WE GOT SMILES............

and i just had to share them with you all. i think he is slowly getting used to that big black and silver thing that is constantlygetting shoved in his face!!! O and the weird and strange noises and faces his mummy puls tryingto get him to smile for that said contraption.....

can you see that dimple?????

Updated photos.....

Just wanted to share some recent photos of my wee little man! He is slowly growing, slowly getting there!!!

He is a buggerto try and catch him smiling. As soon as he sees the camera he stops. We gotthese with scott looking over my shoulder so he couldnt really see the camera iykwim. By the way scott is NO photographer. They are all a bit blurry but beggars cant be choosers!!!

We have only just noticed that when he gives you a big full faced grin he had the cutest dimple in his left cheek!!! Girls are going to love that when he is older!!!

And these other ones were taken by a friend Stewart when we were out shopping the other day! thanks Stewart they are fabbo pics!!! he look so relaxed in the shopping trolley!!!

and dont you just love Milk Bubbles!!!!

I've been scrapping......

Thanks to the ever so wonderful team at Country Paper Craft i have actually been scrapping and having a good time while doing it. I signed up for their Amazing Scrapbook Journey which is kind of like a big race. I was assigned a partner who lived in a different state to me and we had to get together and do some LO's with certain themes that were posted each week. i was partnered with the wonderful Anna, who i had kind of 'known' previously, but not overly well. Well i have to say she has been one awesome partner, and over the past few weeks we have been scrapping our little buns off!! We were in 2nd spot, then third, and now we are in first place!!! We just have to survive this week, where I'm sure all the other teams are going to be pulling out all stops to get home with a whopper score. Just hope Anna and I can hold on for this one last challenge!! Either way its been an awesome experience!!

here are my LO's we have created so far...just one to go!!! in no particular order simply because i cantremember what order we did them in! LOL

This one had to have the word or number 2 in the title

This one was of a building and we both had to have the same kind of building.

This one had to have a songtitle and colour associated with it

This one had to have more than 3 people in the photo

This one had to do with the price of living atthe moment and had to include ephermera of some sort like a checkout docket

I cant remember thee specs on this one but i know i had computer problems atthe time and nearly didnt make it

Some recent photos.....

Ok here are some recent photos in no particular time frame order. i'm to lazy to sort them out

those photos....

Ok so it has been like......FOREVER!! but i have eventually figured out how i can get photos off my phone. i can email them to myself from my phone!! And while i'm on a months free trial of this I might as well take advantage. So heres the photos of jack in the humidicrib. Well some of them! I took lots but wont burden you with them all. Now remember they are off a phone camera so not that great a quality! The first one is taken with my phone and the other two with Scott's.

On the upside jack is doing so much better!. he is at long last starting to gain weight. We can really see it in his little face! Starting to get chubby cheeks and the beginning of a double chin!! So cute!!! But such a huge relief as well!! He is still skinny in his body though, and looks like a skinned rabbit when naked!! Being really long doesnt help matters either!

But onwards and upwards from here. Now to do another post with more recent photos!!

When things go Pear shaped..........

O MY GOD......what a week we have all been through in this household. And no.....its got nothing to do with screaming babies keeping us awake all hours of the night....I wish it was that simple. It was far worse than that.

it has taken me a few days to decide whether or not to post what happened on my blog as its has been such a scary situation and I'm not sure I'm totally over it all yet, or whether we will ever be over it. To think about what could have been is just too unbelievable for words. But so many people have emailed me asking what happened and how things are going that I just thought i would.

All I can do is to thank whatever higher power was looking over us and looking over my little boy. I swear it was his granddad and his great nana, who would have loved him so much if they were here to meet him. Hopefully his guardian angels will be with us for a long time to come.

Ok so here goes......Will try and give you a brief run down on it all!

We came home from hospital following jacks birth on Friday 29th and everything was fine. He was sleeping a lot and not feeding very often but the nurses in the hospital said he would get himself into a routine. So we thought OK. When they released him and did his obs before we left he had lost over 10% of his birth weight. This should have rung some bells but evidently it didn’t! They probably just wanted our bed!.

His eating sleeping routine never changed much over the weekend. If anything he was sleeping more and eating less. We were getting a bit concerned bout it all and when the mid-wife came out on Monday to do a follow up visit we mentioned it to her. This was 11.30am and the last time he had fed was about 4am in the morning! He hadn’t woken since! She tried to wake him and he just wouldn’t. She mentioned that he felt cold even though he was wrapped up. She took his temp and it was 35.4. Very cold! She told us too wrap him up and try and get him warmer and she would be back in 2 hours to see if he had woken up yet. Well she came back at 2.30. he was still asleep. Still hadn’t eaten and when she took his temp he was 35.1, so even colder. She told us to get him up to the hospital straight away. We rushed him up there, luckily its only a 5 minute drive! They put him straight in the humidicrib and started warming him up. Scott went and picked Kloe up from school and I stayed with Jack. When he was back up to 36 degrees he was stirring and opening his eyes so they tried to get him to feed but he wouldn’t. He was like a rag doll. So they got me to express some and tried to feed him by bottle but still no go. They just kept warming him up hoping he would want to feed once he got back to normal temperature. Scott took Kloe home to give her some tea. As Jack was getting warmer his body started twitching and doing weird things. They called the doctor in and he was basically baffled by what he was doing. They rang the pediatricians in Port Augusta about 7pm to ask their opinion. They suggested trying to feed him again and if that didn’t work to put in a nasal gastric tube to feed him that way. Well he just got worse and worse and by 8pm he had a full on seizure. I had never been so scared in all my life! Even the mid-wife and doctor were shocked. So they were back on the phone to Port Augusta and an ambulance transport was arranged to take him up there. Everything from then on was so surreal. People running everywhere, me on the phone to scott trying to arrange things for Kloe and for him to get back up to the hospital. We left Pirie by ambulance at about 8.50pm. Scott followed in our car. We got to Port Augusta about an hour later. They spent the next hour sticking tubes in him and wires and all other things it was horrible. He looked so terrible laying almost lifeless in the humidicrib with all his ribs showing and his belly all sunken in. I was a mess to say the least.. The only time he made a noise was when they put the tube up his nose. And then he sounded like a starving kitten. They started pumping some kind of food into him straight away.
. They weighed him and he was 5lb 8oz, so he had lost 1lb 4oz since he was born.. Over 13% of his body weight. He no longer had the strength to keep surviving on his own. His little body was slowly shutting down, which is why he wouldn’t wake up and feed. He didn’t have the strength to. They told us that if we had left him for another day he would have died. He would have slowly starved to death. I spent all night just sitting in the NICU watching him. It was awful. I was so scared he was going to die

Come Tuesday morning they started doing a heap of tests on him. Lots and lots of blood tests to try and find out why he was like he was. They were asking me all kinds of questions about my pregnancy and stuff. One thing they thought might have been the problem was that his calcium level might have been low because of my diabetes. They tested him for all other things like infections as well. And all the time they were feeding him through his nasal tube every 2 hours. Well after numerous tests later they found out that he has a Strep B infection. I rang my brother to look it up on the web to see what it was. Now they knew what he had they had to try and treat it. They tried to put an intravenous line in so they could pumped him full of antibiotics but they couldn’t get one in. They ended up ringing the Women’s and children’s Hospital in Adelaide and a hospital in Melbourne before they found one they could give him orally. After just 2 doses of antibiotics I could already see the improvement in him. Scott had to go back to Pirie so I was left up in Port Augusta for 2 days on my own. But my little boy was improving so it was ok. My brother and his wife paid me a surprise visit as well so that was good. They were very shocked as to how little he was and how sick he looked. By Wednesday afternoon he was waking regularly and was moving around a bit. Scott brought kloe and his mum up for a visit. Kloe was allowed to hold him but she was a bit scared of all the wires and tubes. They told us that if he kept improving overnight, on Thursday, they would take him out of the humidicrib to see if he could maintain his own body temperature and if he could then we could go back to Pirie on Friday. Well I had a very strict talking to my little man and he did improve overnight and did get out of the crib and was able to maintain his body temperature. They then wanted me to start trying to feed him again. He couldn’t latch on. It was like he had lost the ability to suck. So they got me to try and express it but I couldn’t do it. They said it was probably all the stress.

On Friday we got to go home, well back to Pirie hospital in anycase. My mid-wife back here was very angry that they hadn’t gotten me to express all the time they were feeding him through his nose. Now my milk supply was compromised. They gave me some tablets to try and build it back up, but Jack still wouldn’t latch on and suck properly. I had to make a choice about what we wanted to do. Try and get my supply back or put him on the bottle and formula. Another very hard decision to make. I don’t think I have cried so much in all my life. I was a huge big blubbering mess. I just didn’t need this on top of everything else. We had just had a baby everything was suppose to be all fun and excitement, not like this. I eventually decided to put him on the bottle. I’m still not happy about it but its done. He now still has the sucking problem. He finds it very hard to 'latch on' to whatever is put in his mouth. We are not sure if this has been caused through the infection or not.

We had a follow up visit this friday just gone with the doctor, who gave him a thorough going over. So far he seems to have not been affected by the infection, but there are a lot of things that cant be tested until he is older. I dont care if he does have a few things wrong. I'm just glad he is here with us! We can deal with other issues in times to come!

We just need out little man to start gaining back some of the weight he has lost. they are giving him a few weeks to try and get back to his birth weight. If he cant then its down to Adelaide to visit some specialists down there who might have some magic suggestions. In the meantime we can just hope and pray.

Here is a photo of my little man just before they took the nasal tube out. I have other photos of him in the humidicrib but they are on my phone, and I havent worked out how to get them off just yet. Have had lots of other things on my mind!

Just want to send a huge big thank you out to Ros, who if it wasnt for you our little boy wouldnt be here. Trudi and Alan for all that you did, and all that you continue to do! All in the NICU at Port Augusta, and the wonderful C ward staff. thank you all!!

He's here......He's here.....

Ok so they eventually decided on a date for me......after changing it about a million times. Tuesday 26th was the date. The sugar and UTI was just too out of control to warrant keeping bubs in any longer. Was making me sick and bubs sick so better out than in!!!

Warning!!! The following description may be a little graphic!! read on at your own risk!! LOL

Was booked in for an inducement at 7.30am. Dr didnt come until nearly 9! Typical!! Did an internal and decided that he wouldnt insert any gel, he would just stretch, sweep the membranes and see if I would start on my own. He was worried about having to do a caeserian if it came to that because the paed's dr wouldnt be here until wednesday morning! And being a gesty baby, there was significant risks involved. So he did the sweeping! HELLO!!! Man did that hurt!!! Could have pre-warned me!!!

Ok for the rest of the day he wanted me to walk around and not lay down. see if we could get things happening! well that was exciting!! I couldnt leave the ward because if I did I couldnt get back in without buzzing the desk and they get a bit peed off with that fairly quickly, so it was pacing the corridors and walk back and forth in my room! Excitement plus! NOT!!!

So that went on for most of the day. i was getting a few twinges but nothing much and the mid-wife kept checking on me but nothing was happening and I was getting cheesed off because I wanted it to be over!! Grrrr!!!!

Just after 4ish the dr called back in to see how I was going. i had dilated to about 3cms. Whoopee chook!!! So basically nothing. He said he would let me go a bit longer and maybe he might break my waters about 8pm if nothing was happening! I was mega peed off!! Had been there all day and for nothing!! i think he knew i was miffed because he came back about 15 mins later and gave me the choice of getting it going now or waiting til the morning! Well I'm sure you can guess what my decision was!!

So at nearly 5pm he broke my waters. YAY!!!! scott left it was all too much for him poor boy!! So off I went walking the corridors again. My friend came up to visit me just before 6 and went for a walk with me. By the time i got back to my room ten minutes later, my contractions were less than 2 minutes apart!! When i go in to labour I dont mess around!!! I rang my mum on the way to the labour room! GET HERE NOW OR YOU ARE GOING TO MISS IT!!! Was what i yelled at her between contractions. My friend helped me walk the short distance. She came for a visit and got the floorshow!! By the time my mum got there I was already pushing!!

JACK NICOLIN was born at 6.54pm on Tuesday 26th June 2007! After a brief 2 hours and 2 minute labour!! He weighed 6lb 12 ozs or 3064 gms. HC was 33cms (so really tiny head!!) and length was 51cms or 21 inches! He one long and skinny little boy!!! But o so sweet!! The doctor didnt make it and neither did the student mid-wife! All that was present was the wonderful Genivieve (mid-wife), Trudi (head of ward), my mum, and my friend Sue who decided to stay! Which was good because she grabbed my camera and started taking photos even though she didnt have her glasses and really couldnt see that great! She was just pointing and shooting! Thanks agin for that Sue!!

Here he is!!!!

June update.......

Ok I did this post about 2 weeks ago and saved it as a drfat but never posted it..so Here I am posting it before I post my new news!!!!

OMG!! So much has happened in the past few weeks I dont know where to start!. i have spent so much time in hospital, going up there for a few tests which turn into hours..etc etc etc. I have had so many CTG's done, my delivery date was changed about 4 times!! My sugar is constantly going wonky for no reason, my UTI is a permanant fixture of my bodily functions, i have taken so many antibiotics I shouldn't get sick for the next year!! i have frantically been trying to get work stuff done, organising staff seeing as I have had to stop working a wee bit earlier than expected, but I just cant bend over with this UTI. It kills seriously!! Its coming up tax time so I'm trying to get a bit of that done, like group certificates all organised. Arrgghhhhh....its been a nightmare!!!

I have hardly had anytime to scratch myself never mind do other things that I want to do for me..iykwim. But we all know I just thrive on the stress...LOL. I have honoured all of my other commitments i have signed up for..I think...if i havent..give me a yell cuz I've forgotten!!!

i had wanted to get to adelaide sometime before Bubs gets here but that isnt going to happen by the looks Of things either.

I did manage to get over to whyalla to see my gorgeous little nephew though!! he is such a sweetie!!. Kloe was just wrapt with him! She didnt want to put him down and didnt want to share cuddles with anyone!! Cant imagine what she is going to be like with her very own bubba to snuggle and cuddle with!!

Still not much happening.....

Boring as all hell around here!! Havent done basically anything all week! Bubs has shifted its weight in a downward motion which is great but not on my bladder!!! Ouch!!!! So feeling the old coconut feeling iykwim!!! not nice!! And having to sit down very gently!! LOL

Just thought i would hop on here and put some more of my recent LO's on here to share as I've been doing nothing else!!

So here are some more recent ones!

This one is for the challenge that is on Ngaires blog. To create a LO about the 'beautiful you'. it was also part of the biggest user competition a Country Papercraft (which i must say has been oodles of fun!).

This one was for another of the biggest user challenges!! i had to do a monchromatic LO with 4 photos! WHAT!! Dont they know I'm multi-photo challenged!!! EEEK!!! But i did manage to do this. Quite chuffed with it actually!! So proud of myself to pull of a multi-photo LO!! LOL

(and dont you just love how I printed the photos in sepia so you cant tell the colour!! )

Last one for now! Using the gorgeous Jenni Bowlin papers which make up the June kit at Country Papercraft!!! Loved this pack!!!

And yes my circle obsession is continuing!!!!!! if you hadnt noticed!!!

And ending with some gorgeous bubba photos!!!!

Aww..cant wait for my own bubba to cuddle and snuggle with...........

I'm an Auntie!!!

Yea!! Woohoo!!! Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Can you tell I'm excited!!!

its because at long last I'm a new Auntie!!

My brother and his wife had their baby this morning!!

yes at 8.40am weighing in at 7lb5oz a new baby boy made his way into the world!!

Welcome ETHYN JOHN!!! we have all been waiting for you!!!

Some stuff i've done of late.....

Not much happening in my world at the moment. taking each day as it comes...seems to be working! Ultrasound of bubs was good. So far no problems!! yay for that!!! Unfortunately for me the photo machine wasnt working so o pictures! :( they are just a bit concerned with me and my weight loss. yep you read right...weight LOSS!! So far for my whole 32 and a half weeks i have lost 5 kgs!! Not gained...LOST! Woohoo for me!!! 3kgs in the past week!! But seriously its not a good thing and i have to now be monitored even more closely!! o joy O joy!! Dont you just love it! I swear to god it would be so much easier and less stressful if we never went to the drs until it was time to actually give birth! At least i dont have BP problems on top of everything else!

Speaking Of BP problems, i'm constantly thing of my Brother and his wife! Hope everything is fine over there and just think not long now!!! Only a few short days and I will be an official auntie!! yea i cant wait!!!

Kloe is getting more and more excited everyday. her latest thing is to lay with her head resting on my belly at night and she says she can hear my bump breathing and hear the heartbeat. its so cute!!! She has been helping me get the nursery ready as well! She is such a sweetie and a HUGE help!!!

She played another game of netball last weekend and I got to see it!!! Yay!!! The whole game!! they are so funy to watch. Especially when they change ends at each quarter and they dont remember which end to throw to. So funny!!!

here she is shooting a goal. She got two goals again and her team won 4 to 1! Dont you just love the score!! just wish i had the camera around the other way so i got the whole thing in, but it happens so quick and by the time i focus...its all over!!

not much else has been happening! i have been doing quite a bit of scrapping lately! my mojo seems to have returned after a very long abscence. Dont know where it went but glad its back!

here is some recent stuff for you all to look at and i'm chuffing off!!!

just a brief update......

Yep thats my bubba bump. Kloe took this photo today so i thought i had better do something with it while i had a spare 10 minutes. It was also for a sketch challenge I had to do so it got me scrapping! Yay! Its not over the top but none of my bubba LO's so far have been. trying to keep them a bit plain jane for a while. See how longthat lasts.

Just thought i would give a bit of an update here. i have been quite absent from a lot of things just lately and I hope you all will understand why.

We are having some dramas with bubs at the moment which is part of the reason for me being so quite. Dramas that we had with Kloe are resurfacing their ugly heads again! Just trying to convince myself that things turned out just fine with her so not to panic about this bundle, but much easier said than done!

Drama o drama!! Getting sick of Drs appointments and specialist appointments and waiting rooms and poking and prodding..you get the picture i'm sure! And now the whole ultrasound saga is starting again as well. We always said that Kloe loved getting her photo taken because we had SO many ultrasounds when she was inside that she just thinks its a part of everyday life. well its looks like it might just happen again. Got one booked for tuesday of this week, see Dr on wednesday to find out when my next one is.......then the next and i guess then the next......
Glad you only have to pay for your first two now and the rest are free! I've already had my two so yea for me!! LOL

And blood...my poor fingers!! Lets just not even go there shall we!

On a much brighter note Kloes arm/shoulder seems to now at long last be mending ok. She played her first game of netball last week and because I couldnt get out of work i missed the whole thing!! Got there jus as the final whistle went! What a bugga!!! And she scored two goals!! And i missed them..O nO!!! O well. She had a bye this week, think her whole team has a bye next week then I have made sure I've marked myself as unavailable for every saturday after that!! Determined to see her play!

ummm....and I think thats about it! Not sure when i will ge back on here for another update could be awhile.........lets just see how things and life pan out for now!

I've been tagged....

Ok I've been tagged by Both Heike and Lynn so i guess i had better do this!!


Here are the rules:Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write down their seven facts and copy/paste these rules. You then need to tag 7 people. Don't forget to leave them a comment on their blog telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog! OK, here goes:

1. I have three tattoos, but only one of them is visible to the public
2. I love to watch all versions of CSI. Over and over again. i have them all on DVD
3. I'm petrified of MOTHS
4. I cant scrap in a clean environment. the messier my scrap area the better i can scrap!
5. I'm adopted and so is my brother. but we look alike!!!
6. I love Arnott's Melting Moments biscuits and i hide them so no one else can eat them on me!
7. After all these years I still cant watch the Nightmare on Elm st movies!! they still scare the pants off me!!

Boy that was harder than I thought it would be. i have no idea who to tag. Will think about it and get back to you!

Ok here is My bubba....

Ok I know there is quite a few of you out there who are just dying to see pics of my bubba......so here it is in all its glory.......We know what IT is and if you are very clever you might be able to tell as well. *Hint* look at the one which is the foot photo!!! LOL........

I have to say this was the most awesome experience of my life. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who is having a baby who even thinking about it!......What an experience!!