Nate explores a new medium - clay

One of the latest accounts about Nate enjoying one of the many planned daycare 'provocations' in July - this one is from Anne. It's really so great to see him trying new things and new textures, and learning as he goes. Especially as he seems to shy away from many textures right now (ie shaving cream, and flubber-like jelly toys, and some food textures). Enjoy!

I always enjoy spending time with Nate as he is engrossed in manipulative and sensory experiences. I previously noticed his huge interest in puzzles and numbers and he often feels more comfortable around paint and drawing as media for self expression. The other day, however, I invited him to the clay table with some other children, Archie and Lucy. Nate first stood at the table next to me, watching his peers use the clay from a distance. I could feel his uncertainty, but after a couple of minutes, Nate took the courage to try something new, and sat down. He looked at the clay in front of him for a bit before feeling it with his hand. He took it off instantly, smiling in surprise.

"Does the clay feel cold Nate?" I asked him, realising the clay was indeed quite cold to the touch.

Nate started by patting the clay the same way Archie and Lucy were as they made their 'banana bread' out of clay. Nate then tried to squeeze it with both hands. He watched the clay with fascination as it slowly changed shape under the pressure of his fingers. As he became more comfortable with this resource, Nate became more adventurous. He picked up the piece of clay with one hand and with the other, started tearing small pieces. Every time, Nate looked at the piece he tore before before putting it on the table. As you can see from the photos, Nate worked hard to pull so many pieces off!

Next, Nate chose a shell that was in the middle of the table and started pressing it down on the clay. He took it off again and noticed the mark he had made. The big smile that came over his face was delightful to watch! He kept pressing down the shell again, using all his upper body muscles to push it down as hard as he could. What a great effort! I could see Nate knew what effect he wanted to see after discovering how he could make patterns in the clay with the shell! He was very determined and had a really satisfied look on his face!

 

Nate's curiosity about the clay led him to many discoveries and wonderment. The free exploration of this medium of expression has great benefits on a sensory level as well as for his holistic development. It was an empowering learning experience for Nate as he learnt that his actions with the clay had consequences when he saw it change shape each time he touched it. It was also nice to see Nate learn how to use clay by watching his friends first. Once he got the confidence to have a go at it, Nate discovered the great properties of clay work. Clay can help Nate foster his hand-eye coordination and helps extend his attention span and it is really beneficial for the development of smaller hand muscles and other fine motor skills used in other manipulative work and early writing skills. Clay is also a magical tool that can help develop creativity and imagination, the possibilities are limitless! I am looking forward to seeing what else Nate might do with clay next time!

"The wider the range of possibilities we offer children, the more intense will be their motivations and the richer their experiences." - Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio Emilia educational approach.

Tino pai Nate!

 

 

 

 

 

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Saturday the 30th of July - Lola comes home!

After needing to show two days of growth on the trot, we were finally cleared to head home!

Lola had put on only 5g on the Friday morning (2.575kg), but thankfully a further 45g by the Saturday morning which made her hospital leaving weight 2.620kg. This was still down from her birth weight of 2.850kg, but not by more than 10% which apparently is an percentage that is watched out for.

After 7 days confined mostly to a single small hospital room, where the maximum distance we had ventured had been about 20 metres to get a cup of tea or toast from the ward kitchen, I couldn't wait to get out of there! Stir-crazy, sleep deprived and pregnancy-induced hormonal doesn't even begin to account for it!

We were released on the Saturday about lunchtime, and Helen kindly took Nate again, so that Robin could come and pick us both up.

HOME!!!!! YAY!!!!

Going home attire!

Check me out! TOO cute!

Here she is packed up for her first car trip, and first time outside!

Heading home - Daddy at the helm!

And finally, at 6 days old, here she is safe and sound, finally at home and tucked up in her own bed! :-)

So ecstatic to be home! All is well with the world :-) X

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Snippets from Lola's first week of life (Auckland Hospital)

Lola's second day on Earth, was almost as surreal as her first. I awoke early for feeding (ah the joys of three hourly feeding!), but also just to stare at our wee girl and marvel at the sheer existence of her! Plus to take many more of what must be a zillion photos so far :-). She is very photogenic! Here are just a snippet of her early hours/days......

Like 5am on Day Two! 26hours old....

And more later that day.....

Robin came back into visit with Nate. Sadly Ruby was nursing a cold, so had to stay away. Our little man was pretty excited - to see us and have photos, but also to charge around the hospital corridors with Daddy....

My two precious babies!

Too cute, right? Love my BooBoo!

I had asked Robin to pick up a prem outfit, as all of our newborn clothes were just WAY too big! Here she is looking all cutesy in her only outfits that fitted.

Giving birth naturally had helped us to escape NICU, as the natural birth helps clear the lungs of mucus which makes a difference for premmies. So that was a major plus! However that didn't mean everything in the first few days went smoothly, and then again you wouldn't necessarily expect it to with a 36 weeker.

While all three of Lola's glucose tests were perfect and her first feed went really well, unfortunately her subsequent feeds weren't quite so good, which turned out to be the result of a tongue-tie. So that meant a nasal gastro tube and also trials with a few bottles to help her feed while we waited for that to be addressed.

Special moment with my wee girl

Once her tongue tie was fixed about mid-way through the week, things then improved greatly and we were able to remove the nasal gastro tube, wean off the formula, and focus on breast feeding. The delay in addressing the tongue tie and lack of feeding, also impacted my milk supply, which was a little stressful as all new mums will attest to. (Thankfully after we came home and a week or two had passed, things quickly improved with that too).

Lola also had to have three successive heel pricks to ensure her jaundice wasn't worsening. By about day three she looked quite orange, and her first couple of tests suggested this was quite high, but by about the third, she was showing improvement. Pretty stressful watching them squeeze blood out of her heel though - brought back memories of what they used to do with Nate in NICU around both his jaundice and also his low blood platelets.

Trying to catch some sun through the window to help her jaundice

And here she is, just a few days old, and blossoming into our gorgeous little girl....

So. In. Love.

 

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The story behind Baby Bean's grand entrance!

The day before Baby Bean decided to start to make herself known, we had spend our last day as 'a three'. We had decided to keep Nate off daycare that day as his anxiety during the prior day had been quite evident (lots of change happening right now) and we knew our days if being off work together were limited, so instead we went and got the baby car seat installed, took Nate to a cafe for a fluffy and a treat, and then headed to Bunnings where Nate likes the playground, and where Robin could get some tiling stuff in order to start/finish the fireplace.

Me at 36w1d

Taking a ride....

Quick play in the playground....

Cheeky monkey!

After noticing BH contractions in the evenings over the prior Thursday evening and again that Friday evening (all normal at that time of day and at 36weeks gestation), I was surprised when they then carried over into the very early hours of Saturday morning, and late Saturday morning. We had good friends Paul & Ashley & their kids Ruby & Oliver, around for coffee and cupcakes that morning, and I was feeling uncomfortable enough that I actually asked them to stop and pick up the cupcakes on the way, rather than head out to pick them up. As the morning progressed and we chatted and caught up over cupcakes with the kids, I became more and more suspicious that these might be more than just BH!

Around midday, I called AOC to let them know, and then Robin, Nate and I headed into L&D at Auckland Hospital. AOC said that they were likely just uterine contractions which would probably turn into nothing, and given I wasn't really in any pain (just mildly uncomfortable), I didn't even take my hospital bag with me. Once there, I was put on a monitor, and after a few false starts with their machine over the space of a couple of hours, they eventually picked them up as contractions. Nate coped very well, hanging out with Robin and traipsing around the hospital corridors. Our doctor eventually arrived and advised that they could well be contractions but the only way to confirm this would be to see if I was dilated, but that we couldn't easily do that because of my cerclage. The challenge being that to remove the cerclage (to see if dilation was occurring), could well start labour even if it wasn't yet labour, while leaving it in could mean tearing if it was labour. Catch 22! We opted for the cerclage removal and that then took place around 5pm. And then we waited to see....

In the meantime Robin had managed to track Helen down, who kindly agreed to take Nate for the night - this was a lifesaver, given Nate is only comfortable with a few known people. Robin shot home with Nate and met Helen there, only to have Nate hugely excited to see Helen, Ruby and one of Ruby's friends there for the night, and happily waved Robin off! (In fact I think he had such an exciting night, that he didn't go to bed until about 10.30pm!). Robin got back to the hospital around 7.30pm, by which time we knew that what I had been experiencing was indeed contractions and it was confirmed that I was 1cm dilated at that stage. At that point, we knew a baby was coming that night - pre 12am it would be the 23rd July and a Cancer, and post 12am it would be the 24th of July and a Leo - exciting!

The birth plan also changed at this point - originally we had planned a c-section, which was deemed safest for myself and baby given the cerclage and the GD. However at only 36w2d gestation, our doctor advised us that it was better for the baby to go natural, as this helps aid the lungs which is important in premmies. So just like that, that was the new plan and we were shifted into L&D not long after. By 10pm we were about 3-4cm dilated, and the epidural went in at around 10.30pm, and by about midnight, we were about 5-6cm dilated.

On gas and feeling rough, waiting on an epidural....

10pm shared selfie!

In the early hours of the morning (about 2.30am), it was confirmed that I was fully dilated and the pushing began. Unfortunately things weren't quite as straight forward in this part, as Bean's head was turned sideways which was giving some issue coming through the birth canal. After her heart rate accelerated and she showed signs of distress, our doctor made the call that she had to come out and things picked up in the room with pressure on me to push more and the suction cup pulled out to help Bean out. Once the suction cup was put on, within four more pretty intense contractions, she was out at 3.39am! It was amazing to experience that, and to immediately have skin to skin with her, especially after Nate had been rushed away to NICU pretty quickly after his birth back in March 2013.

Baby Bean measured 48cm and weighed in at 2.85kg (46% percentile for her gestational age). Her birth head circumference was 32cm. Her dark hair was immediately apparent, she gave a loud cry, but her features were very swollen from her journey and her head showed the immediate effect of the suction cup. Just like Nate, her apgar score was a 9 within a minute, and a 10 not long after. Daddy cut the cord just like he had with Nate, and we also banked the cord blood again as we had with Nate. Bean's first bold sugar test of four, showed a level of 2.7 which was a pass as she had to get over 2.6. Her subsequent three tests, were also strong passes, so no impacts from the GD :-). Yay!

Checks immediately post birth

First cuddle with Daddy

Not long after making her grand entrance, Baby Bean was officially named LOLA! In fact Lola Belle Ruth Ryan-Chang!

Belle as a nod to Robins' Mum's middle name Betty, and Ruth after my Mum. The name Lola has been on our minds for quite sometime, and when we found out we were having a girl, and then when we finally saw her, it seemed the perfect fit. We are so in love with our new addition,....... introducing Lola!

Later that same day (Sunday the 24th of July), after Robin had been home for a quick sleep and Lola and I had been moved to the ward (Ward 96, Room 8), Robin came back into visit with Nate. Nate coped very well with being back in the hospital, and again watched with interest as Nurses and Midwives came to check up on Mummy instead of Nate. He also seemed to understand that Lola was his sister, and was incredibly gentle with her. Below are some of our first shots.

Touching her face gently

Offering her his blanket (momentarily!)

Smiling for the camera!

My precious babies

Cuddles with Daddy

Daddy's $17 balloon from the gift shop downstairs (Nate loved it!)

Quiet selfie with Mummy later that first night

An NG tube was also placed that evening, as it was picked up that Lola had a tongue tie which was impacting her ability to latch. Plans were made to see the lactation consultant on Monday so that a Paed could address the issue on Monday or Tuesday.

At the end of day one, we were completely and absolutely smitten with our wee girl :-) xxx

 

 

 

 

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