Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Radness: GAB Children's furniture

Cool, beautifully functional kids furniture. We live in a relatively small flat, and with the Boy wonder being so new don't have need of any of this type of gear *YET* when we do have another one though, a shared bedroom is looking like the way forward. And if that's the case, I better start saving for some of GAB's fine wares.

Via: Babyology.com.au

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

An Awesome Book

Awesome Book Tour from Dallas Clayton on Vimeo.

This dude is really inspiring. An awesome book, an awesome charity and all self published. Very, Very Cool. I'll be getting this for the boy and can feel good that somewhere, someone else in need of awesomeness is going to get some.

Via Design Mom

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Throwing money at it

I'm only just 4 weeks in to this fatherhood gig and don't know a lot but am fast learning that this having a baby lark is a pretty expensive gig. There's a lot to get organised and a lot to pay for. The list is as long as your arm and there's a massive industry built around it feeding on a new parents insecurities. That said, there are ways of not spending said babies education on it's imminent arrival. Below are a few of the things we have done.

Obviously, borrow stuff where ever you can. Especially baby clothes, seriously they will fit for a month at the most. Ebay is also good for this. I spent AU$5.00 and got 6 grow suits, two of which were brand new, that would normally cost between $12 - $20 a pop. Saving = BOOM! Have a look at this search and see what you can save. It's mental!

Remember that anything with "Baby" on it automatically costs WAY more. Case in point. Tommee Tippee brand car shades cost $14 at Big W, walk across the store to the Auto section and the same product costs $3. Seriously, the only difference is a logo with "Baby" on it. I'm thinking of a four letter word, can you guess what it is?

Make stuff. The good lady wife is pretty good at this. Or at least was, prior to the arrival of the boy wonder/ eating and mess making machine. But mobiles, toys, blankets etc aren't that hard to make and will mean more in the future because there is time and thought attached to it. There are loads of patterns available online Be careful though to make sure whatever you're making for bub is safe and doesn't have loose bits or choke hazard and the like on it.

Anyway, I feel like I'm being a bit preachy so will finish up here. I would love to hear any tips you might have for saving with a bub. Or better yet, any cool stuff you can make or made yourself.
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Monday, September 7, 2009

Birth, one guy's experience

This is probably a bit late in coming but as you can expect, having a newborn to look after and having started a new job, the whole blogging thing has taken a little bit of a back seat. That said, the birthing process is freak'n amazing but there is some pretty scary stuff that's going to happen and it's not always what you think. This, as best as I can remember it, is how it played out for me...

Friday, T-minus 33 hours

The good lady wife has a bit of a show. Nothing to worry about though, aparently. We laugh about how in the movies, the woman always wakes the man up with a smile and a nod and says "It's time". Jades begins complaining of back pain throughout the day, we assume that she has been sitting uncomfortably or lifted something the wrong way. An early night and some rest will fix that, nothing to worry about there.

Saturday, T-minus 15 hours

Jade got up at 2:00 am, the back pain had gotten increasingly worse and seemed to ease off and come back at fairly regular intervals, I of course am out to it. At 3:00 am, TGLW wakes me with a smile and nod and says "It's time". Nice one Jade! It is then that I realise we haven't packed the hospital bag because this isn't supposed to happen for 5 weeks! A quick dash round the house, a bag packed and it was off to the hospital. Fortunately we live just around the corner. Even more fotunate as when packing I had forgotten the TENS machine, so was able to duck home and pick it up during a relatively quiet moment.

Having been admitted to the birthing suite, the wife was hooked up to a machine to monitor the baby's heartbeat and also the strength of her contractions. The contractions weren't really registering on the machine as they were occurring quite low in the back, rather than high up on the front. (I don't really know why this is or what it means.)

As it was three in the morning and it wasn't an emergency, there wasn't a doctor to see us right away. And since the contractions weren't registering on the machine we, and the midwives too, were expeting us to be sent home when the doctor arrived.

T-minus 8 hours, doctor arrives

So after six hours in the birthing suite, with the contractions still not really registerring, the doctor arrives. By this time Jade and I are pretty tired and looking forward to the doctor telling us it's braxton hicks and that we can go home. Surprise, by the title of this post, you can probably guess this wasn't the case. What she did say was "You're four centimetres dialated. You'll be having a baby today"

Game On! (Enough with the whole T-minus thing)

From here, we got down to the business end of the delivery pretty quickly, although the good lady wife probably doesn't think so:) Contractions began increasing in frequency and intensity to the point where the she was vomiting with each one. This is where it started getting a bit scary for me. The wife has a pretty high threshold for pain and is not noisy by nature, so while the woman in the birth suite next door was screaming down the house, my lady was throwing up, that is some serious pain!!!

The doctor prescribed Maxilon for the vomitting to little effect, which meant that Gas was out of the question for pain relief. You can't really suck down nitrous oxide while your throwing up. Not being a real fan of Pethadine meant that an epidural was the only option left for pain relief.

The Epidural was a really freaky thing to see. Firstly, the process of having a needle inserted into your loved ones spine is an incredibly nerve wracking thing to witness. Then seeing the drug take effect and my moaning, vomitting wife all of a sudden relax and close her eyes, scared the hell out of me. I know it probably shouldn't have but there was something about it that felt like a loss of control. After a little while she was lucid again and back into action. The epidural had taken effect, the vomiting stopped and she was able to get down to business and focus on what needed to be done.

Push!!!

So, it all comes down to this. When the pushing began everything seemed pretty normal. Just like we had spoken about in the prenatal classes, like what you see on telly and things seemed to be going normally. The doctor trying to get a good two or three pushes per contranction. Then, after each contraction the baby's heart rate would drop. At one point from 140 down to 70. I had heard about this and knew that it meant the baby was in distress.

The doctors were great, talking us through what was happening but it was here that I started to lose my shit. (Internally of course, nothing showed, had my poker face on. I'm a closed book me, you just can't read me.) The thought occurred to me that something could go wrong, that we could lose the baby, I could lose Jade or both of them. Terrifying!!!

With the baby in distress and already engaged it was going to mean a forceps delivery. This again was terrifying, The force used to get him out was so full on I thought she (the doctor) was going to pull his head off. She didn't of course and out he came. He was quick to cry and I was then free to lose my shit visibly and had a bit of a cry. We had a son and everyone was still alive. He was quickly weighed, measured and then popped up on to Mum's chest for a bit of "Hi, what's your name? I love you!"

Done

Mum then went on to pass the placenta, the nurses asked if we wanted to take a look at it, which I thought was a little weired at first, but when they ask if you want a look. Take one, it's amazing! To see the house your bub has called home for nine months and marvel at the wonder that is the human body.

And that is pretty much my experience of the birth. The wife was alive and well, the bub was then admitted to special care nursery as he was five weeks premature (but that's another story). And it really was the first day of the rest of our lives. I am so incredibly happy and amazed at the strength of my wife. She is amazing! She makes people now!

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Saturday, August 29, 2009

Linkage: Sunday, August 30

They go backwards, forwards, sideways, and round and round. Children don’t get stuck against obstacles like some other ride on toys. Wheely Bugs help promote gross motor skills and balance like no other toy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but look how awesome they are. The boy is going to get one of these for sure!

Posted via web from Peter's posterous

Monday, August 24, 2009

Parenting & Blogging, Hmmm...

After having experienced the first week of The Boy Wonder's life AND started a new job this week, it has become apparent that it is going to a little more difficult than first thought to keep this blog up to date. Geeze post six and already I'm saying it's too hard. Not too hard, really, but need to reconsider how often I am actually going to be able to post.

At the moment the boy is in Special care nursery and probably will be for at least another week. We're coping with this although we are wearing a trail back and forth to the hospital. We have just moved to four hour feeds at 6:00am, 10:00am, 2:00pm and 6:00pm etc. This has meant The good lady wife can get some much needed sleep but the hours are a little unforgiving. I'm getting in the 6:00am feed and then heading in to work and then getting in the 10:00pm feed in the evening. So you can see how the time is evaporating.

Long and the short of it. Less posts until we get sorted, possibly more links in the interim though.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Surprise!

Jackson, our son was born on August 22, 2009. four and a half weeks early by the dating from the scans but about two weeks early according to the pediatrician. He and the Good lady wife are doing well, I am so proud of both of them! I however am shattered. I'm going to try and get my thoughts together and post about it tomorrow. For now, here's a pic, check him out. He's awesome!



Thursday, August 20, 2009

An unexacting science.



Yesterday, The good lady wife and I went for a routine check up at the maternity clinic. TGLW has been crazy tired this past couple of weeks and we suspected that the bub was going through a growth spurt. It certainly seems that this was the case. On measuring it appears that she has grown four centimetres in two weeks. Ouch!

Right, so what this means is, the boy is the size of a 38 week foetus instead of the 35 we were expecting. Now this just means he's a big bub and we have to book in for additional ultra sound scans leading up to the birth to make sure everything will be OK for the birth. But I'm not sure if this is entirely the case.

Getting back to the title of this post. The boy has been big from the beginning. We had a scan at 6 weeks in the UK, we thought it was early days but they did one anyway. The due date was set from this original scan. When we went back for the 12 week scan, the ultrasound technician said that if this was the first scan, she would have brought the date forward by a week. Edit: We have since worked out that based on the window of opportunity around the 12 week scan, the dating would be fairly well correct.

Every scan we have had since has come back big. We explain the above but the people at the hospital are always reluctant to bring the date forward. Now, I'm not a doctor so I'm going to have to trust them but we are getting to the business end of the pregnancy now and I'm starting to feel drastically unprepared, what if he is going to arrive early? I'm not ready! Turns out I was.

So today is all about ticking boxes, getting everything ready to go and tying up any loose ends so if by chance it all kicks off tomorrow, we're on it! Will report back tomorrow with what was achieved.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The eighth month

Yesterday at the great southland (A monster shopping centre in Melbourne) The good lady wife I got a bit jacked off with each other over a parking the car incident, we got over it quickly enough but I still felt a bit hard done by. Later that night I read the list below in What to Expect When You're Expecting and it kinda put the whole parking thing into perspective.

Fortunately for TGLW, she's not rocking all of these symptoms but the following is a list of how she might be feeling. Guys take note, she is probably rocking at least half of these symptoms, so seriously, let her tell you where to park the car!

Physically:
  • Strong kicking
  • Vaginal discharge
  • Constipation
  • Heartburn etc.
  • Headaches, dizziness or feintness
  • Nasal congestion, occasional nosebleeds and earaches
  • Sensitive gums
  • Cramps and backache
  • Pelvic pain
  • Swollen ankles / feet
  • Varicose veins
  • Haemorrhoids
  • Itchy belly
  • Popped out belly button
  • Stretch marks
  • Shortness of breath because all of her insides are crowded with the bub
  • Crappy sleep
  • Braxton Hicks
  • Clumsiness
  • Enlarged boobs (Yay!)
  • Pre milk leaking from the nipples.
And on top of all that the emotional stuff:
  • Hanging out for the pregnancy to be over
  • Scared about the delivery and being a mum
  • Absentmindedness
  • And generally just more emotional
So yeah, you might say the whole parking the car thing, not such a big deal after all!


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Radness!


OK. So this is probably more of a design post than a fatherhood post but hear me out.

Now that I'm becoming a dad, my t-shirt collection is going to have to be put on hold, clearly, there are more important things coming my way than a fresh new shirt from alife or some such. I need to concern myself with looking after my wife and feeding and clothing a bub. What's that you say? Clothing a Bub?!

Now thanks to Tiny Mammoth, I can live vicariously through my child whilst providing an essential part of fatherhood. Designer Beci Orpin has created a range of kinda bent, super rad, kids clothes to combat the bland and boring, over priced or straight up inappropriate stuff that seems to dominate the stores.

Thank you Beci, I'm loving your work!

An introduction

The Good lady wife and I moved back to Australia from London eight weeks ago today. We moved in to our house and set about getting ready for the arrival of the bub. Everything is somehow now becoming real and the last four and a half years have all lead to this. (Moving home and starting a family, not starting a new blog).

Anyway... This blog is something I wanted to write as a bit of a diary of how things progress for my own record but also to hopefully be useful to someone else at some point. So along with the diary side of things, I'll post links and the what not relating to being a new dad, that I either find interesting, informative, relevant or funny.

So we're getting to the business end of the pregnancy and I'm still feeling pretty confident that everything is going to work out. Maybe you'll come back and see how we go or maybe not but either way, I'm going to do my best to put it down here. Hope to see you soon.