Big One Month Old!

Flynn is now a big one month old!

The past four weeks have gone in a flash! But to recap on what's been happening: (Skip the next paragraph if you prefer not to read about cracked nipples etc - and prepare yourself for a few months of baby-focussed blogging)

Weeks One and Two:
We brought Flynn home after two nights at the hospital. He was slightly jaundiced but that soon cleared up. I was feeling pretty good and it was pretty exciting bringing him home and starting our new lives as parents.


By Friday (day 4) I had developed cracked nipples due to Flynn's ferocious suck-power. They were excruciatingly painful and feeding every two hours was not conducive to healing. (Note to prospective mothers: get some nipple shields and see a lactation consultant before the first week is out).

Then on day 6 I got mastitis - a milk duct infection that gives you flu-like symptoms (fever, aches and pains) and a sore, hard, red boob - Insult to injury really. That was not a pleasant few days. However, the tips i picked up from the lactation consultants were very handy, the antibiotics for the mastitis kicked in, and a week later things were coming right - a great relief since I could not have gone on breastfeeding with things as they were.

When Flynn was 11 days old Blake had to go away for work (Switzerland and Indonesia) - for 10 days! Flynn and I were pretty disgusted but fortunately we had Julia to help (Blake's mum) or things would have been tough.

Weeks Three and Four:
Flynn has really changed over the past two weeks, becoming much more alert and interested in his surroundings. He is putting on weight (a whole kg) and has become stronger and more robust. He still feeds every two hours round the clock so I am getting used to sleep deprivation but it's not that bad most days. There is the odd day when I feel really tired though. Blake helps out on weekend nights but during the week it's me on night shift. The feeding is now easy and painless though, thank god for that!

He has started smiling and interacting more and loves trying to climb up your body if you lay him face down on your stomach. He's very cute but he's high-maintenance (takes after his father). He doesn't like sleeping on his own, insisting instead on being in someone's arms (rather than the pram, bouncer, cot etc) - this makes getting stuff done pretty hard when you're on your own. Thankfully having Julia here means I can get a shower, eat and get some time to check emails, go to the gym, etc.

 

Online gambling again

 

Sharp nails call for a manicure

Flynn loves dancing and singing with grandma

One, two, three - sleep...

Mall Rat

This week Blake went to Tokyo for two days but now he is around for a whole three weeks, which will be nice over Christmas. We're hanging out at home on Christmas Day, having a big Xmas dinner and drinking champers (oh joy, it's great to be drinking again!). We may have a couple of people drop in for a drink and we may visit some others, depends how young Flynn is feeling really. We're going to a kiwi bbq on Boxing Day, should be fun.

They package their trees up nicely here (it's a real one, in a sock!)

(the 'before' shot)

The 'after' shot

Took Flynn to my (old) work's Xmas party

(he's wearing his little Santa's Helper suit)

Note: Flynn's favourite thing in the world is being cuddled while sucking on your finger.

Facebook Flynn

I've just set up a Facebook account so we can share more pics (and videos) of the lad. So if you'd like to see more add Blake Mackie as a friend on www.facebook.com

And more importantly after a fair amount of baby name Googling we've chosen Gabriel as Flynn's middle name. As you read this i'm sure he will be indulging in one of his three favourite pursuits - pooing, eating or sleeping.

Flynn Mackie

Blake says:
We've got a beautiful boy! I'm really proud of my wife for doing such a great job of delivering little Flynn.

On Tuesday morning I woke up at 7am and said good morning to Adrianne, who happened to mention that her waters had broken an hour ago. In the following hours there was not much happening so I went downstairs to the gym.


Adrianne came down 40 minutes after I left and told me that the contractions had started. I'm glad she did because 20 minutes later she was on her hands and knees groaning like a cow in the back seat of a cab on the way to the hospital.


All of her drug free birth discussions went out the window as soon as we got to the hospital as the epidural was applied and had the desired effect. Four hours of not very much happening was followed by a half hour of pushing and little Flynn coming out. I won't go into the details (though I'm sure Adrianne will) but I'm thrilled to say that both Mum and boy are very well.




It was such a privilege to see Flynn born, the best moment of my life and something that i'll never forget - particularly as we took a few hundred pics, the best of which are below.


Adrianne says:
My waters broke at 6am and I waited in excitement for Blake's alarm to go off at 7am, to tell him that he didn't need to get up for work! Nothing happened from then until about 10am, when I got a few sporadic mild contractions and then a couple of stronger ones.


I went down to the gym (in our building) and told Blake I thought he should come up soon as things were starting to happen. (The books tell you that your contractions will start becoming more regular and frequent and stronger - ie every 15 mins, then 10, then 5 etc.)


However, by the time we got back upstairs I started getting very painful contractions suddenly coming every 2 minutes, then every 1 minute! You are supposed to go to the hospital when your contractions reach 5 mins apart but since mine had started straight in at 2 mins, we made haste to the hospital.


By the time we arrived (a 3 min drive) I was in agony, the pain was excruciating and I had indeed abandoned any aspirations for a natural birth. I was already in active labour at this point, halfway to the pushing stage in one hour - very fast progress. About an hour and a half later I was at pushing stage but had by then been given a massive dose of epidural (oh sweet relief!) and so could not feel the urge to push (or anything below my chest in fact).

Happy girl with her epidural (obstetrician on left)

So we waited around for 3 hours for some sensation to return - listening to music, watching TV, marvelling at how dead my legs were - but the sensation didn't return so eventually I just had to try pushing without feeling - quite strange and hard. But it eventually worked with the assistance of two nurses pushing down on my stomach and me doing ab crunches to try to push him out. Meanwhile Blake was doing a fine job of cheering me on and coaching my pushes.

And then we finally met little Flynn, which was awesome and a great relief it was all over! Blake, Flynn and I then chilled out for the next hour in the delivery suite, before retiring to our room for a bit of R and R.


Today is Flynn's fifth day in the world and he is a lovely little fella. He likes being up all night and chilling all day and his favourite past time is drinking - just like his father.

Kiwi cot

Looking like a pixie at the weigh in - he was 3.02kg (6.6 pounds)
and 48 cm long. He arrived at 4.28pm on Tuesday 20th November.

 

Mohawk - check out how long his hair is!

 

 

Flynn having a laugh with a wave in our first family photo

 

 

The Lads

More photos will follow...

Dragon Boat Race Day

After a few months of training we had the annual Singapore River Dragon Boat festival a couple of weekends ago, which is the key event that our team (the Aussie team) aim at for the year. To cut a long story short I was lucky enough to get into a great boat and we won through to the Expat final. The final was a very close race and we ended up winning gold by 0.15 of a second, and our other boat came in 2nd place. Great result, very happy team and a great night celebrating. A few pics below.

Race start

Race finish (we're number 3)

Coming in

Prizegiving drink

Waiting game...

Yes it's now a waiting game - Flynn was due on Saturday but clearly he's comfy where he is.

Blake's mum, Julia, arrived last week and will be helping us out when Flynn decides to make an appearance. In the meantime we are enjoying hanging out around Singapore and amusing ourselves with scrabble and such.



On Saturday we went to Sentosa Island to meet up with Blake after he finished outrigging practice (a relative of dragon boating) and then to a mexican restaurant for dinner. Yesterday we went for a walk at Macritchie Reservoir.

Hopefully there will be a more interesting blog by the end of the week!

Check out my huge belly

I have really grown heaps in the past few weeks - Check out the difference between me at 34 weeks (lower photo) and me now at 37 weeks!

Flynn's estimated date of arrival is 17th November, but babies are considered full term at 37 weeks so he could come any time between now and 42 weeks (really hoping he doesn't decide to be a 42 weeker). I am feeling good though a little less energetic, much hotter and I have a few extra aches and pains in the back.

37 weeks

34 weeks

Cat on Tour

Last week it was great to have my good friend Cat visit Singapore on the way home from spending five weeks in Europe, tiki-touring around and checking out the World Cup.

Though devastated by the All Black loss, she's not one to wallow in misery and we were soon tiki-touring round Singapore to see some of the sights.

Macritchie Reservoir was on the agenda so Cat could check out the Macaque monkeys. She got more than she bargained for when one of them nicked her mobile phone out of her bag and ran off! We chased it and it eventually dropped it while taking off up a hill.

On the Saturday we headed out for gourmet burgers and micro-brewery beers at Brewerkz and then to the comedy club for a great night's entertainment.

Sentosa Island's always a good place to visit - a tourist island you can reach via bridge or shuttle train - with beautiful white sand beaches and lots of touristy things to do and see.

It was damn hot so Blake thoughtfully suggested we head to Cafe del Mar, a bar/club on the seafront that has a pool in the outdoor area, DJs playing pumping beats and where we could refresh ourselves with a few nice mohitos, caipairinas, Hoegartens - or non-alcoholic beverages for those in the family way.

We hung out there for a couple hours and then headed to Chinatown to pick up some souvenirs and grab a bite to eat.

Sadly, Cat and Blake then headed to the airport, Cat bound for Australia, Blake bound for Kuala Lumpur, and I stayed home to pack my hospital bag (yes, only three weeks to go!).

Viv Teo on Tour

We recently got an email from young Braden mentioning his mate from NZ - Viv - who would be spending some time with rellies in Singapore, enroute back home to NZ.

He reckoned she was pretty cool and we should catch up, so we did and he was right, she was pretty cool!

We headed down to Clarke Quay one Sat night and had dinner at an awesome Indonesian restaurant, that happens to do great cocktails too. After food and cocktails we went to Indochine for some even more interesting drinks. Blake's self-imposed mission was to identify (and sample) the most alcoholic beverage on each menu. Needless to say, mission accomplished.

We then took at walk down Boat Quay in search of a bar with some good eye-candy, but ended up in a football-dominated English-style pub where the eye candy could only be described as old, fat and appalling. Poor Viv did not get to see Singapore's finest that night.

The following week we headed out on a Thursday night, had a drink at Ink Bar (ah, just like home), and the Equinox, which is a bar/club at the the 70th floor of a high rise building - great views obviously and good drinks, even if the orange juice does cost $12!

Equinox Bar

After that we headed to the Chijmes restaurant area, to Esmerillda's, for sangria and the most delicious Paella you have ever eaten.

We're hoping Viv didn't find us too weird and that she'll come hang out with us on her next trip to visit the rellies!

Matt and Louis on Tour

A couple of weeks ago we caught up with Matt and Louis on their way back from Europe and Thailand.

It was great to see the boys and we even managed to gatecrash Louis' familys' BBQ in the process of meeting up with them.

Matt, Blake, Nick and Louis

(Grey is the new black)

After watching a bit of the rugby Blake took the boys out on the town so as to send them on their way (back to NZ, at the crack of dawn the next morning) feeling even worse (after many days of drinking) than they already did.

The boys didn't quite last until the tragic All Blacks game at 3am, but Blake did and then came home at 5am - crashing around the house, cursing and slamming cupboards. I didn't need to ask who had won.

Thailand!

Last week we arrived back from a wonderful week in Thailand.

 

They call it a babymoon - the last holiday before your first baby arrives and nothing is ever the same again. We just scraped in before the airlines won't let pregnant women fly anymore - they're not keen on in-flight deliveries and I wasn't keen on one either.

September is the end of the rainy season for Thailand which makes it a great time to go - if you are prepared to risk the odd bit of rain. We were really lucky, the rain only affected one day and it was great with so few other tourists around.

We arrived in Phuket and stayed at CC Bloom's which is a boutique hotel in the hills of Kata Beach. It is run by two gay American guys who pay fastidious attention to detail - the rooms were spacious and lovely and our stay was awesome.

Welcome-drink time

 

 

The boudoir

 

The pool

Beside the pool (restaurant) and Blake's still-pale legs

 

 

Can you tell the proprietors are gay?

The local beaches are Kata and Karon, both beautiful white-sand beaches with clear (and bath-warm) water We spent most of our time in Phuket exploring, swimming, walking, reading, playing at the beach and eating.

Morning of arrival - beer o'clock

We checked out Kata beach on the first day and spent hours playing in the full-on waves - lots of fun with a slight edge of danger as there were some holes in the sand and some wickedly strong waves. We even saw a woman being pulled out toward the rocks, waving for the lifeguards. They took off with their lifesaving flutter boards to rescue her, but she managed to get swept back in to shore.

Checkin out the water

It was so hot, we were swimming for ages and acquired some excellent tan lines. So then it was recovery time on the sun loungers, such a hard life.

Looking to the hillside on our right, the grey-roofed building on the beach is a restaurant called On the Rocks - this was where we had dinner first night - was fantastic.

At 'On the Rocks', Blake enjoys a nice Long Island Iced Tea

 


And Adrianne enjoys a lovely water

A few days later we took the ferry to Ko Phi Phi for the day, enroute to Krabi where were staying for three nights.

It was interesting for Blake to see Ko Phi Phi post-tsunami as he had been there a few years prior with some of the Nelson lads.

It's apparently quite different in layout with most of the buildings being new, and quite a bit of construction still going on. Having not been there before, I wouldn't have known what had happened by looking at it - most of it is rebuilt and done very well. But there were quite a few shops/bars, etc showing pre and post-tsunami shots of the island and it was pretty much wiped out.

 

Ko Phi Phi harbour

 

Amazing beaches!

 

 

The scene of past boyish crimes, apparently

So then it was off to Krabi. Neither of us had been there before and we pleased to find that lived up to its descriptions. Once again our hotel (Duang Jai Resort) was fantastic and very, very quiet with so few tourists about. Our room was huge and overlooked the pool.






On the day we chose to do an island tour, the weather chose not to cooperate. It was fine and sunny until we got on the boat, but then the clouds of doom descended and it was clear we were in for some serious rain.

Our boat was not flash - it had a roof but no sides and before long we were zooming along (accompanied by four thai tourists and a japanese couple) with the rain beating down in torrents - we were instantly soaked but it was okay because the water was very warm so we just parked up at different beaches and islands and went swimming.

The highlight was the snorkelling part at a marine reserve. the sun came out and there were hundreds of beautiful fish and corals all around. As we were snorkelling our driver threw bread crumbs all around us and the fish swarmed around our faces and bodies so you were literally face-to-face with dozens of beautiful striped fish. (Hint - don't put your hand out, they bite and it hurts.)

 

Hey, Zoro!

 

During the short sunny patch, we headed to another beautiful island for lunch. The sun was great and really warmed us up as it was getting a bit cold being wet all day and then being on the windy boat. But as you can see from the clouds behind Blake, there was more rain in store.

 

We scarpered back to the boat as the monsoon rains came down again and then didn't stop for another couple of hours. By this time the enjoyment was waning as we were saturated and cold and had had enough of swimming anyway. Fortunately after sheltering at one beach for about an hour, the driver took us back early which was a relief because I was freezing cold by this point and also had heartburn and toothache.

 

We went back home and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening recovering, before it was time to go out and eat (yet again) another amazing thai meal. Then the next day we were winging it reluctantly back to Singapore.  I can't wait for our next trip there, but next time we'll be travelling with 20kg worth of nappies and baby gear!