The Dower Family

A few years ago, Nick and I attended the Anzac day dawn service in the city with a few friends. It was an amazing experience, standing there in complete silence with thousands of other people, paying our respects to those who have fought in war (you don't necessarily have to agree with the war itself to be thankful to those who have fought). Since then we vowed to make it an annual tradition in the Dower household. When we moved to the suburbs last year we went to the local dawn service, which in many respects is actually nicer. My favourite part is the march around the block with all the diggers, but anyone is welcome to march at the end, and many of the local children do. So it was important to Nick and I to take Ollie to his first dawn service. But it was a bit of a daunting prospect, given how cool it has been lately and not making Ollie too cranky by waking him up. I worked out that I would need to wake him up at 3.30am. The obliging little fellow that he is decided to wake up...

Well in the last post I mentioned that Ollie had a silent laugh going on. I predicted that it would only be a matter of days before we heard laughter and I was correct. On Saturday it finally happened. It wasn't a traditional laugh but there was a distinctive chuckle element to it. Unfortunately Nick was not witness to this but two of our friends who were present confirmed that I wasn't just imagining it. Luckily, the next afternoon it happened again and Nick was there. Since then we have heard a few more but I suspect that like the smiles, we will be trying hard to elicit laughs for a little while, but before we know it they will be coming thick and fast. In other developments, Ollie is taking in everything that goes on around him now and is fascinated by the tiniest little thing. It can be quite a hassle, especially when feeding him as he gets distracted every minute or so and stops feeding to look around the room. This coupled with his absent minded punching or scratching of...

Ollie had his first Easter last weekend and although he didn't get any easter eggs, I think he got chocolate milk due to the amount of chocolate that I've been eating. The long weekend was very busy - on Good Friday we went to our old apartment at Teneriffe to join Roly & Pru and Bruce & Louise for lunch. Then on Saturday, Nick got to play Mr Mom for the day while I went to a Hen's (v. civilised - a life drawing class followed by lunch). I was apart from them for about 6 hours which is the longest time I have spent away from Ollie ever. It was also the first time I had been able to drink more than two glasses of wine in almost 12 months. Nick and Ollie had a great time hanging out together and Nick did a great job of giving him a number of feeds using a bottle. On Sunday we had a BBQ with Rachel, Christian and Cyndee and then on Monday Chris and Kaye, who had just returned from New York, came to stay with us for the night (see piccie). I think they were very i...

Ollie and I went to visit the physio yesterday to check how the progress of his wonky head and neck was going. We had spent the past two weeks doing lots of tummy time and making him look in the correct direction so that the physio didn't think I was a neglectful mother and fortunately it paid off. Even I was impressed with Ollie's performance - he totally pulled out all the stops, looking around the room while laying on his tummy as if it were his favourite thing to do (it isn't!). Thankfully this impressed the physio as well and now we don't need to go back anymore. I took some pics of his slightly more rounded head so you can all check it out. The funny thing is that in getting more rounded, the back of his head has actually gotten a bit lumpier looking. But it will just keep on getting better. And if it still looks a bit flat when he is older, he can just wear a hat. As Ollie is now three months old I thought we should go and get his measurements taken by the...

Last Tuesday was Ollie's nanna Freddie's birthday so as a surprise to her, Poppy Mick flew both Ollie and I out to Cloncurry. This was Ollie's first flight, at just over two hours from Brisbane to Mt Isa. I was pretty apprehensive about it, especially as I would be on my own. Luckily for us the flight wasn't too full and we ended up with a row of three seats all to ourselves. I had Ollie strapped to me in the fabulous sling that we have borrowed from our friends Sam and Alan. On the advice of everyone I'd spoken to about flying with babies, it was my intention to feed Ollie at take-off and landing to help his ears with change in pressure. But I suspect that Ollie was picking up on how anxious I was and for the first time in his so far short life, was not willing to feed. I was getting more stressed as the plane was getting closer to take-off. I tried left, then right then left again - all to no avail. I swear, there hasn't been that much bare boob action...

Ollie and I have been attending the mother's group at our local child health centre for the last three weeks. There are about nine other mums from the neighbourhood with their bubs who are all about the same age as Ollie. So far we have learnt about sleep settling techniques (a topic to which everyone paid a great deal of attention) and moving onto solid foods, but most of the time is just spent chatting about the babies and what we have experienced during the week. It is reassuring to know that everyone else is going through the same issues and interesting to hear how different people are dealing with things. Everyone is really lovely and we hope to continue to meet as a group once the classes finish. I suspect that like me, most people only really went to the class in with a view to meeting other mums. Like most of the babies, Ollie's favourite part of the class is at the end when we sing along to a DVD of nursery rhymes. Today Olliebear gave me lots of smiles during thi...

Ollie has discovered a new toy - and this one doesn't require any assembly or AA batteries as it is right at the end of his arms - his hands! It has replaced his dummy a lot of the time (not a bad thing) and is fantastic in the middle of the night. I often go into his room and see his fist wedged firmly in his mouth and loud slurping noises emanating. It keeps him occupied for a while before he remembers he wants to be fed. As you can see from the pictures, his fist isn't tiny but he manages. And it appears he found my taking photos quite amusing. Unfortunately Ollie is still suffering from a bit of a cold. We hear his tiny little sneezes and coughs coming from his nursey in the night and sometimes when he gets really snuffly I have to use an aspirator to suck his snot out. It is totally gross and neither of us enjoy it very much. But he has managed so far to avoid a fever and doesn't appear to be too put out by the experience. I've also included a few photos we t...

To commemorate the Cats first game of the season, Ollie thought it would be a good opportunity to try on some of his football paraphenalia. Honestly, he was nagging me all day to put the stuff on. Despite the jumpsuit being a size 0 (and therefore an ideal size for the last Saturday in September), by rolling up the sleeves a little it was almost a perfect fit. As you can see from the particularly pensive photo, Ollie was pondering whether Bomber Thompson will be calling him up this season to replace Josh Hunt. As I type this the Cats are playing the Hawks but as it is past Ollie's bedtime he is not watching. Mind you, he is particularly whingy tonight and Nick and I are taking turns to go in and settle him. Perhaps he can sense that he is missing out? But it is best that he not watch too much football at this early stage. Gus the cat has learnt over the years to stay away from Nick during games as he is prone to suddent outbursts of abuse and incoherent ramblings at the TV. ...

Today we went to the physio about Ollie's flat head. Luckily for us, one of the few paediatric phsyiotherapists in Brisbane just happens to be in Sherwood. She confirmed that we weren't imagining Ollie's flat spot and also that his neck muscle on one side was tighter than it should be as a result of favouring his right side. It turns out that we are already doing pretty much most of the things that we can do to help him with this problem (talking to him and putting toys to his left side to encourage him to look that way, raising his mattress on one side and LOTS of tummy time). We have an appointment to go back in two weeks so we have to do everything we can in that time so that there is a really noticeable improvement next time we see her. As an update on the sleep front, on Sunday night Ollie went down around 6.30 and didn't wake until 1am for a feed. He then slept through until morning. I thought this must have been a fluke but then last night he woke for his 1...

Over the past week we have noticed that Ollie is becoming less of a floppy newborn and more of a chubby little baby, although his head is still fairly floppy. As he is now 6+ kilos, he is starting to outgrow his baby capsule for the car and we needed to start thinking about getting him a convertible car seat. After taking on board the advice of friends with babies and a lot of googling, we decided on the Safe n Sound Meridian seat. At $500+ it is certainly not cheap but with a reputation as the safest converttible seat in Australia we couldn't say no. We settled on a nice grey colour to match the upholstery in our car, but concede that once it gets a few bananas mashed into it and is spewed on a few times, it mightn't look so fresh. It has all the bells and whistles like a canopy to protect him from the sun and a nice little pocket for Ollie to keep his crucial driving accessories, like a copy of FHM magazine (for Uncle Guy) and a hipflask of cognac. The only thing it does...

In the last week Ollie and I have had a number of exciting excursions. On Saturday I had an Ollie-free excursion of an hour and a half massage while Nick looked after our little man. It was the perfect escape for me and I thoroughly enjoyed lounging around in the private spa and sauna afterwards. But I was happy when Nick came to pick me up - even though I was greeted by the sound of his screams from within the car (Ollie's, not Nick's). On Monday we went to our first week of Mother's group at the local child health clinic. There were about 10 mums and their babies who are all about the same age as Ollie. It was great to meet some other first time mums who live nearby. Hopefully a few of us will keep in touch after the four weeks are up. Of course, Ollie was the first baby to crack up during the class. Obviously those things aren't a drama in that kind of setting but I did spend a lot of the time standing up rocking him while trying to listen. Luckily there wa...

Yesterday, Ollie and I went to visit the lovely baby nurse Kay to get him weighed for the first time since his 6 week check when he weighed 5.5 kg. In that two week period he put on just over 500 g to bring him up to 6.05 kg. While this weight gain is at the higher end of the scale, it isn't as massive as some of his previous weeks which isn't surprising - neither of us could keep that up! Kay tells me that his weight gain will probably even out in the next month or so but at this stage he is in the 80th percentile for boys of his age. And scraping over 6 kg means we can move up to the next size of nappies! One thing that Kay did point out to me was that Ollie is starting to get a flat spot on the right side of his head. It seems that he has developed a preference for laying with his neck to the right. So we have to be vigilant about which way he is sleeping and try to encourage him to look left a lot by stacking his toys in an enticing manner to his left side. On a not s...

We have finally received the photos we had taken of Ollie in early February by Rebecca Green, our wedding photographer. As you can see he is a natural in front of the camera. Actually that isn't quite true as he pretty much screamed for most of the time that Rebecca was here. The last photo with the dummy in his mouth frustrates me because it is a such a beautiful photo, but for the dummy. But if it were not for the dummy there would be no photo as he had been absolutely hysterical at that point. The photo is what it is - he still looks gorgeous! On the home front we are settling nicely into our daily life and we are trying to structure our days a little better. For the last four nights we have enforced a bedtime of 7pm. This started out meaning he actually got to sleep around 9pm (after two hours of screaming) but it is now closer to 8pm. From there he sleeps through to about 6 or 7 am with three feeds in between. We really can't complain - he is an exceptionally good b...

On Monday night, Ollie's aunty Em (just like in the wizard of Oz) came over for dinner after having been in the Middle East for the last month. She couldn't believe how much he had grown. Nick and Emma bathed Ollie and had another Skype chat with Nanna Carmel in Qatar. Ollie stacked on quite a turn after dinner and even Nanna Freda's patented "Nanna Hold" (see pic) couldn't relieve the pressure. Eventually around 10pm he went to sleep and I was able to relax with a nice glass of wine. He then slept through to 3am which was lovely. Yesterday Ollie and I took a trip into town to catch up with my workmates at CDPP. It was great to sit down at Cafe Merlo again (which I can't believe is still in business without my substantial patronage) and catch up on some work gossip. We took a very quick tour through one of the office floors to say hello to a small group of people. It was during this time that Ollie made it clear that he wasn't a fan of CDPP. Although i...

We had a fairly stressful day yesterday, venturing to Indooroopilly Shoppingtown on our own. It didn't quite go to plan and everytime I went into a store, Ollie would crack it. Things got better in the evening when Ollie got to have a long Skype chat with his grandma Carmel in Qatar. After he had a feed around 8pm, we put him down in his cot and he went straight off to sleep. I woke up at 3.55 am and freaked out that he hadn't woken up for his 1am-ish feed. I bolted into his room to make sure he was okay - of course he was. He wiggled for a minute and then went straight back to sleep. I kept checking on him for the next half an hour and he eventually woke up for a feed, but I suspect that he might have slept even longer if I hadn't kept going into his room. To make it even better, he went straight back to sleep after his feed and slept through the early morning hours that have recently seen us walking the floor with him. Today he continues to be wonderful. I put him down fo...

As it is now 6 weeks since Ollie made his debut, we had our check-ups with the obstretician and paedetrician today. We both received a clean bill of health with Ollie kicking massive goals in the weight gain stakes, as anyone who has seen him recently can attest to. When he was born, Ollie weighed 3.72kg, had a head circumference of 34.5cm and was 51.5cm long. The last time we had him weighed on 5 February he was 4.52kg. Today he weighed a massive 5.5kg - so in the last fortnight he has put on almost 1kg!!! I am starting to think that I am producing chocolate milk vs. normal boob milk as babies are only meant to be putting on around 200-ish grams each week. But no one is complaining - you can't overfeed a breastfed baby and it sure beats worrying about a skinny baby who isn't putting on much weight. In the other stats, Ollie has grown a total of 7cm in length and his head circumference is 4.5cm bigger. That puts Ollie in the 50th percentile for head size and 75th for both le...

We are totally new to the idea of blogging but thought that with so many family members and friends spread across the globe its a good way for you to check out how Ollie's doing. We've just passed the six week mark and we're having a great time. Even those moments in the early hours of the morning are fantastic. He's recently started smiling and its great to see him transform into a little boy right before your eyes. Check back here regularly and feel free to send us messages. Much love .... N, T & O