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.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
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.
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.
Friday, November 23, 2007
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).
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
The Lads
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.
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...
Monday, November 19, 2007
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
Sunday, November 18, 2007
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!
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!
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