear (in very quick, rapid succession) "Hello! I'm a..." "Bye, Bye!" "Hello! I'm a..." "Bye Bye!"...etc...

10 March

Just a few food pictures - Max with noodles, Max and more yoghurt (and subsequent bath), Max and gelati on a 39-degree day.

5 March

Tonight we went to visit the "Northern Lights" Exhibition on North Terrace - high-quality projections thrown up against the buildings there (museum, art gallery, Bonython Hall, University etc). Beautiful, and really well put together. Max just loved the fountains, though, and was ready to go home when they were switched off...

12 February

Photo only - Max after self-feeding - yoghurt, and very proud of it!

12 February

We have had a hard few weeks lately, with Max's sleep being very restless and broken. Since learning to climb up the side of the cot, but not being able to get down again, he was waking every 90mins to 2 hours. It was exhausting and we had no idea what the problem was. He wasn't teething, wasn't sick, was fine during the day (including day sleeps), so all we could assume was that it was a developmental thing. He was noticing when we weren't in the room, so perhaps it was a separation awareness/anxiety problem.

After reading "Baby Love", and with a couple of others also suggesting it, we thought we'd have a go at a version of what is termed 'controlled crying'. It was horrendous. The poor little thing was very upset, wouldn't settle, vomited (several times, and hugely), and was red-faced, breathing heavily and his heart was racing. So, that idea has been well and truly abandoned. Since then, I've done a bit of research on the topic, and it is a technique that really has some hugely differing opinions. Our CYH nurse was fervently against it, and I have found several articles (academic, and quoting academic studies) which also show strong reasoning against the idea. I suppose the main thing, though, is to do what seems right for you and your baby. I personally believe that if a baby is crying (and I mean really crying, not just a few grizzles), then he's trying to say something. he is upset - and the role of a parent is to comfort. I know broken sleep is horrific, but isn't baby's welfare more important in the long run?

Anyway, after another couple of nights of multiple waking (where I think he was just checking "you're not going to leave me all alone again, are you?"), we've had two nights where he's woken only once in 10-12 hours - and even then he's gone right back to sleep after a bottle. I'm not saying we've seen the end of it all, but at least we've had a couple of good nights. I feel vindicated!

He's madly crawling everywhere, and pulls himself up at any given opportunity. Thank goodness, he has now learnt (in the last 2 days) how to get down again. Up until now we had to follow him around and help him down when he cried - or risk a big fall on our wood floors! He is also (finally) working out how to get into a sitting position on his own. He sits beautifully, can get into a crawl easily, but not back to sitting - only when we put him into that position. But, it's beginning to happen.

We're beginning to start self-feeding with a spoon. So cute. He's a bit random - tends to hit the table repeatedly so food goes on the table, floor, walls and cat. However, he has got the idea of putting the spoon into the pot/dish, and occasionally it will go into (or around) the mouth. We try this every day (or so) at morning or afternoon tea, with yoghurt or custard - easy to clean up and scoop. Slowly but surely.

There are no clear words, but we do have the beginnings of the 't' and 'm' sounds. 'Mama' and 'Tato' can't be far off... I'm trying to work on a few 'instructions' - "come to mama" is the first (apart from 'don't touch' and 'let go' - mostly in relation to power cords and cats) and he is doing really well. This morning Mark got Max up, and had to leave for work at about 6.30 - I was still in bed. So I called to Max, and he made his way out of the lounge and into my bedroom. Very cute. (He didn't want to snuggle in bed, though, so we were straight up again.)

Food is interesting at the moment. He still eats most things, but seems to get bored in the middle of a meal. I have a suspicion that he wants to 'do it himself' - but that's not really an option all the time. He has loads of finger foods - here's a current list: Cheerios, rice cakes (spread with things like ricotta, vege puree, vegemite, melted cheese, cream cheese, hoummos), sandwiches (with same kind of things as the rice cakes), mini pikelets (with spreads), crumpets (with spreads), cheese sticks, bread crusts, Arrowroot biscuits, baby biscuits I found in the supermarket, rockmelon. I am trying the odd (lightly steamed) piece of apple, pear or carrot, but they just tend to get squished in his hands, or are too hard for him to pick up. Mark gave him some cucumber (deseeded & peeled) yesterday, and I think some got eaten!

Oh - and he can clap!

Photos: first ice-cream (he only had a lick - was fascinated with the cold, I think), playing house with Caitlin.

25 January

Over the last week, Max has progressed physically in quite big leaps. He is comfortably crawling, now, though it's a bit ploddy, he's very persistent. He also loves climbing - and as our furniture doesn't lend itself to this very easily, most of the climbing is up me! He'll pull on my trousers/skirt, whether I'm sitting or standing, and pull himself up until standing. He's still very wobbly when he gets vertical, and so there have been several crashes resulting in big crying sessions.








He's also very persistent when it comes to the cats - mostly Bruji. Bruji is a very social cat, who just wants to be where the people are. Max's eyes light up when he sees the cat now, and immediately (if possible) tries to get to wherever Bruji is. Occasionally, the cat has actually (stupidly?) sat down next to Max on the floor. A few days ago, Max got his first scratches from Bruji - two in one day! It hasn't seemed to dampen Max's efforts to get close to him, though.


Max is very verbal at times, though no actual words yet. Lots of consonants - except for 't' and 'm' - so no 'tato' or 'mama' on the horizon - even accidentally. There are huge variations in sounds, all which bode well for speech development. However, he doesn't copy - be it physical things (clapping, facial expressions) or verbal, so obeying instructions may also be an issue.


He is beginning to love his bath at last. He got some great bath toys from his Hrasna (godmother), and just loves them. As he can now sit (hurrah), baths are a bit more fun. But, we still hold him as he can lose balance very easily.


He had another physio appointment, and the physio seemed very pleased with the progress. She explained a bit more about "low muscle tone" to me (which she's diagnosed in his legs & feet). Basically they are extremely relaxed and hyper-flexible. It sounds good (and is if he wants to do gymnastics or dance!), but it actually means he has to work harder to get the muscles working at a proper level. This may be contributing to the 'wobbly-ness' he has when he's standing up. It's not something he'll grow out of; he'll always have it.

16 January 2008

Again, it has been a long time between posts. But, in my defence, it has been a busy two months and I am only now getting back into some sort of routine - well, almost.

November highlight was obviously Max's first birthday. It was a very stressful time as all the emotion of the last year descended on us. We also were planning a birthday party and had visitors (who are always welcome, by the way!), and to top it all off, Max wasn't well on his actual birthday. We were emotional anyway, and had heard of several cases of gastro (including one little guy who had to be admitted to Flinders for two nights), so we had this horrific dread hanging over us - that Max was sick and we'd have to face hospital again and also cancelling his party.

But, although his actual birthday wasn't a great day for him, he rallied and was much more like himself on his party day. We were very blessed to have such a group of people attend - family, friends from the unit, my very cool mothers' group and their babies (and some dads, too!), some Bureau people, neighbours etc etc. It was a good day. Max was very spoilt, but loved ripping the paper off his gifts more than the gifts themselves (sorry!).

Then we focussed on readying the house and ourselves for our departure - to NZ for two weeks and Melbourne for one over Christmasses. Madly cleaning, packing, anticipating Max issues etc etc until be finally got away. We spent a week travelling around the South Island with my brother & his partner, then a week with my parents in Palmerston North for December Christmas. All great fun - Max acquitted himself extremely well, even sleeping through the night twice! He loved Christmas Day - again he loved ripping paper. (His gift from us was three rolls of christmas wrap scrunched up, then wrapped in more wrap. He loved it! And, yes, we're cheap.)



















Then on to Gisborne for Max's Blessing Service and Uki Christmas. As he was baptised in hospital, we wanted to have a service to include his godparents. The service was lovely, Max was fascinated with everything, it was a stinking 37-degree day, there was too much food (good!), his godparents were exactly the right choice (thanks Myron & Felicity), and people were very generous. We loved it.



Uki Christmas was mad, as usual - two big dinners over two days - but lots of fun. Max got very tired, and we were probably worse. It was a great time, but we were ready to go home.



Now we're back - our house was immacuately cleaned by the housesitters (thanks, Mark & Fi), our cats didn't seem to miss us at all, the lawn and some plants are nearly dead (hot days, water restictions), but we're home.

Max has decided that sleeping for more than 40 minutes at a time is just not de rigeur (except at night when he'll stretch to 90 minutes). I'm not sure if it's the heat, the 'big bed' or somethng else, but I am exhausted. He's also started crawling - yes, proper crawling on all fours - and while he's pretty slow going, he can't be left alone for more than a moment or two. He's also (in the last two days) discovered climbing. He can't really get a hold of our furniture, but loves climbing up me and gets very upset if I put him on the floor and move away.

He's babbling much more clearly, though there is absolutely no attempt to copy anything. It's the same with physical action - he watches intently, but makes no copying attempts at all. I had a very clear "mama" the other day, which was a huge shock as the 'm' sound is one he hardly ever makes (occasionally a 'nananan', or 'dadadad' but, sadly, no 'mmm' or 'tatatat'). I was stunned and have been begging ever since for a repeat. However, I have to concede it was a random sound, with no intention at all!

Feeding is interesting. he was brilliant on holiday - ate everything, drank reasonably well, but now at home he's all over the place. Not sure what it is. But, he's beginning to 'get' finger foods - Arrowroot biscuits are easily demolished, grated cheese is good, if messy, and yesterday we tried bread crusts, with which he was fascinated. However, he has started regurgitating fairly frequently (much to Mark's horror) - which, again, is new for Max.

The 'tiny.lives' campaign stock is building well, but our first listing on EBay isn't garnering much interest at all. Maybe this was a bad idea? My other method of sale was perhaps to package each item up neatly in bags and hangers, then go to the local car boot sale and sell the items individually and regularly (that is, every Sunday when I can go), so I can get a 'following'. I'm not sure what's the best way to go. EBay seemed really easy to administer, but there is actually quite a lot of work to do just for one listing - cleaning/preparing clothes, sorting them into bundles, taking & editing photos, enticing write-up, logging listing, dealing with PayPal and buyers online, packaging & postage... I'm not sure I have the time to do it all properly. I will keep trying - they will be sold!!!

I have tons of photos from our trips - too many to easily edit into a blog - though I'll try to throw the odd one into future entries! Here's a couple, to start off -