Hi Teddy!

Well he's here! We received a very early present on the 20th of February -Edward Stanley decided to come earth-side two months earlier than anticipated. Most of you already know the details from other forums, sites and emails, but I haven't really had much of a chance to update the blog about it. In short the placenta was pulling away from the uterine wall, causing substantial haemorrhaging, but this seemed to propel him into spontaneous labour and he was born with no intervention other than a midwife rupturing his membranes to ensure they could check him out as he was emerging because of how premature he was. Which is a real shame, but he did get his whole head out with intact membranes, so I like to think that's born in the caul.

He has been in the NICU but has been incredibly stable, has been tolerating really long periods without the cpap (oxygen), so last night they stopped it and will see how he goes without it now. He has been on increasing feeds which is great - jumped from just 1mL/2hrs to 5mL/hr very quickly. Today he may be moved to the High Dependency Unit. Basically he will move from NICU to HDU to Special Care, then home!

I have to go becaue I am writing this with Harriet all over me and I can barely see the screen, so will write more when I don't have my brain in about thirty places and my body in about five.

Preschool Week 2

It has been a shocking week with the Victorian bushfires, words cannot express how tragic the situation is. You know those morbid discussions you have when you're a teenager about how you want to die and how you definitely *don't* want to die? I distinctly remember everyone bar one person saying they didn't want to burn to death one night. If I believed in God I guess I'd pray but then again if I believed in God I'd wonder what the point of it all is.

The weekend just gone wasn't half as hot as we thought it was going to be. We spent a lot of time on Sunday morning doing some in-depth craft activities. In the foreground of this b&w photo you can see how Harriet made a boat with sailors out of some coloured matchsticks and the top of an egg carton. James made the frame of a house, and I made a frog with sticking out tongue from a cherry tomato punnet. We were AWESOME! Well, for people who are quite seriously artistically challenged, we were all awesome in our own eyes anyway.


Week Two for preschool. On Monday James took Harriet in on the bus on his way to work, but unfortunately things didn't work out particularly well. Harriet has a classmate whose father just drops off his (always) bawling son into the arms of her teacher and unceremoniously departs. This poor child is left to scream in the arms of a relative stranger - it breaks my heart. Anyway, he happened to be at her table and she was apparently shaken by it but insisted to James that she was ok with him leaving. He left and when I went to pick up Harriet that afternoon I was a bit behind a few other parents through the door. When she didn't see me straight away she started sobbing. Poor sweet child, she ran up and hugged me like there was no tomorrow when I pushed through to the mat where she was. Then her teacher told me that she had been quite upset in the morning and had found it difficult to transition between tasks in the afternoon. It then took her about two hours to get into a solid sleep that night.


The next morning we all went in to drop her off together. I stayed with her for about half an hour in the classroom, waaayyyy after everyone else's parents had left. The teachers were fine with me being in there and when she didn't want to go out to her Japanese lesson that was no problem as well. Such a relief to see a mainstream school that recognises the importance of the child's security and attachment. I left when her teacher (Melissa) was able to say goodbye with Harriet to me and we had a little laugh at the door and Harry was excited about going to show her how she can write an 'M' (their letter of the week). I was worried about her all morning, then received a phone call from Melissa at lunchtime to tell me that she hadn't eaten anything from her lunchbox and she wanted to let me know in case I didn't get a chance to speak to her that afternoon.

When I went to pick her up she seemed fine. I made sure I was first past the post to get in there so she could see me as soon as the door opened, so that was positive. Harry was her usual chatty, discursive self and I organised two playdates for her this week with classmates so that she may connect with other children in her class rather than feeling the need to be attached only to Melissa. Fingers crossed, anyway. She is just so attention hungry! Can you imagine how bad it might be if we actually praised her?!!!

Oh and today she said to me: ""You help me all the time Mama. QUICK, come over here so I can give you a big squeezy hug!" Awwww....

Short Note

Just a quick one. In the past couple of days Harriet has said some classic things. Today for example we had friends over. I can't remember the exact scenario now but she said something along the lines of "I have bigger hands than Poe. That's understandable". Poe's mother had to ask me if that was what she'd said. Pretty funny!

Then the other day when she was at preschool I went and bought her the training wheels for the bike we bought her on the weekend (at the op shop, so needs a little work). That night James put them on for her when she was in bed. The next afternoon she asked about her bike and I mentioned what had happened. She replied "Oh thank you Mama! I really appreciate that and it was so sweet of Papa to put them on and so considerate of you to go out and buy them for me while I was in preschool".

I wasn't looking for a reason but I've been given one. Apparently the reason I've been so incredibly fatigued for a while is my haemoglobin levels are really low. After I had my blood taken I felt woozy too (which I've never had before) and that afternoon I looked like someone had drawn half moons under my eyes with black texta. Combine that with the bruise from my blown vein and I looked like a right junkie. Oh yeah, a pregnant junkie is an impressive look. I've bought some Floradix though and should hopefully be feeling a little more energetic soon.

First Day of Preschool!

*sigh* I just feel so sorry for all of you reading this blog. You may have children and love them very much. Or you may not have children at all and be extremely thankful for it. But I still feel so sorry for you that none of you are the parent of Harriet. Because on days like today I am amazed and excited and proud and so in love with her. She is just such an interesting, fun, mature, interactive person, and lately she has been amazing to be around.

Last night she was pretty excited about going to preschool today. You know, just a little. We chose her outfit for the day (read: she chose her outfit), laid it out ready to put on in the morning. I did have to have a little conversation with her about the skirt/shorts thing, because she is very adamant about wearing skirts and dresses lately (due to wanting to be Liesl from TSOM). But after a little incident at a local park where she got a nasty graze from sliding down some bumpy rubber, she has finally understood that shorts are a little more practical for playing in. We also washed her hair ready for the plaits the next day and made sure she could open and close all of the containers in her lunchbag (has a little lion on it, will have to take a photo of her preschool accoutrement, they're very cute).

You have to provide morning tea in a separate bag to stop the children from eating everything all at once in the morning and being left starving at lunch. Not really a problem for us though as it turned out. Harriet ate her peach and nectarine but left the boiled egg. Then at lunch she ate one bite of her mountain bread and natural yoghurt wrap (which is normally one of her favourite foods), and two crackers. That was it. No more. She was obviously way too excited and busy to eat anything else. However on the way home in the car she devoured her little salad, some dried fruit and her little container of ravioli. Then she came home and ate a whole adult-sized homemade pizza (of which I only ate half of a same-sized one) and even needed a banana on top of that as well. So we'll be making sure we have some protein-heavy dinners on preschool nights I think!


We received two little 'paintings' which consist of four miniscule pieces of paper stuck on to a large piece of A4. Her minimalist approach to art continues unabashed. She sang a song in French (Frere Jacques) which was a hot topic of discussion on the way to the car. Her class holds two language groups - French and Japanese, so often they end up learning some of the other language through group songs and just being with the other children which is great. Harriet was also fascinted by the fact that some of the children had a sleep at preschool. Of course sleep is the great unknown with this child, some mysterious dance performed by others and which only happens TO her, definitely not WITH her. So when she got home all of her doll beds were engaged with dolls who were children sleeping. Then they all had mysterious cuts and scrapes that required immediate bandaging (we bought a First Aid kit the other day which had lots of bandages in it - one was immediately appropriated by Harry).


She asked us why she couldn't sleep at preschool and about how Melissa (her teacher) was being silly saying that the water in the toilets comes on by 'magic' (she's not one to indulge magic/fantasy issues that's for sure). Her teacher is a new graduate, which I'm thrilled about. It means she's come through with the latest research and information, is eager to impress and young enough to have the energy and enthusiasm that her job would require. Harriet loves her after one day which is always a bonus too. Another cute point I want to remember is that when I went in to sign her out from class, they are all sitting on the mat with their heads on the ground. Then they wait until they hear you calling out their name and lift their heads up to come with you. It was so sweet to see Harry all curled up like a bug on the floor, of course she was right into it.

So today was fantastic. James and I also had a wonderful day - ended up sitting with one of the other parents for over two hours having coffee (well, I had a juice thing) and realising we had lots in common (always nice). Then it was time for lunch, then off to the movies (saw The Ip Man which, if you like Chinese martial arts films is a good one to go and see at the cinema if you can) and then time for pick-up.

Someone once mentioned to me that parenthood is all about going to pick up your child from school or calling out their name in a playground and being eternally grateful that THEY are the child you're taking home and not any other child there. Today I felt like that. Harriet, you are just a wonderful person and you make me happier than I could have imagined.

Edit (by Jimbo): the second day was much the same as the first, only now Harriet wants the teacher (Melissa) to come and visit all the time. She's also pretty keen on going to pre-school five days a week! I think we might leave that one for kindergarten in a couple of years time...