Cousins are cool

Max is lucky to have quite a few cousins, of all genders and ages, from mine and Cam's sides of the family.

His cousins on Cam's side are all quite a bit older than Max is. He met his Ashkar cousins on the day of his birth, and got a cuddle from the two girls which he and they were pretty stoked about. I think their mum may have some trouble convincing them that they don't really want one of their own just yet! The photos of this are already up here in the new friends post from Cam.

On Friday he got to meet his closest in age cousins - my sister's girls the twins. Although they are about 5 weeks older than Max, he still beats them in terms of size and weight since he was born at 41 weeks as opposed to their 34 weeks. He also gets more impatient and noisy when things don't go his way, while the twins are much more patient since they have already had to learn to wait for each other for food and cuddles and, well, most things.

We tried to get a photo of all three together but Max wasn't very happy about this plan at all, and let everyone know about it in no uncertain terms. The girls remained fairly peaceful through his screaming but eventually joined in with him just for the fun of it, so we had all three unhappy at once which was fun. This photo shows Max voicing his displeasure at being forced to be in the middle of the two girls and risking catching girls germs.

On Saturday Max got to meet the rest of his cousins and aunts and uncles. Cam's sister and her husband and two boys came down from Hervey Bay especially to visit Max and give him more cuddles and presents - he is definitely one lucky boy! Here he is, enjoying being the centre of attention and getting a cuddle from Aunty Bron at the same time.

Worst Parents Ever!!

Yesterday it was time for Max's 1000km service. So we got him all fed and clean and got him in the pram for the 300m walk to the Doctor's which is just around the corner. Just as we got there I realised that we did not bring the nappy bag!

Being foolhardy inexperienced parents we thought oh we just changed him what are the odds of him being dirty so quick. There is no need to dash home and get the nappy bag. So when it came time to weigh Max I had to strip him down to nothing. Well you know what I found in his pants don't you. That's right he had filled his pants with mustard. So we used some tissues and got some funny looks from the doctor and then fitted Max with the best thing available at the time a female incontinence pad so we could get him home.

The check up went just fine and the doctor was very happy with Max. I am not sure what he thinks of Max's parents however. They may call the law in on us.

Grandparents are great!

Hi everyone. I've been leaving the blogging up to Cam lately since he isn't quite so tied up with Max's needs, but wanted to say hi and thanks for all of the well wishes and congratulations. Being a mum is challenging but so rewarding - even in the middle of the night Max just looks so adorable when he feeds and snuggles in that it really makes the interrupted sleep worthwhile.

Max is very lucky to have two sets of adoring grandparents as well. On our first night at home my parents stayed with us and very thoughtfully stayed up most of the night with Max while he was unsettled and let Cam and I catch up on some much needed sleep, just waking me up when he was hungry.

My mum discovered that he was a bit cold, and was snuggled up with him on the couch when I came out in the morning. Both my mum and dad were a bit smitten with Max and spoiled him with lots of cuddles and presents. Mum even sewed up some new curtains for Max's room, which look great and fit with our jungle animals theme that he has going.

On Monday Cam's parents came to visit and also gave Max lots of presents and cuddles, and settled him while I took advantage of this wonderful opportunity and grabbed another nap and Cam did some shopping.
It was a relief for us to know that he was in the best of care while we caught up on these important but neglected activities. They agree that Max looks a lot like his Pop, especially around the mouth, and Max's appearance also highlights the similarities between Cam and his dad.

We had to take a photo of all of the Batkin men together so you can see what I mean. Do you see the similarities?

High Wire With No Net

Last night was our first night on our own. We were very blessed to have Grandma and Grandpa Pfeffer to be with us on Saturday night. Jo and I caught up on lots of sleep which was wonderful. We also learnt to really rug Max up as he gets really cold and that then means a grumpy Max.

But last night went very well he got himself into a schedule and would feed really well have a quick burp and then go back to sleep for two hours. Which is not the best way to go but with a four day old baby I think you can't expect much better than that.

Today however was not so settled. Today has been his first full day since the milk arrived and he has put out many more nappies and even had a couple of wee pukes. The puking thing seems to have stopped which is good. But because he had such a long day being awake and such that he will be much better tonight.

Only time will tell.

Life is Rough at the Hospital

Max was born on the Thursday in the morning and we both had very little sleep the previous night and on that day with the euphoria and excitement of the day and a few visitors. I thought it would be best if i left the rest of the family at the hospital so they could sleep. By the time I got home after visiting several shops in the hope of finding a baby carrier that was on special I attempted to go to sleep.

I did manage to fall asleep very quickly while watching a episode of the Simpsons. I am not even sure that I was able to see anything after the opening credits. By 11.30 which was the time I woke after an hour or two, I stumbled to bed. My bed seemed so empty. It was now just me and the gigantic pillow Jo used during the pregnancy to get comfortable. It was a very bad attempt to replace my wonderful wife. I had a very poor night of sleep. I woke up and checked emails and did small chores that you can only do at 3 am like washing up and tidying the house. I even managed to put the liner in the nappy disposal doobie. I then woke at 7 and got back to writing a blog and talking to friends and emailing people about the good news.

On my way to the hospital I tried another Target for the baby carrier. I finally got to the hospital around 11 and according to Jo looking like I had a worse night than she did and hers sounded pretty rough.

Max seemed to be settling a lot more than yesterday which is a good thing. But I think we were so excited still about his arrival if he niggled just a bit we would want to hold him to get him to settle. The problem was the reason I was doing this was because Jo was asleep and if I put him down he would wake her and I really did not want that. The problem was that I could barely keep my eyes open. Which resulted in the following picture. I think Max and I were both pretty sleepy. It goes to show that I can fall asleep where ever I need to. The worse part about it was that I was trying my darnedest to stay awake and I failed.






One of the hassles of if you go through the public system is that they don't feed husbands. Which I fully understand but at the hospital where Max was born there is not much about really close to the hospital. There is a very dodgy looking cafeteria on the ground floor of the hospital. On the Thursday night I ventured down the hill and across the road to the Subway which was quite expensive for what you get and always ends up being quite cold even if you get it toasted. As I was waiting for the lift I saw someone walk out of the cafeteria with one of those pizza delivery boxes thingy's. The sight of this intrigued me

On Friday I got to the hospital and was getting mighty hungry and decided to check out the dodgy looking cafeteria. It confirmed what I first saw. There was not much food to be seen on display and no menu. I did see a card that said toasted panini's. So I gave the chicken cesar a go. It was very very good. While I was waiting for it to toast I saw a display that said Pizza by Prescription. It is gourmet style pizza at really good prices and they deliver to where ever you want on the hospital campus.

I grabbed a flyer and rang on my mobile and within half an hour my steaming hot pizza with turkey, cranberry sauce, avocado and camembert was in my hands - as were sitting there watching Max sleep we heard a knock knock and a call for pizza. I am not sure who came up with this idea but it is brilliant. I know what to do next time. The pizza was so good and it was 10 bucks for a large and the garlic bread was $1.50. As you can see in the picture below some times in the hospital can be very tough.

I'm Home!!

Hi everyone, I got home yesterday after a nice drive home and have been settling into the surrounds that Mum and Dad have prepared for me. There seems to be lots of Africa stuff in my room which is cool and a way trippy lava lamp.

I must dash I need to sleep some more.

First Bath

Max had his first bath on Friday by the expert hands of the midwife looking after us. He was pretty happy with the just floating around business but was not a huge fan of actually being washed and let everyone know about it too. The midwife told Max to stop whinging and not to be such a drama queen as it really wasn't as bad as he was making out it was.



Max was pretty happy just floating around like this. But I think from the look on his face and the clenched fist he is saying " If you drop me I will clock you one lady"



All nice and dry and looking snazzy in his new pj's. Max is about to go to sleep.

New Friends

During his time in hospital Max got to meet lots and lots of new people. So here are some pics of Max and some people that we hope gets to see lots more of in the coming days, months and years.

This is the newest members of our family together. This is Max with his uncle Cam who only became a official member of the fam on the 7/7/07. It is nice and easy for Max as he has 1 uncle Cam but his poor cousins will have to figure out having 2 uncle Cam's.

This is Max with Pastor Nik they had a pretty good time together. Max had a bit of a cry and then Pastor settled him down so he could pray for Max and he stayed settled after that for quite a while.

Max with his oldest cousin Lauren. Lauren is roughly the same age now that I was when she was born. Just visible in the background is uncle Gav who was part of our bridal party and a very long time friend of Cam's.





Max with his cousin Cait. He had a little bit of a cry but he is all good. I am not sure if she has ever held one that fresh before. They wiggle quite a lot.
















Max with aunty Courts. Courts and Cam worked together once upon a time. She recalls Cam speaking about one day getting married and starting a family. This was years before even meeting and being in love with Jo and look what happened!!


















Max with Bev who is Pastor Nik's wife. They had quite a good chat for a while.




Max with Aunty Tammy who is Jo's younger sister who just got married to Uncle Cam.



Max with his oldest aunty. Aunty Alison is Cam's oldest sister. If you look closely it looks like Max is saying ' Excuse me do I know you?'

First Exclusive Pics

Ok I guess the question must be asked. Who do you think he looks like? Drop a comment and let us know.




After 9 solid hours of work he was finally here!! This shot was taken when he was about 3 minutes old and had already had a good hearty cry.

It's A Boy!!!!

We are very happy to announce the safe arrival of Max Arthur Batkin to the world at 7.40am on the 19/7/07. He weighed in at 4.11kg or 9lb 1oz in the old money. He is 51cm long. The labour lasted 9 hrs and went pretty well.

Mother and child are doing well.

Pictures to come later.

When When When???

I am sure you all think this is the grand announcement of the baby but alas it is staging a bit of a sit in and there is not much we can do about it.

We have had fun with everyone voting for the gender of our impending bundle of joy. As a bit of a LTW activity I thought it would be cool if you could all leave comments as to when you think the baby will be born. Please leave the day and time you think the Peanut will enter the world. The latest the baby will be born at this point we think is the 23rd of the July as they will most probably induce the baby and drag it kicking and screaming into the world.

I am sure we can come up with a prize of some sort for the closest person. How about a used nappy?? I am sure we can come up with something a little bit nicer than that though.

All's Quiet On The Western Front

The peanut seems to be a recalcitrant tenant. The rent was paid up to Thursday, but it seems to be quite content in its current surroundings. Jo had a midwife appointment on Friday and everything seems to be quite cool at the moment. We just need to encourage the baby to face the world as it really is not as bad a place as you hear on the grapevine. I have had quite encouraging discussions with the Peanut about moving out of home. But alas it doesn't appear to be working. Maybe the Peanut snuck an ipod in there and has its headphones in and can't hear good ol dad.

As soon as there is movement at the station all relevant stake holders will be informed via the following forms: web, sms and for the very exclusive few phone calls.

Green lights for go!

I know there are a lot of scary and intimidating things about having your first child (people have been telling us horror stories about long and painful labours and the first few sleepless weeks and various things that have gone wrong), but one of the main things that was worrying me was more to do with timing.

My youngest sister had chosen the auspicious date of the 7/07/07 for her wedding well before we found out about the arrival of the peanut and calculated its due date. Once we realised that those dates were only 5 days apart I was a bit concerned that I may have had to leave halfway through the ceremony or may even not make it at all. Cam was even hoping that my waters would break right in the middle of the bible readings that my sister had asked me to do, or something equally dramatic.

However, thankfully everything went perfectly on the day and the peanut showed no signs of arriving early to spoil their special day. Now that that milestone has passed, Cam and I are about as ready as we can be for the peanut to make his or her way into the world so that we can finally meet them.

So congratulations to my sister and new brother, and bring on the peanut!

Nesting

When you are close to having your child the experts talk about nesting where the mother does things to prepare the way for the child to come. I have seen nesting in various ways over the years from my sister that became a even neater freak or the other sister that started baking all sorts of stuff. I had a next door neighbour that had her husband build a vege patch and would be out there with a hoe for hours planting and tending her plants.

I am pleased to say for my palates sake that Jo has been ensuring the nursery is ready but also been baking like a baking machine on the bakingiest day of it's life with a electrified baking machine. I have endured through the chocolate muffins with cheescake like filling, choc chip biscuits and the cheescake. I m not sure that my waistline can keep up with this sort of nesting behaviour. If the Peanut decides to stay inside for a bit longer I could be a fair bit wider than before.

But being a loving and compassionate husband I have also caught the nesting bug. Infact I may have had it first. For a couple of months I have been using the little spare change in our grocery budget to stock up on non perishables like extra glad wrap and washing detergent. We have multiples of pretty much everthing and not just a extra 1 or 2 but it is more like 4 of each. It was at it's worst when I bought 64 rolls of toilet paper. I know that is excessive but in my defence it was 32 rolls for 12 bucks and it is triple ply paper. You can't scrimp when it comes to toilet paper. When I grabbed one pack I thought I may as well grab two.

Please can someone help me because I am not sure what I will buy multiples of this week. It may be Tim Tams as they are $1.28 this next week. I am not sure my waistline can take it.

The cousins are here!

One of the cool things about being pregnant has been that my oldest sister was pregnant at the same time as me. Somehow, without planning it at all, we ended up being due within a week of each other.

Since she was carrying twins though, they ended up arriving quite a few weeks ahead of the peanut and have been here since the 12th of June. When we found out that the girls' arrival was imminent, Cam and I talked to the peanut and told him that the cousins were coming, and he moved and kicked like he was excited. Then when we got the call to say that they were actually here, we told her 'The cousins are here!' and she moved and kicked some more to say welcome (well that's what we think anyway).

Due to arriving so far ahead of schedule, my twin nieces weren't able to go home from hospital for a while, so that they could learn to breathe and feed without any assistance, so their parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents all had to visit them in hospital. But since they have both been progressing so well, this week they were able to come home! So in response to this wonderful news I thought I'd show you some photos of the peanut's cousins who are now healthy and out of hospital and settling in to their real home.

Surprise showers

The peanut (the name for the baby until he/she decides to make themselves known) is one very lucky unborn child. They have already received so many gifts from friends and family, and is usually the first topic of conversation when talking to people as well.

One of the coolest things is that the peanut has already been thrown not one, but two surprise parties!
A few weeks ago Cam with the help of the women's ministry team at the church we go to, threw the peanut and I a surprise baby shower. I was especially surprised by this since usually Cam is, well, not the best person at keeping secrets, especially exciting ones like this. But I had no idea it was on, and even started planning one of my own! Cam and the church ladies threw an awesome surprise shower and invited other friends and family as well. We had heaps of fun playing games, getting messy (mmmm, green playdough), eating chocolate and other yummy food, and of course giving the peanut more presents, along with the many blessings and prayers. Thank you so much to all who helped organise and contribute!

Then this week it was Cam's turn to be surprised, when his boss and workmates threw him and the peanut a surprise baby shower. Cam's eye for detail meant that he did have a couple of clues about what was going on, but he didn't know that his boss had secretly contacted me to make sure I was invited, or that so many people were involved in giving and contributing to the gifts, so it was still a good surprise and a fun afternoon. We were both overwhelmed once more by people's generosity and really touched by the gorgeous gifts chosen for our little peanut.

A huge thankyou from us to all involved, and we will make sure the peanut appreciates all of it once he/she shows up!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Baby Batkin blog.

Here you will find all of the latest news and photos of the first addition to Cam and Jo's family, once he/she arrives. The estimated date of arrival is the 12th of July, which is getting pretty close, so we thought we'd start up a blog now so everything is in place for when the baby decides to pop out, whether that's "on time" or not.

For now, have your say on the predicted gender of the baby and leave a comment or two to say hi if you wish.