photos for the local newspaper

We had nominated one of our beautiful nurses from the Royal Children's for a Pride of Australia medal - last October (after we had spent the day together with Jodie doing an endocrine test on little one - for 4 hours of bloods and toe pricks).

In the last few weeks we had some photos of taken for our local newspaper and I couldn't be prouder of our boy and Jodie.

The photo looked great and I am praying and hoping that her nomination will be one of the top three in the State as then she will go through to Australia wide nominations.  She really deserves to be recognised for her work and also to be a representation of our amazing nurses at the Royal... fingers crossed.

Here is a link (hopefully) to the article: Pride of Australia nomination for our nurse Jodie

P.S. Photos courtesy of soon to be 6 year old son!

a very pretty distraction

images from Cote De Texax blog... thank you for making my week

Escaping from my ho-hum week of suburban wife/motherhood, I have been escaping in to the 'It's Complicated' house.  This would be my dream home.  I would even forgo a Cape Cod dream house or my Formosa Road dream house for THIS house!

Trying to live in the moment and be mindful of my time and days, although it has been hard this week.  School holidays start on Saturday and I am dreaming of the squally winter coastline of Northern New South Wales just a little too much.

Three weeks to go...

Getting very cranky with the arm splints.  Nearly three weeks done - three to go!  The countdown is on.

First fete... just getting used to this whole school thing!

First fete prep ever.  I can't believe that my Mum and Dad this every year for what feels like forever! Plus the netball/swimming/triathlon support, help, baking and set up/pack up.  How do I ever even begin to repay my parents?

Very daunting and my only contribution is baking and preserve making (first time for both).  As long as it does not have my name on, surely I can not be held responsible for food poising/botulism?

1. Nightfury (or commonly called Toothless) was taken on an amazing adventure courtesy of little one's arm splints velcro.
2. Middle one.
3. Gelison our new adopted Orangutan courtesy of my beautiful Aunt.
4. Starting work on finding little one the best infant team of Allied Health in the 'outside' world.  They may be the most amazing physio, speechy or OT but I need them to suit little one and that is the tricky part.

Friday photos

Big boy has been completely exhausted, middle one seems to be settling in to our routine (and going to music lessons on his own) and little one is nearly pain free but annoyed with his arm splints.

Cleft palate repair day

Little one had his cleft palate repaired (all of his soft palate and a little bit of the hard) last Thursday.  It feels like a milestone for us as this was the first thing discovered and then it will be our last big operation.  Our boy was gone for five hours while they worked on him and we went for a drive to get a few things done for the business.  My anxiety was bad the further we drove from the hospital but in general I thought I coped very well.  We only had two nights in PICU and were able to come home on the Saturday morning.

He is amazing to watch with his little arm splints on and they are not as bad as what we were expecting.  He can still use his arms and move around like normal.

His pain was bad yesterday afternoon and we sat on the couch together snuggling and watching TV.

His pain tolerance is amazing.  He smiles, gets on with things and know sounds like a baby lion cub.

We are one step closer to completely no more admissions.

It's been too long...

I am making a comeback... it has been too long between drinks.

We have been home since 6 January 2013 (only with one hospital admission for surgery within that time).  It is amazing, 'normal feeling' and lovely to finally have my three babies at home with us.  I now have three washing piles, three washing baskets and three beds to make.

Little one is coming along beautifully and has a funky vpap machine (variable positive airway pressure... similar to cpap/bipap) that I think I am contributing much of his growth too... not that I am going to admit it to our respiratory doctors just yet, as I was very adamant that I didn't want him to have it.  He is amazing and celebrated his second birthday last week - out of hospital this year!

So in love with our babes! And its so nice to be consistently at home in our own beds.