karate kid

Congrats to Kim and Paul on the birth of their second daughter on the 4th of Jan! 

I haven't heard from them since they got home from the hospital, so I'm guessing there's some adjusting to the new situation from all four at their apartment. Still no confirmation of the name, so watch this space.

snowpea!!!

"Snowpea" arrived early this morning. We still haven't decided on his name, so we're still calling him by the nickname we gave him during the pregnancy. Labour was about 3 hours, with only 5 minutes of pushing. As a comparison, Labour with Aiden was 13 hours with 30 minutes of pushing!!! I almost missed the birth as I was filling out some paperwork when active labour started.

Mae gives the thumbs-up for launch. This photo isn't really indicative of the labour process, things were progressing much faster than anticipated, so there was no time to epidural, instead Mae received a Spinal injection, but it was enough to relieve the pain and allow her to concentrate on pushing.

Snowpea arrives! 3.58 kg (close to 8lbs). Mae looks amazing for someone who has just delivered.

Initially he's not that impressed by the world. It's too bright & cold and there are doctors checking on him every so often.

But he soon calms down.
He's got a little more hair than Aiden had at birth, and it's jet black.
Anyone recognise any family resemblance?

Aiden's curious about his little brother. I made sure to read him Za-Za's Brother for his bedtime story tonight. I'm not sure how much has sunk in, but the real test when Mae and the baby come home.

He's a cutie.

ian & mei's anniversary

Happy Anniversary in advance!

We celebrated my parents 36th anniversary today (2 days in advance) with them, Mason, Anita & the twins.

Had a delectable meal at Chef Chan's - his signature roast chicken didn't disappoint, neither did the tender peppered beef, the sauteed eggplant and the wasabi prawns. Uber yummilicious. Being pregnant just gave me more reason to eat; I clearly wasn't hungry by the time I went through my fourth prawn and third slice of chicken.

Bradley and Erica seemed quite keen to play with Aiden although Aiden was a little clueless. He did however beam from ear to ear when Bradley and he walked hand-in-hand - a Kodak moment that passed too soon before I could whip out our camera.

And Aiden impressed us with his longest sentence to date today:
Baa baa black sheep...yessser yessser, tree bags fool. (i.e. the 1st, 3rd and 4th lines of baa baa black sheep).

not popped yet.

Our estimated due date is drawing to a close, with 1 1/2 hours to go it looks unlikely Mae will deliver today. We had another doctor's appointment today and the estimated weight of Snowpea is 3.6kg - almost exactly the weight Aiden was. If we make it to next week without any sign of Snowpea, the doctor will discuss whether snowpea will need to be induced.

counting

we've reached one milestone - this is the 100th post to our blog, but the main milestone we're expecting is still keeping us guessing.

Mae's estimated due date is in two days but there are no signs that anything is happening any time soon. Aiden was 4 days late so if snowpea is late by the same amount, he'll arrive on Mei and Ian's anniversary which would be nice.

Of course if he arrives on his estimated due date - Friday the 13th, perhaps we can name him Jason.

running out of space

With 2 months to go, snowpea is at an estimated 2.6 kg, so he'll be a very large boy indeed when he makes his debut. It's hard to imagine that Mae's belly can expand any more, and yet, he'll put on a lot of weight in the last months.