William Hits 7.25 Kilos

Williams is now well over 7 kilos and doing really well. He now loves his solids morning and evening and Paul and I manage to get most of the food in William's mouth but some does end up over the couch, over us or over William when William manages to get his flying hands in the way of the spoon!!

We are off on holidays to Western Australia shortly for 3 weeks. Paul will be driving the 4WD over and William and I will fly over 4 days later (yes, that is how long it will take Paul to drive to Perth). We are joining Sarah, Gareth and their 3 boys on part of their 3 month trip. We will be camping for 2 weeks between Monkey Mia and Ningaloo and then 5 nights in a lovely resort in Broome - I have already booked my massage!! Some other friends (Collyers) will be driving the car back for us a couple of weeks later and we will fly back from Broome.

This will be our first family holiday and you will see William above in his new bathers and sun-hat - very cute!!

William is a very happy baby, laughing and smiling most of the time, oh and yelling at the top of his voice, at times we have been walking through the supermarket!! He loves his bath so much that we now put him in the big bath in a special seat as the baby bath got too small and we ended up with water all over the kitchen floor from William kicking and splashing.

Battle of the Football Codes & Grandparents

Paul parents have been here for the past 8 weeks to meet their first grandchild and to help me out whilst I recovered from surgery. I don't know who will miss who more as William got used to lots of attention and play time!!

The battle for the newest AFL team supporter is under way - Greg asked me who William will barrack for and I told him and others - that whoever gave him his first piece of football clothing could have him as the teams newest supporter as neither Paul or I follow AFL. A couple of days later a small parcel arrived from Pop (my dad) with a Collingwood beanie inside for William. Nana (my mum) was not very pleased as she did not know that Dad and gone and bought and posted the beanie - and yes he was first! Then whilst we were on holidays with both sets of grandparents we visited the local craft market and Nana came across a Brisbane Lions home knited beanie and quickly purchased it for William - all whilst Pop was looking the other way - you can imagine the laughter when my Dad saw William wearing his newest beanie - and the battle continues!!

Have baby will travel - there are a couple of shots below of William sleeping on a bean bag on a table at a winery on the Mornington Peninsula.

William now weighs 6.5 kilos and has started on solids - much to his disgust - he screws up his face and spits the cereal or pear puree straight back out again, so we might wait a little bit longer. He is the happiest baby, all laughs and smiles first thing in the morning and most of the day and loves being flown around the room in Paul's arms - he chuckles and simply loves it!! I have warned Paul to wait for his milk to settle, but you know Paul!! - no little accidents yet!!!

William's Social Engagements

Our Latest Table Centrepiece

Witches Goblins and Ghosts Party
William has been very busy socialising in the last month and was invited to his first birthday party. Olympia turned six and had a Witches, Goblins and Ghosts party so we dressed William in his skeleton outfit (courtesy of Uncle Tony) and he was a real hit (mind you, he slept through most of the party).



William was introduced to my Mums sewing circle. Afternoon tea with 6 ladies can't be bad, along with lots of cuddles.


William has also been on his first camping holiday to the RRC Dargo event. A few people were surprised to see us, but William loved the fresh air and the attention from the ladies!! (Oh No!!) It was quite cold at night but he was bundled up in his sleeping bag and slept through 8 hours, it must have been all the fresh air during the day and kicking his legs about on the rug under the trees.

Fresh Air!! Asleep under the Trees at Dargo


























Breakfast @ Dargo



We spent Easter at Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road with Paul's parents - Mary & Graham. William had his first visit to the beach - OK he didn't touch the sand but was snuggled up in the Baby Bjorn on Paul's chest. He was a little angel and slept in his carry cot in the corner of two restaurants, amongst all the noise, and lovely comments from the other patrons.


Mary & Graham have come out for 8 weeks to help out as I have had to have a major op but I got home from hospital yesterday and all is well.

William's First Easter

The Easter Bunny delivered a Peter Rabbit Bowl, spoon, mug and egg cup set with chocolate as William will be starting on solids in the middle of May - as of a week ago he weighed 5220 grams. I call him my little Milk Monster. He also got a Golly bib and rattle, a book, and some clothes from Mary & Graham.


William is awake more and very aware of what is going on around him, he loves going for walks and looks around at the trees and especially likes mirrors!!

We started Mother's group last week so in the coming weeks he will have a chance to meet some other babies. Paul, Mary and Graham have all had a bad cold, but William and I have managed to stay healthy so far!! (fingers crossed)

These photos were taken this morning - Tuesday 1st April

William Hits 4.5 Kilos

William has been home for over a month now and is doing really well. He has hit 4515 grams, is sleeping between 5 and 9 hours some nights and is a real milk monster. He is a very good baby and loves his cuddles and as you can see he looks like his Dad!!!

William is Home

William came home on Monday 14th January after 95 days in hospital.

As you can imagine it was a fantastic day for us and it is wonderful to have our little boy home with us, we are even managing the sleepless nights pretty well at the moment!!!

William's first night was quite unsettled as he is used to a noisy bright enviornment and a small cot - his nursery is quiet, dark and he has a big cot - so Paul improvised and William spent his first night in a drawer which we inclined to help with his reflux. He is getting into a good 4 hourly routine and only waivers from this at night - of course!!

William now sleeps in a plastic box as it is small enough to move him around the house and it means I can keep an eye on him when I'm here on my own and can safely put him down near me while I do other things. He has put on 90 grams in the last 4 days and is feeding well.

We are already starting to see a change in his behaviour and he is slowly having more awake time and what Paul and I like to think are smiles to his mummy and daddy.

Thank you to everyone for your love, support and prayers over the last 95 days, I have no doubt that this has helped us to get William home happy and healthy and we look forward to showing him off to you all in the near future.

New Year Update

William has settled into Cabrini well and was very spoilt for Christmas. He is feeding well and has had the nasal gastric tube removed from his nose along with all of the sticky tape across his cheeks. It took Paul and I at least 5 minutes to notice that he had nothing on his face anymore - funny how we had become so used to them we didn't notice them when they were gone.

The family photo was taken on Christmas Day - William slept through the presents being opened. One of the nurses made me a birthday card from William using his hand print and the photo of William sideways in his cot was taken on 1st Jan.

William now weighs 3070 grams and tomorrow the monitors which be switched off in favour of a "grasby" or apnea monitor - one lead on William's abdomen connected to a machine the sounds if he stops breathing for more than 20 seconds.

Over the last week or so we have been disconnecting William from his monitors for cuddles and feeding - it is amazing how liberating it feels!!! we can concentrate on him rather than listen the the machine go off at times when the reading is obviously wrong because we can see he is breathing!!

William has moved to 4 hourly feeds today and is starting to wake and demand his feeds which is great - he is having a mixture of breast and bottle until he learns how to breast feed properly - as technical he still shouldn't be born yet - he is 38 weeks gestation this weekend but 12 weeks old.

Christmas Update

A lot has happened since my last update. William has had his 2 month immunisations, he weighs over 2.9 kilograms, he is learning to breast feed, he has come off oxygen and he has been transferred to Cabrini Hospital in Malvern. His ETA for coming home is around the 10th January after his hernia operation on the 8th January.

It took us three attempts to get William transferred, the first attempt didn't happen because William had a reaction to his immunisations so we had to wait for him to stabilise and then the second attempt was at the end of a big day activity wise for William and he simply didn't want any more interaction so his stats jumped around a lot and the nurses decided it was best to leave him where he was. So the third attempt was successful and we arrived at Cabrini on Wednesday 19th Dec. He has settled in well, it is a much quieter nursery with no sick babies as such and the plan is to get him feeding well and to have his hernia operation before coming home around the 10th January - 10 days before his due date and 3 months after he was born.

The beauty of being closer to home means I can go in and out of the nursery across the day instead of spending 8 hours there in a row - it means I can have a break, get a few things done at home and be back in time for his next feed.

The photos above are of Williams transfer via NETS (Newborn Emergency Transport Service) in a humidicrib, his wonderful doctor, Lisa Fox and of bath time at Cabrini.

Paul, William and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and we look forward to introducing you to our gorgeous boy when he is home and settled in.