Tonight we fronted up for another helping of "Babies - You made them...now you look after them!". The topic of tonight's lesson was "Nappies - get used to them!" and "Breastfeeding - how not to poke your baby's eye out" As you can see from the photo Mel had mastered the disposable but the cloth one proved a little more challenging as there are two different ways of folding them....one for girls and one for boys! Don't ask, I didn't quite understand. And for those of you brave enough, you can clink on the "Ben's photos on Flickr" link to see just how humiliating it is for a grown man to pretend to feed a doll with his fake boob. It comes with a MA15 rating. Don't say I didn't warn you!!!
Thursday, August 31
Tuesday, August 29
Photo shoot!
Mmmmm.....what were we thinking? Probably something along the lines of...Hey, you never know, this might be our only baby....and wouldn't it be good to have some nice photos to remember what the bump was like??? Yes, I know I have taken some photos...but really...I am not a photographer. So we decided to go visit our old friends at Vivid. (our wedding photographers)
This time we had "studio" shots. Very professional. I like their style...they have macs everywhere and the music was playing from an iPod attached to the kick ass iPod stereo. (let's just ignore that fact that it was playing the sound track to "Oh Brother, where art Thou") Anyway a few "blue steels" later and it was a wrap. Can't wait to see what magic photoshop can do....after all Mel is supposed to have the bigger belly!
This time we had "studio" shots. Very professional. I like their style...they have macs everywhere and the music was playing from an iPod attached to the kick ass iPod stereo. (let's just ignore that fact that it was playing the sound track to "Oh Brother, where art Thou") Anyway a few "blue steels" later and it was a wrap. Can't wait to see what magic photoshop can do....after all Mel is supposed to have the bigger belly!
Friday, August 25
Parenting 101
Last night the good wife and I went to our first parenthood class at the Wesley. As you would have guessed from previous posts we were not sure what to expect. But surprisingly it was fairly innocuous. The midwife that took our class seemed disturbingly normal! What....no diatribe about the wonders of natural birth over C-section?......no ranting about breast is best????
She seemed to be quite sensible in her approach to the whole process. About the only thing that she said that some might think was a little old fashioned was how "when dad gets home from work he might like to bath the baby for some bonding time" What if the dad has been home looking after bub and the wife has been at work all day? Well a guy can dream can't he. I always wanted to be a kept man! Anyway, the midwife found a 1 day old baby floating around and showed us how to bath it, without causing any permanent damage. Which surprising didn't seem too hard. I think this baby was a ring in as it was extremely well behaved and made it look like a breeze. (maybe it is a professional baby). After bath time we went down to the basement and talked about C-sections in emergencies, cord blood storage, SIDS and the essential check list for the nursery etc. For the two of us the funniest part was watching the husbands get all grossed out about the thought of possibly having to be in an operating theatre if their wife needed an unplanned C-section. One guy was adamant that he would pass out. What wimps!!!
Well we survived that first class. Bring on part 2 I say. Apparently this one includes more on breast feeding and the midwife said I even get to play with boobies!!! Woo Hoo! (I am not sure who's boobies) And we need to bring a doll. I suggested to Mel we take the giant teddy which should be quite funny to see Mel pretend to feed it.
PS at one stage we were handed a fake baby and asked to guess the weight. Mel was the closest out of everyone. Mel said 3.8kg. Others had said 11kg, 10kg etc. My guess was a carton of beer! But sadly I was wrong.
She seemed to be quite sensible in her approach to the whole process. About the only thing that she said that some might think was a little old fashioned was how "when dad gets home from work he might like to bath the baby for some bonding time" What if the dad has been home looking after bub and the wife has been at work all day? Well a guy can dream can't he. I always wanted to be a kept man! Anyway, the midwife found a 1 day old baby floating around and showed us how to bath it, without causing any permanent damage. Which surprising didn't seem too hard. I think this baby was a ring in as it was extremely well behaved and made it look like a breeze. (maybe it is a professional baby). After bath time we went down to the basement and talked about C-sections in emergencies, cord blood storage, SIDS and the essential check list for the nursery etc. For the two of us the funniest part was watching the husbands get all grossed out about the thought of possibly having to be in an operating theatre if their wife needed an unplanned C-section. One guy was adamant that he would pass out. What wimps!!!
Well we survived that first class. Bring on part 2 I say. Apparently this one includes more on breast feeding and the midwife said I even get to play with boobies!!! Woo Hoo! (I am not sure who's boobies) And we need to bring a doll. I suggested to Mel we take the giant teddy which should be quite funny to see Mel pretend to feed it.
PS at one stage we were handed a fake baby and asked to guess the weight. Mel was the closest out of everyone. Mel said 3.8kg. Others had said 11kg, 10kg etc. My guess was a carton of beer! But sadly I was wrong.
Tuesday, August 22
32 weeks
Today marks just 7 weeks to go....Arrrggghhh! Scary stuff. Like most first time parents to be we go through those "Oh God, this is really happening" moments but we usually get over it and move on......at least until the next one!
The other milestone that we have reached is that the baby is now old enough to be delivered at the Wesley. Any baby under 32 weeks old has to be delivered at either the Mater or RBWH as they are the only ones with a NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). Our little boy is so grown up now!
But of course, even though Mel would quite happily give birth at any time now (getting weighed down by the belly) our little one better not make any moves at least for the next 2 weeks as our obstetrician is away on conference leave. She said she was going to NZ to learn about menopause but I figured she should already know about that.......maybe there is something new to report on the cranky old woman horizon......oops did I say that?
The other milestone that we have reached is that the baby is now old enough to be delivered at the Wesley. Any baby under 32 weeks old has to be delivered at either the Mater or RBWH as they are the only ones with a NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). Our little boy is so grown up now!
But of course, even though Mel would quite happily give birth at any time now (getting weighed down by the belly) our little one better not make any moves at least for the next 2 weeks as our obstetrician is away on conference leave. She said she was going to NZ to learn about menopause but I figured she should already know about that.......maybe there is something new to report on the cranky old woman horizon......oops did I say that?
Thursday, August 17
A Prickly Day
What to give the couple who has everything prepared for their delightful bundle of joy's arrival?
INSULIN!
Yes, that's right - its all the rage these days, particularly if one hasn't gained weight for the past month (although son and heir seems to be expanding in all directions at once) and one's fasting BSLs steadfastly refuse to go below 5.5, despite a diet of steamed veges and meat product (well cooked of course). The insulin packaging is QUITE delicious though - an attractive grey pen for daytime, and a slinky shiny green number for evening. What more could a woman want?
Well, how about sticking one's finger with a sharp metallic object four times a day (with the option for more if one feels a bit funny in the head) - WOO HOO!
OUCH is more like it
I figure, that as this foetus was created with a series of pricks (FSH/Lucrin/B-hCG injections for those with minds in the gutter) then it is fitting that it should end with a similar pattern.
On the upside, I may be able to sneak in the odd (or more than odd) piece of high quality chocolate option.
Less than 8 weeks to go....tick tick tick tick tick
Bring it on
INSULIN!
Yes, that's right - its all the rage these days, particularly if one hasn't gained weight for the past month (although son and heir seems to be expanding in all directions at once) and one's fasting BSLs steadfastly refuse to go below 5.5, despite a diet of steamed veges and meat product (well cooked of course). The insulin packaging is QUITE delicious though - an attractive grey pen for daytime, and a slinky shiny green number for evening. What more could a woman want?
Well, how about sticking one's finger with a sharp metallic object four times a day (with the option for more if one feels a bit funny in the head) - WOO HOO!
OUCH is more like it
I figure, that as this foetus was created with a series of pricks (FSH/Lucrin/B-hCG injections for those with minds in the gutter) then it is fitting that it should end with a similar pattern.
On the upside, I may be able to sneak in the odd (or more than odd) piece of high quality chocolate option.
Less than 8 weeks to go....tick tick tick tick tick
Bring it on
Wednesday, August 16
Breast feeding class
Yesterday was the day Mel went for her breast feeding class at the Wesley (remember ...... the one they wouldn't let me attend!). I was very disappointed to hear that there were no boobies on show ( after all I was assuming that would be the reason that I was not welcome) but not a booby in sight ....... well at least not a real one anyway (they showed a video!) Do they think men haven't seen boobies on video before?!?!? Or is it women feel uneasy about their husbands seeing boobies on video?!?!? No, I think the real reason that men weren't allowed was so that the women (or at least the midwife running the show) could have a lets bash men session ...... at least that was what I was hearing from Mel's description of events. These types of women have to get over the fact that God chose Eve to be the one that would give birth and that Adam didn't have a say in it (so stop trying to make us feel guilty alright! It's not our fault we can't experience the joys of pregnancy first hand). Anyway apart from male bashing (apparently we are only useful for changing nappies and bathing the child) I would have liked to have been there just to witness Mel pretending to breast feed with a doll! I mean she didn't even play with dolls when she was a little girl let alone a serious surgeon type. She tells me she had trouble keeping a straight face. Oh, and I am seriously concerned about the level of skill from the midwives at Wesley when their lactation consultant didn't even know anything about electric breast pumps (maybe that is because that was not the way God intended the milk to come out). Mel found herself answering the questions of some of the other mums to be since through all the research her (useless) husband has done on the subject she was more than able to fill people in on the breast pump market (including the world wide shortage due to the better than expected success of the product in the giant American market and poor planning by the company) I guess these classes are a rite of passage for all new parents. Let's hope the parenting class will be a little more useful.
And on a completely unrelated, but no less funny (if only in retrospect) topic, according to the rumour mill at RBH apparently Melinda and I have split up! Mel had an urgent sounding voice mail message from one of her friends who work at Royale wanting to know if it was true. We do not know where or why this particularly scurrilous rumour has started but let me once and for all clear things up...... Mel and I are definitely not split!!!!!! And besides she has to give me a million dollars if she ever leaves me (verbal pre-nup, should stand up in court). So there you have it. All is well in the Cook camp. I feel like one of those celebrities who are forced to make denials on their websites about similar such rumours. Oh well we can see the funny side now but it was a little hurtful that someone would say such a thing.
Parenting classes start next week. I can't wait (tongue in cheek)
And on a completely unrelated, but no less funny (if only in retrospect) topic, according to the rumour mill at RBH apparently Melinda and I have split up! Mel had an urgent sounding voice mail message from one of her friends who work at Royale wanting to know if it was true. We do not know where or why this particularly scurrilous rumour has started but let me once and for all clear things up...... Mel and I are definitely not split!!!!!! And besides she has to give me a million dollars if she ever leaves me (verbal pre-nup, should stand up in court). So there you have it. All is well in the Cook camp. I feel like one of those celebrities who are forced to make denials on their websites about similar such rumours. Oh well we can see the funny side now but it was a little hurtful that someone would say such a thing.
Parenting classes start next week. I can't wait (tongue in cheek)
Saturday, August 12
Big Day Out
For something different today we decided to take our unborn child on a ferry ride. We headed down to New Farm park and caught a city cat to southbank where we had lunch before returning to Cibo at Merthyr Village for some gelati. It was a perfect warm winter day just right for travelling on the river. There are more photos on Flickr. All in all a very satisfying big day out.
PS bump photo by popular request
PS bump photo by popular request
Wednesday, August 9
Chubby cheeks
This is about the only pic we got of his face as he was determined to a little trouble maker on Monday at the scan. You can see that he is starting to put on some baby fat especially when you compare it to the 19 scan photos where he is quite a bit skinnier.
Monday, August 7
30 Weeks!
Today marks the 30 week mark of our extraordinary journey. We had a doctors visit and a growth and wellbeing scan to see how Noodles was shaping up. Our doctor was happy with how things were going and Mel seems to be contoling her chocolate cravings and thus her blood sugars have been respectable. No insulin yet! Woo Hoo! When we had our scan Noodles was his typical trouble making self and wouldn't remove his hand from in front of his face so we couldn't get a good view of his good looks. At one point he seemed to be gesturing towards the scanner as if asking the bus driver for "2 to the valley" please. Well he was trying to get some sleep I guess and we were prodding and poking him. At this point he is in the breech position and seems to like jumping up and down on Mel's bladder (I said he was a trouble maker). He seems to be fattening up nicely and has a belly circumference in the 98th percentile (takes after his father here)! The sonographer said she could actually see hair on his head (obviously doesn't take after his father here). Couldn't tell if it was a ginger though! When I get out of hospital on Wednesday I will put a photo from the scans on the blog. We will have another scan in 4 weeks.
Saturday, August 5
The 3 bears...sort of!
Well as you can see the cot has arrived.....along with the matching change table (see Flickr). After waiting about 7 weeks I took delivery the other week. Both boxes just made it into the back of my car and they were quite heavy. It certainly felt like they were made to last. The reason we chose the Stokke cot and change table is that like the high chair, they can grow with the child. The cot becomes a bed or later 2 chairs and the change table can turn into a desk or set of shelves. Apart from that we liked to look of them. Putting them together took a little longer than I had anticipated as I had hoped to get them all set up before Mel got home that day as a surprise for her. My plans came unstuck when in the middle of construction I was interrupted by wine salesmen (actually one was a woman). Think used car salesmen of the wine industry complete with very fake blonde highlights in the hair and too much jewelery....and I am talking about the guy! How did this all happen????
Well one day when my brain was clearly going out in sympathy with Mel's much blogged about "placenta brain", I had recieved something in the mail telling me that if I wanted to fill out some very short survey then I would be given, as a token of their appreciation that I actually bothered to fill in their survey, a rather stylish vintner's knife. Without thinking I filled the thing out...I mean what harm could it do....and after all I would be getting a vintner's knife! Many months later (the day before picking up the cot as it turned out) I recieved a call from a rather attractive sounding woman telling me that she would like to drop arround my knife and let me sample some wine and she was only free to come around tomorrow at either 3 or 4pm. I was about to make my first mistake (well actually second if you count filling out the survey in the first place). At this point I should have said that I was actually quite unavailable at either 3 or 4pm and left it at that but again without thinking I said sure, 3 would be OK. So in the middle of trying to put together the aforementioned nursey furniture the woman who called the day before arrived with her boss I presume and then I had to listen to his blurb about the boutique wine they make down at Golden Grape winery in the Hunter while being offered tastings of the same. By the time I managed to avoid buying anything and convincing them I needed to be somewhere else, it was all too late for me to finish putting things together. But I did get my vintner's knife.
By the time Mel got home I had finished the change table and was halfway throught the cot. Oh well I tried.
It all seemed to look like the picture in the catalogue when I had finished which was a relief. It seems that there is nothing that you can't put together these days with an allen key and some instructions written in a foreign language.
Well one day when my brain was clearly going out in sympathy with Mel's much blogged about "placenta brain", I had recieved something in the mail telling me that if I wanted to fill out some very short survey then I would be given, as a token of their appreciation that I actually bothered to fill in their survey, a rather stylish vintner's knife. Without thinking I filled the thing out...I mean what harm could it do....and after all I would be getting a vintner's knife! Many months later (the day before picking up the cot as it turned out) I recieved a call from a rather attractive sounding woman telling me that she would like to drop arround my knife and let me sample some wine and she was only free to come around tomorrow at either 3 or 4pm. I was about to make my first mistake (well actually second if you count filling out the survey in the first place). At this point I should have said that I was actually quite unavailable at either 3 or 4pm and left it at that but again without thinking I said sure, 3 would be OK. So in the middle of trying to put together the aforementioned nursey furniture the woman who called the day before arrived with her boss I presume and then I had to listen to his blurb about the boutique wine they make down at Golden Grape winery in the Hunter while being offered tastings of the same. By the time I managed to avoid buying anything and convincing them I needed to be somewhere else, it was all too late for me to finish putting things together. But I did get my vintner's knife.
By the time Mel got home I had finished the change table and was halfway throught the cot. Oh well I tried.
It all seemed to look like the picture in the catalogue when I had finished which was a relief. It seems that there is nothing that you can't put together these days with an allen key and some instructions written in a foreign language.
Wednesday, August 2
Spicer's Peak .... Part 3
So I have already mentioned the mud, food and drink....what else is there to tell you? Well not much really. The weekend was just the thing we needed and we couldn't have picked a better place to stay.
I can't help but wonder if part of what made this place so good were the hosts Lou and Ben (I assume they are married but they have different last names) They have been looking after the property and it's guests for the last 12 months now (the lodge only opened in 2004) and have only had 2 days off in that time!!!! They live in the cottage about 100 metres from the lodge and are in at 7am usually and then stay through until dinner and drinks are over and most guests have retired to their cosy rooms with those toasty fireplaces. Anything you need they will get for you and they also serve the meals. Ben is one of the cooks and takes over when the other 2 regular chefs have their days off. They were nice to talk to and obviously like what they are doing otherwise I am sure those sort of hours would drive you crazy.
So that just about wraps up our weekend away. It is definitely somewhere we would like to visit again. Oh and on the trip back down the hill with Ben in his 4WD he mentioned how a BMW Z4 made it up the hill in the mud after we arrived! He sure knew how to make a man feel inadequate!
You can check out their web site here
I can't help but wonder if part of what made this place so good were the hosts Lou and Ben (I assume they are married but they have different last names) They have been looking after the property and it's guests for the last 12 months now (the lodge only opened in 2004) and have only had 2 days off in that time!!!! They live in the cottage about 100 metres from the lodge and are in at 7am usually and then stay through until dinner and drinks are over and most guests have retired to their cosy rooms with those toasty fireplaces. Anything you need they will get for you and they also serve the meals. Ben is one of the cooks and takes over when the other 2 regular chefs have their days off. They were nice to talk to and obviously like what they are doing otherwise I am sure those sort of hours would drive you crazy.
So that just about wraps up our weekend away. It is definitely somewhere we would like to visit again. Oh and on the trip back down the hill with Ben in his 4WD he mentioned how a BMW Z4 made it up the hill in the mud after we arrived! He sure knew how to make a man feel inadequate!
You can check out their web site here
Tuesday, August 1
Spicer's Peak .... Part 2
So Where were we up to? ...... Drinks at the bar I believe. OK, so after a quick wander around the property to see what was on offer we subsequently slipped into relaxation mode. What made this such an enjoyable getaway? Well everything really. The way this place works is that you pay a fee for the weekend and then everything is included (except optional massages and the premium wines). That means you can go to the bar and pretty much take whatever you feel like. Champagne, beer, wine, spirits, coffee, and for the pregnant wife san pelligrino. Everything in the minibar in our room was up for grabs. I like this concept as you can just enjoy having a drink or 2 (or 10) and not have to worry about the bill at the end of the stay. Champagne for breakfast? Why not! B and T at 5? Sure! The bar was self serve if you fancied playing bar keep (and I did) or you could get the hosts to serve you (but where is the fun in that). I also enjoyed playing barista with their commercial espresso machine.
Now the other thing that made this place a standout destination was the food. It was simply divine. I was waiting for them to slip up and serve us a dodgy dish but it just didn't happen. Through two A la carte breakfasts, two 3 course lunches and two 7 course degustation dinners, they never stumbled once. Everything is made fresh on site by the 3 chefs (one of them is also one of the managers/hosts) including unbelievable sorbets, gelati and icecreams. The menus were set (at lunch though you had 2 choices for mains) but they could have brought us anything and I am sure it would have been good. I even tried some black pudding for the first time at breakfast and it was actually very nice (if you didn't think about what it actually was!)
They were very accommodating with our diet requirements (I don't think we have mentioned on the blog yet that Mel has a touch of gestational diabetes which was diagnosed about a week before we were going away). They made sure Mel's meat was cooked a little longer than mine, gave her hard cheese instead of the blue or brie that I had and would have given her a different dessert but Mel drew the line at that. Damn the sugars for the weekend she thought! And the desserts were to die for so who could blame her. Considering this approach her sugars were better over the weekend than they had been at home. Damn those chefs are good.
So, I think it is clear that the food and wine were definitely a big part of what made this weekend so very enjoyable and absolutely a reason to want to go back some time for a repeat performance. Maybe in summer next time as it is meant to be a sensible 10 degrees cooler than in Brisbane most days.
Part 3 tomorrow.
Now the other thing that made this place a standout destination was the food. It was simply divine. I was waiting for them to slip up and serve us a dodgy dish but it just didn't happen. Through two A la carte breakfasts, two 3 course lunches and two 7 course degustation dinners, they never stumbled once. Everything is made fresh on site by the 3 chefs (one of them is also one of the managers/hosts) including unbelievable sorbets, gelati and icecreams. The menus were set (at lunch though you had 2 choices for mains) but they could have brought us anything and I am sure it would have been good. I even tried some black pudding for the first time at breakfast and it was actually very nice (if you didn't think about what it actually was!)
They were very accommodating with our diet requirements (I don't think we have mentioned on the blog yet that Mel has a touch of gestational diabetes which was diagnosed about a week before we were going away). They made sure Mel's meat was cooked a little longer than mine, gave her hard cheese instead of the blue or brie that I had and would have given her a different dessert but Mel drew the line at that. Damn the sugars for the weekend she thought! And the desserts were to die for so who could blame her. Considering this approach her sugars were better over the weekend than they had been at home. Damn those chefs are good.
So, I think it is clear that the food and wine were definitely a big part of what made this weekend so very enjoyable and absolutely a reason to want to go back some time for a repeat performance. Maybe in summer next time as it is meant to be a sensible 10 degrees cooler than in Brisbane most days.
Part 3 tomorrow.
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