What's new?

Well, it has been a while since the last update - and quite a bit has been happening. David went back to the doctor's for another injection on Tuesday 13 December - this time for pneumoccocal. He didn't like it very much, but got through it well. We weighed David, and now he weighs 5.15kgs lightly clothed, which should be 5kgs bare weight. Not bad for 11 weeks. David is still looking long & lean - no sign of Michelin man yet. He is feeding well, and in this hot weather he is feeding more often, "snacking" all afternoon if he is not asleep. I am expressing some breast milk so that he can have an extra feed in the evening, when he seems to get very hungry.

David is also sleeping through more - generally about six hours. So last night, he had a feed finishing at midnight, then slept until 5.50am. Other nights he skips the late (10.00pm to 12.00am) feed and sleeps through from 9.00pm until 3.00 or 4.00am. Unfortunately, I can't always tell which feed he will skip, and get off to bed early. Sometimes I am waking up at 2.00 or 3.00am, while he is sleeping. The real bonus is that I am getting him back to sleep after the morning feed for another couple of hours. If I can get a couple more hours sleep myself it makes all the difference. This morning, after the 6.00am feed, a shower and another feed, David slept for over three hours. We have moved the bassinet into the cot, out of our room and David doesn't seem to mind at all. Tonight we are going to try him sleeping in the cot alone.

Dad finally finished travelling, returning from Melbourne on Tuesday evening. It was unusual to have Dad around on a weekday, and awake to see David in the morning. This morning (Friday 16th) Dad took David into the shower for the very first time. David liked it! He seemed to enjoy having the water spray on his face & being held by Dad. Apparently this is good training for babies before taking them swimming - it gets them used to water on their face.

David went to his first Christmas party on Thursday 15th. We were invited by Aspect to join their Christmas party, at Hunter's Hill Bowling Club. A hot and windy afternoon & evening, but lovely. David was the youngest there, but not the only baby. He checked out Madison, who is four and a half months old, and looking very pretty. Zac and Hayden (sons of Sam and Dave respectively) who are three and a half were very impressed with David. David had a marvellous time, looking at everything and all the new people. He is very social, with big wide eyes and loves being nursed and being able to see and be involved in the conversation and seeing what is happening.

From a development point of view, David is getting a little more advanced every week. He is moving around more on the ground, and noticeably getting more co-ordinated with his hands. He is grasping and holding things more, for example, he pulls his dummy out of his mouth and then holds it in his fingers.

In relation to the dummy, it is interesting that sometimes he is interested and will suck the dummy, while other times he prefers his hand or thumb, and will reject the dummy entirely. Apparently, it is a developmental milestone that he can distinguish his thumb and suck it (rather than just his fist) so instead of being worried about the thumbsucking, I should be proud!

Today we all went out to lunch, for the Bstar Christmas lunch, at the Barn restaruant, just up the road from both our home & the office. David was very well behaved (of course) and generally regarded by Sharon and Louise as pretty well perfect, and an intrinsic part of the team.

David is finding the hot weather a bit trying. We have had one impossible day (39C) and quite a lot of unpleasant weather - for example, today it was 31C and it is humid and 30C tonight, with some thundery rain just starting (hopefully to cool the air down). We have been coping by sponging David down with a cool damp washer and dressing as lightly as possible. Dad just told me that he has taken David out into the rain and he liked the few drops falling on his face!

Coming up, we will see Annie and David Haselhurst and their daughter Nada on Monday 19 December for afternoon tea - more cousins! Then we will be off to WA for Christmas and to see lots more relatives. We are not sure what to expect from the long flight to Perth (5 hours), hopefully it will be fine! More news later!!

Milestones at Ten Weeks

This is David saying "It's my bottle and I'll hold it if I want to! Just don't even think about taking it away."

Well, David is 10 weeks old today and we are celebrating two milestones reached yesterday.

David has rolled for the first time! Not witnessed by either of his parents however. David had fallen asleep whilst feeding, so I put him, complete with pillow on the floor, on his quilt. He woke up later, and was making a few noises, but was otherwise fine, so I thought that I would finish the washing up, before picking him up. A few minutes later he started to cry, with a different note. Looking over I realised that he had made his way off the pillow, onto the floor, on his front and at right angles to the pillow! He was a little upset because he was face down in the quilt. He didn't seem to appreciate the enormity of being mobile - he just wanted to be comforted and fed. Well, we've been expecting it, but it always happens when you don't expect it.

The other milestone is that David has graduated to big boy nappies, from Newborn size to Infant. More capacity, for those times when David is working hard on filling his nappy.

More generally, everything is now going into his mouth - in particular, toys and his fist and his thumb. At present he doesn't seem to have a favourite, and his fist or thumb can be replaced by a dummy, but we will just have to see if that continues. He is reaching out and pulling toys to him in his pram or on the floor - but not yet grabbing them from us when we wave them at him.

Paul was home over the weekend and David seemed to be both more excited to have dad around and a bit more grizzly. As you can see, he was happy to have Dad feed him though!

The weather has changed again here in Sydney, from cool and unsettled to very hot and unsettled. David doesn't seem to like the hot weather too much and has been grizzly again today (over 30C). Hopefully that will change as we all get used to the summer weather! Paul is travelling again this week but will be back for the weekend, before heading down to Melbourne for a short trip. That should then be all the business travelling until the new year - we just have to get ready for the trip to Wagin for Christmas.

Here are the party photos

Here are the photos of David from the party - I haven't managed to load them in the blog of 25 November.

As you can see, David was very social and popular - going out of his way to use his charm, particularly with blondes! These photos show him with Sue and Grace.

Update at 1 December

Well, it is the first day of summer in Sydney and after a week of rain, the sun shone! The rain has been good news, with the dam capacity actually increasing by 1.5% this week to 41.6%. Mostly, we have dodged the showers when getting out in the pram. However, I did regret not having a big plastic cover for the pram - one of the things that we haven't needed to date, because of the drought.

David had his 2 month immunisation injection on Tuesday 29 November - or most of it. He had the BIG shot, with 7 or so vaccines in it - triple antigen, HIB, HepB etc. but the GP & I decided to leave the pneumococcl for a couple more weeks. Mostly because David is still very small, and because he cried a lot. Less traumatic for us all. David also bled a little - his first band aid. I removed it fairly quickly, as the GP warned against leaving it on as it may cause sensitivity (to the glue, I assume). However, after a feed and filling a very big nappy, David appeared fine. I was warned that he could be a little dopey and he did have a nap. He was so fine that we dropped in to see our previous next door neighbour, Val in East Balmain. Val was home and loved meeting David. David was (once again) very well behaved and impressed Val greatly.

We attended the mother's group on Wednesday morning, this time at the Barn Cafe (rather than Balmain Early Childhood Centre). It was lovely to see everyone, and most (9 of 11) mothers managed to get to the coffee meeting. David is still smaller than a lot of the other babies, but very alert and interested in everything he sees. It was noticeable that there were two types of customers at the cafe - women only tables, principally mothers with babies and men only tables, principally men in suits discussing business. Generally, the mothers' tables looked as though they were having more fun.

This last photo was taken today - as you can see, David is now chuckling. It is one of the nicest things that he wakes up happy!

Update at 2 months of age

Well, David is now two months old. He weighed 4.5kgs as at Wednesday 23 November. Extremely hard to believe that it is now two months since the birth. David is progressing well and due to have his next lot of immunisation injections tomorrow. Hopefully it will go without any problems. The GP has suggested injecting him in his buttock as he has long lean legs (generally the injections are given in the thigh).

David is developing every day. Most of the developments are not noticeable unless you area parent or spend a great deal of time with him. For example, David is now blowing bubbles.

More interestingly, he is paying more attention to his toys and everything else. When David goes out in his pram, he has pram toys - a rattle shaped like a teddy, a small soft teddy and the white mouse (doudou). Now David reacts to them all quite strongly, and often moves them around in the pram, or falls asleep hugging them.

David is also very vocal - making lots of new sounds every day, and imitating us. He also reacts very strongly to new sounds - and we have been rolling our "rrr"s at him for the last few days. Today he was working on imitating the rolling "rrrr"s. He often imitates Paul's intonation, even if he can't get any words out yet.

David wakes up happy and smiling and is basically happy if there is nothing bothering him. He is sleeping more again, after having almost a week of only having catnaps during the day. Interesting to see if he is growing more. Last night he slept for 5 hours and then went back to sleep after the feed for another 2 hours. Much better than the 4 hour (in total) nights earlier in the week!!

This is a photo of David being bathed by Dad, and showing how tough he can be. We keep telling him that his kick is a weapon, and that he must use his powers of karate for good, not evil!

Update at 8 weeks plus

Well, it has been over a week since the last post, so an update is due. Exciting things from the last week - David has visited the paediatrician, and gone to his first party!

The doctor's visit confirmed that all is fine with David. He was born a little under average weight and remains a little under the median. He is also a little longer than median, and continues to be long and lean. David behaved perfectly for the doctor, even giving her a lovely smile- he tends to behave perfectly for all strangers, who believe that he is perfect. (We agree!)

Other things of note are that David's work on developing his neck seems to be paying off. the doctor remarked that he was strong and that his neck muscles were well developed - he may start to try rolling any time now. (Note: external, expert confirmation that he IS very advanced for his age!).

Also noteworthy this week. David has started blowing bubbles. Just enough to be cute and not enough to look as though he is frothing at the mouth. He has also learnt to "tear up" when he cries. Only his left eye as yet, but it does add another dimension to the anguish. He is a little heavier - he weighed 4.50kgs (clothed weight) on 23 November 2005.

David has also attended his first party - Phil Hurley's birthday drinks. David appeared to win hands down as the most attractive man in the room, based on all the women clustered around him. Again, he appeared to really enjoy meeting new people and enjoyed being nursed by Sue and Grace. Later he had a small snack and then went off to sleep in his pram in Patrick's bedroom, thus avoiding upstaging the birthday boy, and establishing a reputation as being perfect, as well as cute. I think that the big feed of milk he had before he went to the party may have also helped.

David has had his first bottle feed this week, of expressed breast milk. The most exciting part was that this time Dad was able to feed David. David took to the bottle without any trouble, and in fact grabbed it with both hands. He certainly can drink it more quickly from the bottle. This allows us to practice for when his mum may not be there for demand feeding, and for travelling.

Also noteworthy is that tonight (25 November) David had his first giggle, to dad (or at dad, we're not quite sure). I think dad was even happier than David.

I haven't been able to upload the photos to go with this blog - not sure why. Please refer to the blog with the party photos.

Quick update at seven weeks

This is just a quick note - David was weighed today and is now 4.450kgs, clothed weight. This has increased from 3.680CW on 20 October 2005.

He is progressing well (as you can see from the other photos). While we don't really notice it, because we see him every day, it is noticeable that he is also getting longer. David is wearing the Safari suit again today, as we have had a cool change in Sydney (max temp 21C) and his legs now stick out the bottom of the suit! His legs are still slender though.

I wish I could say that he is sleeping through the night, but he isn't. On the bright side though, he is generally sleeping for at least 4 hours at a stretch. He is also generally happy, and we haven't had any more screaming fit days, so it is all good!

More about David - six weeks plus

Well, we arrived back in Sydney on Thursday 10 November. After being very tired (like his parents) on reaching home, and having a day recouperating, David has recovered well after the excitement of visiting another State and meeting lots of family for the first time. The photo of David resting on Paul's arm is showing how satisfying it can be to recover from travelling - and how a new position can be just perfect. On Saturday afternoon, this was the only position David felt was comfortable!

We should note a major milestone - David slept through the night for the first time at exactly 6 weeks, on Tuesday 8 November - which means 7 hours straight! While it hasn't been repeated, David has slept for 5 hours on a few nights and is having more short naps during the day. David is getting bigger and longer. David is also getting more interesting - more definite in his reactions, bigger smiles, lots of kicking, (particularly when happy or excited) and he is showing signs of being ticklish. David also has more co-ordination in his arms - he waves and bashes away and rings the bells in his toys more strongly every day, so it is intentional, just not yet smooth and controlled.



On the weekend, David received a parcel (after we pressed Australia Post they found the parcel) containing a new puppy soft toy from the Robert family in Perth - and this is a photo of David, on his changing pad, "monstering" the puppy, and then deciding that he liked to nuzzle him. It was remarkable just how excited he was to see the puppy - he knew that it was new and reacted to the puppy's softness. Lots of fun.

David and his grandparents

David is extremely lucky and has three lovely grandparents, Reg, Josie and Jan. They all think that David is wonderful, very clever and very advanced for his age! Also, that David is beautiful (how could anyone disagree?).

So far, David's Nana (Josie) has made him beautiful crocheted pram rugs and muslin/gauze wraps and knitted caps and cardigans for him. His gran (Jan) has also made him lots of lovely things, such as embroided sheets and pillow slips and lovely quilts.

Jan arrived in Sydney the day that David was born and stayed to help his parents for five weeks.




Jan had a lovely time and got to see David both at his perfect best, and when he is grumpy. We all love going for walks, including David. David slept through all of his walks up to the age of six weeks - the best settling routine ever! The photos of David and Jan were taken when David was three and five weeks of age respectively. You may have difficulty seeing David in the shot outside in the pram, but rest assured that he is in fact hiding in the pram, out of the sun.




Nanna and Pop (Reg) met David when he was almost 6 weeks old, on 30 October 2005 on his first trip away, to Melbourne. David handled the trip in the car from Sydney to Melbourne (and return) with great aplomb - did I mention that he is very advanced for his age?


These photos were taken during his stay in Melbourne, and at 6 weeks of age. The photo of David and his Pop is a photo of the oldest and youngest Haselhursts getting to know each other.

David at three weeks

David at three weeks of age, and showing how good he is when asleep.

This is a photo of David asleep in his pram, and showing safari suits can still make a fashion statement. The suit was a present from Emanuela. It also shows off his very long fingers and large hands. Not sure where he gets those from.

His grandmother thinks that this comes from her mother's side of the family - David's great grandmother had big hands.


The other photo shows David, in his pram with a lovely flower arrangement that was sent by the Law Council after Linda and David were home from hospital - Linda is on the Financial Services Committee of the LCA.

David - first 2 hours

These photos were taken by Paul just after the birth.


David was very happy until he was being weighed, when he yelled a little. David was very long - officially 50 cms, but Paul thought he was a little longer, just refusing to stretch out to be measured.

David has long fingers and loves waving his arms around and kicking.

The Birth Story

David was born on Tuesday 27 September 2005 at Prince of Wales Private Hospital in Randwick. He surprised both of us as his parents and the midwife, by arriving a little quicker than anticipated.

David was originally supposed to be arriving on 14 September, but his due date was later revised to 19 September. Unfortunately, no-one checked with David. When he hadn't arrived by 22 September, his parents and Dr Grey scheduled Linda to be induced on Tuesday 27 September. Linda was due to be admitted to hospital on Monday evening, and Jan (Linda's mum) was due to arrive from Wagin at 4.30pm. Well, it all started to happen on Monday. Linda started to have "cramps" (lets not call them contractions) at around 9.30am, but they weren't strong enough or regular enough to call them contractions. Paul came home from work in the afternoon and we waited until it was time to pick up Jan at the airport. By 4.00pm we were pretty sure Linda was in labour. Then Jan's arrival was delayed to 7.00pm - Jan's plane eventually arrived at 6.30pm, and was picked up at the airport by Paul and Linda. By that stage Linda was definitely in labour, and she was not staying home waiting for them to arrive. Jan was dropped off at home, and then Paul and Linda went straight to the hospital.

We arrived and said that Linda was in labour - no-one was convinced. After being hooked up to a monitor for over half an hour, the midwife agreed that labour had definitely started, and after checking with Dr Grey, didn't have to have the gel to be induced. But the midwife said that Linda was only slightly dialated, and that it would all take a very long time. Linda was using a TENS machine to manage the contractions pain, and as instructed, had started it early (from around 3.30 / 4.00pm). Linda didn't want any pethidine, but had an open mind about everying else. So, Linda thought that she would try some gas but the midwife (Mandy) said that it was very tiring to use the gas (and Linda would be using for hours) so not to start too early - so no gas yet. Unfortunately, Linda was feeling nauseous and soon after was sick. Shortly afterwards at around 10.30 pm, Linda was offered some panedeine forte, but couldn't face any tablets. The midwife said she would check in later and see how things were going.

By the time Mandy came back at around midnight, Linda was having no break at all between contractions, and as she came back Linda started to have some really bad contractions. Rather than offer panedeine forte, Mandy said that Linda should consider an epidural, as she needed a way of managing the pain from contractions. Paul agreed, as Linda was really starting to get a bit distressed. After a fairly short discussion over contractions, Linda said OK and the midwife went off to call the anethestist. When she came back, she wanted to examine Linda and it was about this stage that Linda's waters finally broke, during a contraction. Mandy examined Linda and as she could feel the baby's head, changed her mind as to how long it was going to take. David had made up his mind and was on his way!

The reason the contractions were getting more painful was that Linda was in transition and the final stages of labour. As at this stage Linda started to push, it was too late for an epidural, so when the doctor arrived, he took one look at Linda and saw that he wasn't needed, but luckily there was another lady on the ward who did want to speak to him. Mandy got someone to ring Dr Grey and we started to get ready for David, who arrived at 2.05pm. Paul cut David's umbilical cord and watched him being weighed. As the labour was fairly short, David was in great shape and a good colour. As he was overdue, he did have slightly dry skin, but was otherwise perfect.

So, as a result, Linda had a drug free labour, and would heartily recommend the TENS machine to anyone else. It definitely helps in the early stages of labour, and in this case also in the last stages of labour.

More photos

This is a slightly older David. David is looking at Gromit, which three times the size of him. Gromit is a present from Jason & Lisa in Perth and was flown over specially by Lisa. David thinks Gromit is pretty special.

The second photo is David practicing his zen meditation, wearing his gumnut hat and matching suit. Dad is helping out by providing support!

More recent photos

These are some more recent photos of David, in the week after he came home from hospital. David is happily lying in his pram with his white mouse (a doudou). It was sent as a present from France from Linda's cousin Debra and family.

The second photo is
David on his portable change mat, with a clean suit on!

Linda and David

A happy mum and David Kenneth Haselhurst born September 27 2005 @ 2.05am weighing 7lb 1oz.

This photo was taken by Paul the day after David was born. David loves having his arms free and waving outside his blanket.