Sam and Lucas on the swings

I took a few shots of Sam and Lucas on the swings that came out fairly well so I thought I would share them. Sam is in the green top, Lucas is in the blue.

A mixture of very cute and very fun!

Sorry for the lack of Holly photos recently she's been going through a very spotty phase! She's just coming out of it now, so there will be some new shots up soon.

Big boy beds

A couple of weekends ago we took the sides off Lucas and Sam's cots in preparation for moving them into big boy beds and today was the big day! They were very excited about it all with lots of jumping up and down (not on the beds of course!) and Mitchy got in on the excitement too.

Sam's bed is the red one

 Lucas has the blue one

This is what happens when you ask for a smile ...

Mitch didn't really miss out though. Sam and Lucas got hand-me-down mattresses from Mitch (one from his bed and one from the trundle bed we've never used) and Mitch got a new mattress.

Here are Sam and Lucas all tucked in after dinner and ready for bed

It is currently about 30 minutes after they went to bed and I think they have just nodded off (or maybe not I can still hear chatter). Normally it takes them no time at all to go to sleep, but I think the novelty of being in big bed and not have sleep suits on has kept them awake. Fingers crossed no one falls out tonight!

1 month old

It is hard to believe it's a month since Holly entered the world. She is doing so well and has finally started putting on some weight which is good because she wasn't for the first few weeks. She is sleeping well most of the time, although last night wasn't too good. Hopefully tonight will be better!

Anyway, here are a bunch of photos to keep a certain overseas grandmother happy :)

Family cuddles for Holly

Over the weekend John and Mavis from Queensland dropped in (it was a long way to go for a pop in!) to see Holly and to have a cuddle and I got some photos of them and also Poppy, also some older ones on Nana with Holly from when she first came home.

The splotch on the side of Holly's face in the shots with Nana is from the sticky patch used to attach the "sunglasses" when she was under the blue light in hospital.

I'm sure these shots will make my mum even more jealous as she's in France and hasn't had a cuddle yet. By the time she gets back in a couple of weeks, Holly will practically be a teenager!

The two women in my life ... and Optimus Prime

I had a chance to shoot Meeks and Holly today while Lucas and Sam were asleep. Holly was asleep as well which made the picture taking a bit easier as she was very calm about the whole thing. Meeks was very patient with me as I messed about with lights and trying to get angles right.

While we were shooting, Mitch was mucking around in the background in his new Optimus Prime superhero outfit striking poses any time the camera was pointed at him

Very serious business, this superhero thing :)

Holly home again - for good this time!

After a couple of false starts and final blood test on Saturday, Holly finally got the okay to come home and doesn't need any more treatment. We're very relieved to have our little girl home and healthy. Here she is asleep in her bed

Normally she has her arms wrapped up when she goes to sleep, but usually manages to get one or both of them out of the wrap. She is feeding well and sleeping well, which makes things easier for both of us, but it is still tough having a baby in the house again.

The little boys love having their little sister home and every time she cries in her room their ears prick up and they say, "Holly crying!". They haven't quite worked out that them running around screaming and shouting could possibly be what wakes her up! When she's having a feed they all crowd around trying to touch her or kiss her and saying "Holly!", or "Sister!" or "Cute" or "Tiny". At least they have stopped calling her Polly, Molly or Dolly which is what they called her at various times while she was still in hospital. They fight over who gets to sit next to Holly in the car every time we go out. When we changed the seats in the car around a few weeks ago they were fighting over who would get to sit in the back row with Mitch, now they fight over who gets to sit in the middle row next to Holly.

Mitch is a little more cool to his sister, in a sort of 5 year old boy manner. Add to that he still thinks he's the centre of the universe (also a trait of 5 year old boys), but if he loves her and gives her little kisses too, although he doesn't gush. Besides there is only so much time in a boy's life and when a large part of it is spent looking at his Star Wars Character Encyclopaedia which he was given when Holly was born. He's a little bit obsessed. It is amazing how much of it he knows and sometime you forget that he can't actually read what is on the pages. He just remembers it all. Speaking of reading and spelling, Mitch is also obsessed by that. He's not at school this year, but I suspect by the time he goes next year he will be able to spell lots of words. He keeps on asking us to teach him how to spell new words. It's the same with maths. He will be sitting there eating lunch or something and he'll turn to you and say, "Dad, did you know 3 plus 3 plus 3 is 9?".

I have lots more photos to go through from the past week, but here are a few from last week when Aunty Mandy and cousins Lilly and Will visited. Lilly had a cuddle with Holly

and then had a photo with Mitch, who needed a bit of encouragement to smile

But eventually managed to ...

He looks so grown up!

Home again

Holly and Meeks are home again tonight. Meeks came home this morning and I went back in and picked up Holly around 5pm so she was able to have the maximum time under the blue light. We have another blood test on Saturday morning to determine if she's over the jaundice. We have to give her top ups of formula with each feed as well until then. So all in all good news and we're altogether as a family again. Yay!

Back in hospital

Holly (and Meeks) are back in hospital for another night of the blue light jaundice treatment (for Holly, not Meeks). We had noticed Holly getting more and more yellow/orange and lethargic over the last couple of days despite feeding well, so we rang the hospital and they advised bringing her back in for another treatment. Meeks will be staying in over night with her to allow her to feed. Apparently going back in for a second dose of treatment isn't too unusual and sometimes babies even have to come back in for three treatments. It will also be a good chance, hopefully, for Meeks to get some rest as well, although the stress of not being at home sort of counters that. I'm at home with the three boys which will no doubt be challenging :) All three actually slept through last night, so fingers crossed that happens again, or it could be tired, cranky Daddy tomorrow.

Hearing test and jaundice

Sorry for no update yesterday, I left my camera at the hospital last night. Never mind a double update today.

Yesterday was another good day at the hospital with Holly feeding well and Meeks getting a fair bit of rest over night. In the afternoon Holly had her hearing test which pleasingly she passed. Here is a photo with all the paraphernalia attached to her for the test

You may or may not be able to tell from the photo above, but she started to show a bit of jaundice yesterday. So today Holly had a blood test and it confirmed she needed some treatment. Neonatal Jaundice is fairly common in newborns affecting over 50% of babies in the first week of life according to Wikipedia. The treatment is putting the baby under blue lights. As you can imagine this creates some difficulty for photographing! Anyway, these are what I could come up with. She is very cute, even under these conditions!

She got some cool eye covers with a picture of sunnies on them to protect her eyes and help her to sleep as the light is quite bright. She will be under the blue light for 24 hours and then they will do another test to confirm she's okay. The negative is that she wont be able to come home first thing tomorrow morning as hoped. If the test tomorrow comes back is okay, she and Meeks will be able to come home tomorrow afternoon. We're all crossing our fingers, Meeks wants to be home and we all want her and Holly to come home!

Day 3 with Holly

It was Day 3 today and it was characterised by much better sleeping overnight and much better feeding throughout the day which is great news. Holly had some tummy time which she loves - she has a bit of a milk moustache - very cute.

Mitch has his last day of pre-school before the holidays and he and Lucas and Sam came into the hospital with Auntie Marion in the afternoon. There was lots of excitement and cuddles.

There were also gifts for the boys including an "awesome" encyclopaedia of Star Wars characters for Mitch

As usual, the boys found something else to be distracted by. On Monday it was Meeks catheter bag, on Tuesday it was the parking garage, today it was the garbage bins.

We also had visits from Tasha, Amanda, Auntie Anne Daisy and Uncle Rob.

Lets hope little Holly has another good night tonight and that Meeks' milk comes in tomorrow so that Holly doesn't need any more bottle feeding.

Just a reminder, I'll keep updating the slideshow here with more photos than I can show on the blog here.