Sunday 24 April 2011

Koa gets a hair cut and his brother gets a name...

After much discussion/convincing Luke/people telling us that Koa looked liked a crazy old man...I got Grandma to take us to Melonheads kiddie salon in Kits (yes I know its just a kid haircut, but I really didn't trust myself to do him much justice and had no idea where to even begin with his out of control mullet).  I was worried that he was going to find the whole experience a bit traumatic, but he got to sit in a race car chair (cars are his most favorite thing in the world right now) and watch TV on a big flat screen.  "Feels nice" he exclaimed when I asked him what he thought of getting his haircut.   I think he looks quite handsome now and much older.  He has such cute ears and I don't think I even knew what the back of his neck looked like. 
Check out the before...




And the after...


 He totally has Luke's hairline and my hair texture!



In other news the "baby" has been named - Arlo Gray McGillis
It was a close tie between Ryder and Buckley but in the end he just looked like an Arlo.  We've been test driving the new name for a few days now and it suits him.  I am almost tempted to have one more kid so I can name them Buckley though.

Saturday 16 April 2011

Cute Baby Itchy Mommy

Good news...baby (still nameless but we're working on it) is back to his birth weight plus .5 oz as of yesterday.  His bilirubin levels are going down as well and after his Grandma gave him a nice little sun bath he looks less yellow and seems less sleepy.  In fact he woke himself up to eat a couple times last night instead of me having to wake him. Its been nice having my folks in town to help with Koa and feed us and help run errands.  So far having two kids doesn't seem too hard, but the baby mostly just sleeps all the time and Koa has had someone here to entertain him or he has been at daycare.

The bad news...I have developed a rare and EXTREMELY annoying itchy rash all over my chest, belly, back, arms and thighs.  Apparently its called PUPP's and is mostly seen during pregnancy.  When I asked my midwife what the usual cure was she replied - giving birth...uh ok not too helpful in my case.  I'm trying not to grumble about it too much but it is crazy uncomfortable and I don't want to take steroids or allergy meds, so I'm trying out oatmeal and baking soda baths.  I really really hope this clears up soon. 





Tuesday 12 April 2011

Its rad to see Koa love his little brother . Luke's Blog.

Ye who is weak, or quick with their gag reflex, listen from a distance.
I have witnessed life being pushed into this world for the 2nd time.
From the womb into a poorly vented, dismal hospital room.
Held hostage 4 six days by medical protocol. We fought and squirmed using
litigation to free us of their policies. We escaped that repulsive
facility with our new offspring strapped into a parachute belt, not
looking back at our hand bags dragging behind us. Being home has a new
sense of freedom. It wasn't all bad. We had some great support in there!

Many Thanks to Everyone that fed us. It is a great gift, healthy food.
Thank you to the nurses, midwives, dula, Friends and family close and far we love you and look forward to seeing you soon.

Our new son has no name but nameless is just fine for now - suggestions are welcome.
Koa has bonded pretty well with the new guy. We were a little worried at first, but is all good so far. I look forward to them being scrappy in the future though, they will learn some great lessons together!

He's our little bear cub as Koa was our monkey pup,( I know "pup" isn't the terminology, but heh!)

He drinks,sleeps and shits, and I love him to bits over it! I hope you all meet him and Koa(if u haven't yet) one day!

To summarize, I love my family to much to word. I can't wait to see them grow, but I can if u know what I mean.
BAMMMM

Saturday 9 April 2011

Papoose Part 2

Thanks to everyone for taking such good care of us and feeding us and sending us love over the last week.  We are so so so happy to be out of the hospital and back home. 

And thanks to Jody I have now joined the year 2011 and have a blog to update people on all the exciting happenings of our new family of 4. 
My water broke last Sunday morning around 3 am exactly at 34 weeks which is when Koa was born, so I guess that is when my body says times up!  I’m so glad I decided to take extra time off this time which meant that I could rest for a few weeks, but I didn’t really think I was going to have another baby this early.  In fact we were pretty determined to have a home birth this time round.  As soon as my water broke I pretty much knew this wouldn’t be a possibility any more (although looking back I kind of wish I had just trusted my body more and stayed home because I think we would have been just fine).  Anyhow we called our midwives right away and they came right on over.  Koa was born really quickly and they wanted to be there with us “just in case” well I think this must have jinxed things because once we got the hospital and they hooked up to a lovely round of iv antibiotics every few hours – NOTHING happened...for nearly 48 hours!  And they wouldn’t let us leave (we even tried offering cash bribes).  Once I didn’t show any signs up going into labour we hunkered down for the longest two days ever.  The hospital didn’t have any rooms available for us so we ended up camping out in a windowless delivery suite where we barely slept a wink and got to listen to the glorious sounds of women all around us giving birth at all hours of the day.  Thankfully the Dr’s agreed not to induce us...so we waited and...waited...and just when I was about to take a nice strong sleeping pill so that I could finally get some rest – things got going (thanks in part to a potent curry I had for dinner) around 11/midnight April 4. 
Other than being extremely nauseous pretty much the whole time everything went really well. Considering that we were in such a medical environment for my labour, we got to have a totally natural birth and was well supported my fabulous birth team (Luke, Muriel, Moreka, and Karin the best nurse ever).  My midwife Jen only got to be there for a brief while right before I gave birth (which is totally the hospitals bad for not calling when I asked and something they screwed up with when Koa was born...sorry for hating on hospitals.  I am very grateful that we access to high tech health care when we really need it).  But our midwives also did a great job before and after trying to advocate for us to get out of the hospital as soon as possible.  Of course as things go in the medical world they were overly cautious with us and the baby and so we still had to stay for another three days even though for 34 weeks our son was huge!  He was over a pound heavier than Koa was.  I wont bother boring people with the details of our week stay except to say that the food is horrible, the air is stale and being back in our home is soooooo wonderful. 
Koa is adjusting well so far.  I missed him like crazy while I was away and I am so thankful that Muriel was able to stay and take care of him nearly the whole time (thanks super aunty!).  He has been really cute kissing the baby and being helpful (in a 2 year old way).  I’m sure there will be some jealousy though especially once he realizes the baby is staying for good. 
Well off to bed.  The baby likes to sleep all day and stay up all night so I am going to try and rest while I can.