Lilly Ann Clark was born to Mike and Amanda on 29th December at 5:58pm. 
Mandy had a 20 something hour labour but the little one still wouldn't come due to various complications and eventually Lilly was delivered via caesarian. She was 3.8 kg (8 lb, 6 ounces) and is 53 cm long (which is very long).
She is very cute .. there are some photos attached with a couple of happy grand parents.
Mother and baby are doing well ... Michael is okay too.
Meeks and I felt the baby kick or move or something for the first time last night. I was able to put my hand on her belly and feel it kicking around. Apparently it went on for quite a while! That was really exciting for both of us.
Amanda still hasn't had her baby yet. It's a few days over due, but doesn't look like it is in any hurry to come out.
I hope everyone had a good and restful Christmas and are looking forward to a Happy New Year.
Here are a couple of pictures of our baby.
First picture is the classic profile. We think the baby has Meeks' nose.
The second picture is a hand and foot.
We had our 20 week ultrasound today and the news is all good. We got to see the little one's hands and feet and face and heart and kidneys and brain and stomach etc. Everything was normal and healthy. This is obviously a huge relief for us and wonderful answer to prayer. Thank you to everyone praying for us.
We didn't want to find out the sex, so we don't know if it is a little boy or girl. Whatever it is, it is very cute - it riggled around a lot and at one point straightened it's leg out. We got a few little pictures and a video of parts of the ultrasound so I'll be posting the pictures some time tonight.
Obviously, we are thrilled. Half way there!
On a different note, my brother Michael and his wife Mandy are due Christmas Eve. Apparently the baby is engaged, but is quite comfortable and has more room to grow so they don't expect my little niece or nephew before the due date. In any case, he or she will be the first grandchild in the family, so when it decides to make an appearance it will be another great Christmas present.
Now that we have a camera, we can actually put pictures on the blog. Yay! Here is the 7 week ultrasound. I know, old news, but still cool. The baby is 1.37 cm. Very tiny! You can kind of see an arm bud too! Okay so maybe it just looks like a big eye.
We bought a video camera yesterday (it's a Panasonic NV-GS150 for those who like the details). We bought it through an online company called camerastore.com.au which I can highly recommend. It was 30% less than what you would pay in Retravision, Bing Lee or Harvey Norman. I ordered it online, they rang to confirm the details 15 minutes later and it arrived the next day. Overall a very positive online experience.
It will be fun learning to use it! As well as recording video, it takes 2.3MPixel still images which are really easy to download onto the PC so we will actually be able to get photos on this blog. I'm very excited about that. Unfortunately to do video editing we will need an upgrade of the computer, nothing major, just new operating system, new hard drive, more memory, DVD burner, USB 2.0, and Firewire card ... okay maybe we'll just have to get a new PC it is 5 and a half years old after all! Depends on the finances I guess!
After securing our U2 tickets we went baby furniture and Christmas present shopping (we had the day off - yay!). We started at Ikea and saw a nice single seater couch for the baby room as well as a cot, change table and cupboard which would fit well in the little one's room. After that we went to a couple of other baby places and despite being overwhelmed by the variety and prices we managed to retain our sanity and not actually buy anything - it was really only intended as a bit of a fact finding mission - just to see if our budget was going to be adequate.
I guess the scariest thing is prams - you can spend $900 on a pram! Is it just me or is that ridiculous? Needless to say that one isn't on the list. Most of them seem to be in the range $250-$500 or so dollars for the three wheeler ones. I guess we'll get one somewhere in the lower range. Does any one have any advice out there? Feel free to leave comments!
The other bizarre thing is baby seats, they all seem to have this incredibly plush dark material in them. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't baby vomit white (at least initially) and therefore will show up even more, not to mention the fact that being dark fabric is going to make it incredibly hot in summer.
Aside from being concerned by prices, we had a fun day shopping for baby stuff and finished our Christmas shopping, so that is a relief!
We took the day off to try and get U2 tickets yesterday. For those of you who don't know, they sold out 70,000 tickets in a little over and hour. We tried to get on to Ticketek on the internet and via the phone for 90 minutes yesterday and didn't get through once. Fortunately we had registered for Mastercard Applause, Mastcard's preferred ticket thing, and were able to get a package through them which includes B Reserve tickets and a pre-concert cocktail party at Star City. So we have tickets yay!
We had another visit to the obstetrician this morning. All is well. We didn't have an ultrasound, but did get to listen to the baby's heartbeat which was very cool. We have an ultrasound just before Christmas which will be the 19 week ultrasound at which we will be able to see all sorts of things, so we're looking forward to that. We aren't going to find out the baby's sex - we're happy to be surprised - we just want the little one to be healthy.
Not really pregnancy related, but almost as important (perhaps more so in Meeks' eyes), is that U2 will be in Sydney at the end of March. The only listed date is 31st March with Tickets going on sale 5th December. So if you know anyone who knows anyone who can get us tickets (seated tickets, after all Meeks will be 7 and a half months pregnant) then call us!
We found out on the weekend that our friends, Jacqui and Chris, are having a baby too. This is such an awesome answer to prayer for them and an encouragement to us to be faithful in prayer. Jac is due 2 weeks before Meeks and they are both being born at the same hospital with the same doctor. That means if Jac is a week late (which is not unusual for first babies) and Meeks is a week early (which is certainly a possibility with her diabetes) they will be in hospital at the same time! It will make visiting easier for our friends.
Meeks is now just into the 2nd trimester which hopefully means the tiredness will start to be less of a problem. Aside from that all, is well.
Yesterday morning we had our 12 week (well 11 and a bit weeks really) checkup and all was normal. We couldn't see that much on the ultrasound although you could see enough to know what was going on. The head was apparently normal sized and the baby had little arms and legs etc - I swear the baby waved at one point! It wriggle around a bit too which was pretty bizarre to watch.
We were both relieved to see the baby was doing well. Meeks occasionally feels like a bit of a fraud because she is so asymptomatic. Aside from tiredness she hasn't really had any other changes. Tiredness is hardly new though. She has always been one of the world's great sleepers - able to sleep anywhere, anytime.
On a slightly related note, they showed a caesarian on RPA last night. I used to be pretty squeamish about watching operations, but seem to have got over it. It was amazing to watch the doctor pulling this baby out of this woman. We may or may not have to go with a caesarian depending on a number of factors related to Meeks' diabetes, but I think, for me anyway, it will help to have watched this show.
So all is going well!
We had a busy weekend with our first pregnancy class on Saturday morning followed by dinner with Tim and Chels and James and Aly (and Maddie and Andrew) and lunch at Mitch and Sally's new house and finishing with Church on last night. We were exhausted afterwards!
The Early pregnancy class was informative and helpful. It was good to find out about how the whole hospital thing works etc. I'm sure most first parents go into it having no clue like us. Even though James and Aly had Maddie and Andrew there, from our experience of visiting afterwards, you don't know about all the stuff that goes on beforehand.
We are going to visit Dr Smith, the obstetrician again this week and will get to see more of what the baby looks like. At 7 weeks the only recognisable parts were a flickering heartbeat (which we were thrilled and relieved to see) and a little bump thing we were assured was an arm. Given the baby was only 1.37 cm long, it is a bit hard to expect anything too defined. Apparently the baby will be about the size of a matchbox this time and have recognisable little arms and legs and head etc.
On a different note, I lead at church on Sunday night. I'm always a bit nervous when doing that, but the congregation responded well and seemed to get a lot out of it so I was very encouraged. I might be imagining it, but it seems after Joseph from Uganda visited us and lead Ugandan style, the congregation as a whole has been a bit more willing to be involved in the service. Maybe his words about how we get excited at a sporting event, but don't get excited at church have stirred us up a bit. We also sang my song, I Thank the Lord, and people seemed to like it which was encouraging to me personally.
Anyway, that's enough for now, I'll write something again after the visit to the Doctor on Thursday.
If you don't already know, We are having a baby!
We are about 10 weeks along and the baby is due in May next year. The current due date is the 15th, but Meeks will probably be induced early because of her diabetes. She is doing well, and has had little nausea, but extreme fatigue - so pray she has the energy to keep going!
For those of you who have been praying for us, thank you, this is a real gift from God. Please continue praying for us though!
Dave
