Friday 4 December 2009

You had me at hello!

November was a busy month for us and Jeremy has once again surprised us with how much he has grown (last week he was over 7kg and 65cm long) and now fits into size 00 clothes. Click on the following link to go to our November photos and video.

November 2009 Photos

Compare how Jeremy has grown over the past couple of months!

Jeremy had his first trip to visit his grandparents in Mudgee (and we worked out how much to pack in the car). The following weekend Jeremy had his first Thanksgiving in Canberra with his godparents Phil and Allelie. It also turned out to be a good weekend to be away from Sydney with temperatures only 30 C compared to Sydney's 42! His godparents also gave him a toy caterpillar which always brings out smiles and chuckles.

Jeremy also said his first word (see this video, or go to the photo album link above). We are also pretty sure he has said a few "yeah's" as well in the past couple of weeks. Jeremy is also doing very well on the sleep front and is now regularly sleeping though the night (well ok, he does wake up at 5-530am!).

This month Ruby finally joined a mother's group (Parramatta council finally organised something) and that is going well as they have met every week since. Jeremy has made a lot of new friends amongst the other babies in the group.

We also discovered this month how useful the parents room at the big shopping centres are. Not only can we change Jeremy, they also have a private are where mums can breastfeed. This makes shopping trips so much easier. Whilst it is on the wrong floor for most of the shops we normally visit, the Parramatta parent's room is by far the best.

On the nappy front Jeremy has tried out the Toys'R'Us nappies which were very good (and a reasonable price). Our experience with the Aldi nappies were not so good as Ruby found she kept on getting blowouts. Ruby also discovered Sorbies which are quite good and come with both daytime and nighttime nappies. We also stocked up on the next size of Huggies for the upcoming months, we can't believe that Jeremy can now fit into Crawler (6-11kg) size nappies!

Tuesday 3 November 2009

Jeremy: Month 2!

The first month with Jeremy was quite busy with all the family visiting. By comparison our 2nd month was much quieter, with the only big change was I went back to work. Jeremy has really grown bigger (at his 7 week checkup he weighed in at 5.3kg and 70cm long) and is now interacting with us more each day.

Jeremy started smiling back at us just after the 1 month mark. On one occasion several weeks back when I was changing him he pee'd all over himself (and his I Love Dad onesie) and then gave me a big grin! Now in the time after his feed he is now much more playful and loves bouncing away on his bouncinette. We have both been playing music to him during this time which he enjoys. Ruby is playing him lots of U2 although I am trying out a much larger selection...

Now that he has had his first batch of immunisations we have started taking him to the shops with us which for the most part he enjoys (unless he is hungry, filled his nappy or is asleep!). In the last week or so he has tried to communicate with us with lots of ah's and cooing, I was lucky enough to catch him in a really talkative mood as a movie last Sunday (which I included in the album).

Up until a few weeks ago we had been fine with nappies for Jeremy as Ruby had received a large number of newborn sized Huggies at her baby shower. We did not have any larger sizes so when he was about 6 weeks old we decided to try out a couple of different brands. Most other parents had advised to go with Huggies overnight and Aldi nappies during the day. Ruby had noticed a US brand, Pampers Swaddlers, had recently become available here so we gave that a try first (hey it was on salee). They are very good and at least equal to Huggies (even more so if they are cheaper). We also tried out the Woolworths Select nappies which were ok, but do leak if you do not change them often. We did buy the Toys'R'Us and Aldi nappies, but they were way too big for him, but at the rate he is growing we will be using hem very soon!

Sunday 4 October 2009

Jeremy at 1 month

1 month ago yesterday, Ruby and I welcomed a new addition to our family. Jeremy Cameron Estrella Blake was born at 1528hrs on Thursday 3rd September 2009 (on the due date just like his dad), weighing in at 3.73 kg and 52 cm in length.
On the 1st September when Ruby started having mild and inconsistent contractions. I still went to work (Ruby thought these were pre labour contractions) but decided to start my 4 weeks leave on the 2nd thinking that things were moving along. Around 6pm Ruby's contractions started to get stronger and continued to do so for the rest of the night (she did not get much sleep!). The next morning I rang the hospital and they advised whilst the contractions had been going for 12 hours they needed to be 3-5 mins apart. We spent most of the 2nd at home, going for the occasional walk and distracting Ruby by watching TV/Movies. Her contractions were getting stronger and a bit more consistent, but not down to the 3-5 mins.

Overnight Ruby again did not get much sleep and her contractions were getting more painful. I rang the hospital again at 1am and they advised us similarly to the first call. By 7am it was getting too much for Ruby so I rang the hospital and this time they said to come in. The nurse checked Ruby out and she was 4cm dilated (6cm to go!) though her blood pressure had gone up. A few hours later Ruby was at 6cm and to speed things up our obstetrician ruptured her membranes. He said to us that we should be all done by lunchtime, however, he was also concerned about the baby so Ruby was put on a fetal heart monitor and therefore bedridden. From there things slowed down.

Originally we had planned for an all natural birth with no painkillers (and certainly not an epidural). However, by midday our obstetrician suggested administering syntocin to try and speed things up. It was at this point that Ruby decided to go with an epidural, knowing that the contractions were only going to get stronger with syntocin. Unfortunately, even though Ruby was having regular contractions, not much progress was being made. At 3pm our obstetrician did another check and Ruby was only 7cm dilated. He told us "Its caesar time!" and that we would get to meet our baby within 30 minutes. It was at that point then things happened really quickly (it was like in the movies where someone shouts "action stations") all these people appeared and we were shuffled off to an operating theatre. True to his word, the obstetrician had Jeremy out within 30 mins.

I was then shuffled off with Jeremy back to the birthing suite while Ruby went to recovery and I did not see her for over an hour (which was a bit scary as I really did not know what was going on). However, I did get some valuable bonding time with Jeremy. By the time Ruby was ready, Jeremy was very keen for a feed and latched on straight away.

Things have gone by quickly since then, though looking back we have done a lot. Ruby spent the next 5 days in hospital and the following week at home was fun with all the late night feeds. Luckily my mum and then Ruby's parents stayed with us and were able to provide us with a bit of help. Even after they left we have not really felt sleep deprived. My body decided to get better quality sleep instead (best sleep I have had in a long time in fact!). Jeremy now has a good sleep routine overnight with normally only 1 (occasionally 2) feed. Also, he really has grown in the past month and we may be able to use some of his 00 clothes in the next week or two!

I am intending to keep up regular blog postings now we have Jeremy so either check back often or subscribe to my blog using RSS. If you only want postings with Jeremy or our trip photos (instead of my other rantings) using the following link:
http://benblaughs.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/Photos

Wednesday 25 February 2009

Codename: Cashew

Big news! I am going to be a Dad!!

That's right, Ruby is pregnant with our first child and now that we are past the 12 week mark I can tell everyone. Why 12 weeks? This is mainly due to the risk of a miscarriage is greatly reduced after that time (though we did let immediate family and a few close friends know easrlier). Also, we had an ultrasound on Monday so now I have some pictures to show off!



Ruby already reckons that it looks like me!

The reason for the ultrasound was a Nuchal scan which is normally done at 12 weeks to check for the risk of Downs syndrome. The good news is we have a reduced risk (now 1 in 2000 as opposed to 1 in 400 before the scan).

Oh and "cashew" is what we started calling the baby back when we first found out Ruby was pregnant and the name has kinda stuck (though I have suggested others...).

I was wrapped with the ultrasound. Just seeing our little cashew waving and bouncing about was nothing short of amazing (and yes we do have a video of this).

Saturday 21 February 2009

Revised Applescript for downloading EPG for use with EyeTV

Last year I wrote an Applescript to download an xmltv file and load into EyeTV (see this post). This relied on downloading a single xmltv file from Free*EPG. Unfortunately in Septembver 2008 they discontinued providing this file for direct download and instead required their software which only worked on a Windows PC. 

The handy part with the Free*EPG file was they handled all the location set-up and provided a single file for download (EyeTV only accepts a single xmltv file). The other choice for downloading xmltv files was OzTiVo , but this required updating the Applescript to do all the file handling and aggregating. This turned out to be a bit of work and some of the bugs I had to fix took a week to appear which slowed things down a bit.

Version 2.0 of my xmltv Applescript can be downloaded here (168 K). I also included instructions on its set-up. Apart from choosing which channels (e.g. ABC-NSW) to download on first run, it is basically the same as for version 1.0.

UPDATE 12 Oct 2009: All the Australian free to air networks now publish up to date EPG data for about 7 days over DVB (thanks to the Anonymous comment on my original post). I highly recommend using this data instead of my Applescript (which will now no longer be updated). To change to DVB go to each channel and change EPG to DVB, then right click on the Program Guide item and select "Clear EPG Database", then right click again on Programs and select "Update DVB Program Guide".

Sunday 4 January 2009

11th Doctor Announced

David Tennant announced in October 2008 he was leaving Doctor Who in 2010 which was a bummer as he was one of the best Doctors. Today the BBC have announced his replacement: Matt Smith. Who? Never heard of him! But go to this link to find out more.