welcome baby matthew!

so on friday the 18th april, mum was walking down collins street in the city on her way to a pedicure when suddenly she realised her waters had broken!
she was immediately on the phone to daddy, who works on collins street luckily, and they got a taxi to the hospital.
they were worried because she still had 7 weeks to go with the pregnancy, but the baby was ready to come now!

the doctors said that mum needed to stay in the hospital for the next week or two, to try to keep the baby in for as long as possible. mum made it until monday afternoon, when she started having contractions and by 8:30 monday night it was decided that she needed to have an emergency c-section.

matthew was born at 9:18pm, weighing 2kgs and 45cm long. he had to go into an oxygen crib for a while but was soon doing well enough to come out. now it's a matter of him growing and putting on weight & being able to maintain his body temperature before he can come home, which might take another 2 to 4 weeks.

he is doing pretty well, is feeding with a bottle and hasn't had to have a tube put in as most babies his age would have. they are gradually increasing his bottle amount and is on 40mls every 3 hours now. there is still a chance that he might tire out and need a tube put in but fingers crossed he won't.
he is so tiny and skinny, mum & dad reckon he looks like a little frog when he doesn't have his clothes on. he also needs to be well wrapped up and is sometimes put under a heater too, to keep his body temperature up.

mum & dad are going to be going in to do as many of his feeds as possible over the next week, it's good for him to have cuddles with them... cuddles make you grow!

nanna & pa have been looking after me a lot while mummy's been in the hospital and daddy's been visiting her and matthew - they have done a great job & i've had lots of fun with them. it was nice to see mummy today at home, i kept going up to her and saying "hallo mummy!" and giving her lots of cuddles.

anyway, here are some photos of me and also of baby matthew



i can hear a heart-beat



i concur doctor...



here's a photo of me when i was born,



and here's matthew when he was born!
do we look the same or what???
i was 4 weeks prem and he's 7 weeks prem but i still think he looks a lot like me!



another star is born!



so little!



this is matthew in his crib under the heater (which looks a little like a griller i think...)



james M.D.



anyway folks, that's it for now - hope you enjoy the photos and news! i will try to do regular updates here but things are a little crazy right now so please bear with us ;)

xxx