Monday, May 29, 2006

Black and white

I was just playing around with black and white filters on the computer and made these two cute photos.

It's funny how this photo in black and white makes it look like the water is cold. Mitch doesn't look thrilled by the whole experience, but he really does love his bath!



In the one below he's thinking about something else - maybe he's contemplating the meaning of life (which is pretty limited for a 5 week old) or maybe he's trying to solve one of the mathematical mysteries like the Poincare conjecture - most likely he's just wondering where he left his dummy.


It will be good when he can smile. At the moment he just looks cute and thoughtful.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Mitch meets more of the family

Mitch got to meet more of his extended family over the weekend.

Great Auntie Marion got a cuddle ...

and so did Great Uncle John.

Mitch loves a bath

One of Mitch's favourite times is in the bath. After a hard day of sleeping and eating (and occasionally crying), he kicks back and relaxes.


Older photo

Now that I am back at work I have access to a scanner, so I decided to scan in a nice photo from just after Mitch was born. This is the three of us in the operating suite. He had been checked out by the doctor and wrapped by the nurse and ew took some photos. As you can see, the screen stopped us from seeing any of the actual operation. Behind the screen the doctors are stitching Meeks up etc.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Celebratory brunch

We had a brunch yesterday morning to celebrate Mitch's arrival. It was Michael's idea and a good one. Great Auntie Marion and Great Uncle Tony were up from Melbourne and Great Uncle John was down from the Gold Coast and most of my immediate family came along as well (those in the country anyway). Mitch slept most of the time, but got some cuddle time in with almost everybody.

Here is a photo of the three of us at the brunch, a rare commodity at the moment:


Unfortunately Mitch has picked up some sort of a sniffle, so he isn't too happy at the moment. Lots of mucus in his nose and throat which makes feeding and sleeping difficult. Hopefully it will clear up soon so he can settle down again.

I have to go back to work tomorrow which just sucks. I've loved being at home with Meeks and Mitchell. Going back to work will be very hard, but I'm so glad I got to have a big block of time off to be with them and to get to see Mitch grow a little bit and share some of the early dramas of being a parent. It has given me a much better understanding of what Meeks will have to go through and a much better understanding of what mother's generally go through without people to help them.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Weighing in at a hefty 4.00 kg ...

Today marks Mitch's original due date. He was born a full month early! He was weighed today by the community nurse and he was 4.00kg which is a 220g weight increase from his birth weight which means he has more than regained his birth weight which is great news.

We are beginning to notice him being more attentive and able to interact with people, which is apparently what we should expect. Because he was premature, he will be behind in his milestones (i.e. smiling, etc) but will catch up rapidly.

We got some more photos developed today which the old fashioned film camera so I'll get some scans of those when I get back to work next week. That's right I have to go back to work next week. That is very sucky indeed, it's going to be hard leaving Meeks and Mitch each day, I'm going to really miss them both.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Now back to Mitch!

Here are some more photos of little Mitch.

Firstly here he is wearing the little top his Auntie Krissy gave him while he looks at Raffy who was given to him by Auntie Anna.


Next having a little nap in Daddy's arms.


Next is Grannie Annie (her choice of name!) having a little cuddle.


Mitch is doing well and is growing all the time. He wore the outfit he wore home from the hospital to a Mother's Day lunch yesterday and instead of drowning in it, it kind of fit him. He is starting to grow out of some of his 0000 and 000 clothes and he certainly feels heavier.

Meeks had her first Mother's Day yesterday which was special.

No laser

Just a very quick post to day I didn't require laser at the eye doctor this morning. This was obviously good news. Yay!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

When bad luck is good luck, but still bad luck

More eye ball news. Dave went to see the Retina specialist today. The good news is that the squash ball doesn't appear to have done any specific damage to his retina. The bad news is that while looking at the right retina the doctor found some areas which appear to have been damaged in the past and could present a problem in the future. The result of this is that he has another appointment next Monday and the doctor will have a look to see if there has been any change. If there is still a problem Dave will undergo some laser surgery on his right retina to correct the problem. Obvious this is a nasty shock to us both, but without the accident the existing retinal damage would not have been noticed and if it had gone unchecked could have resulted in much more serious damage to his eyesight including substantial tearing of the retina and resulting vision loss.

Aside from that things are well, we weighed Mitch today at the support group and he appears to have put on a good amount of weight this week and may even have regained his birth weight. It's a bit hard to know exactly as he had clothes on and had just fed etc. He certainly looks a lot chubbier and has regained the chubby cheeks he had when he was first born. The only bad news is that he has decided it is fun to wee when he gets his nappy taken off. He did a wee all over daddy's arm the other day. Not fun for daddy, but fortunately, daddy is stil on holidays.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

A spotty boy and a shot in the eye

Sorry I have been a bit slow in posting news and photos recently. Mitch is going through a bit of a spotty teenage phase (a hormones and breastmilk thing - apparently it will go away soon) so isn't terribly photogenic anyway. He is still very cute, you just have to look past the acne.

He was weighed last week and had put on 120g since leaving hospital which is good, but not good enough so now he is getting a normal feed until he gets tired plus a top up from the bottle afterwards. Hopefully that will fatten the little fellow up and keep the community nurse happy. He is still sleeping mostly well, especially with the new feeding system. He is just so full of milk after a feed, he can't do much except sleep.

In other news I got hit in the eye playing squash last night which was no good at all. The fact that I am here typing today says that I'm mostly okay, but I went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a hyphema (google it if you want to know what it is - fortunately it wasn't a bad one and there was no pooling of blood which can cause problems), which is basically a broken blood vessel in the eye. I went and saw Mum's cousin Kathy who is an ophthalmic Surgeon (a very good one). As a result I'm on rest for a week and shouldn't really be driving and have to see a retinal specialist later in the week and go back and see Kathy again next Monday. If it is still all okay then I'll be fine. Very scary though, it could have been so much worse, thanks to God that it wasn't. Meeks has enough to do without taking care of another dependant male! Aside from the eyeball, the socket is sore and swollen and I'll have a bit of a shiner in the next few days. The culprit was Judy, Sharon's mum, if you know Phil and Shaz. She was terribly apologetic and drove me to the hospital, the strange thing is she was already winning the game, she didn't need to take me out!

That's all the news for today.