Monty's First Christmas

Yummy Food

Hi Everyone....well our little man was introduced to the big world of yummy food this week!! His nana came and visited for a couple of nights and we decided to treat little monty with the food, as he is the size of a 6mth old already and seems to have taken an interest lately into the foods that go into his parents mouth!

The result......a big mess...but he loved it, he fed on pear and banana flavoured farex introduced with just a couple of mouthfuls that majority of it ended up all over the face, bib and today the feet. And being the growing boy that he is after a taste of it he crys for more. We think we will give him another couple of weeks until we introduce the boring vegetables...

A piccie below is him about to dine:

3 months young...

To celebrate (partly) Monty's 3 month birthday he was very fortunate to have been registered as an official Colchester United Supporters Association member...by his Mum! yes, I was surprised too...it was also a present to me for our recent anniversary.

Monty seemed pretty excited about his new membership and wouldn't let go of the membership card once he had his hands on it....see below.

Monty also reached another important milestone this last week...he rolled over from his belly to back all on his own...no pushing! :-)

More pics and video over Christmas.

Hello

The ball at his feet....

Another quick update to show some more pics and videos....Monty is now 7.32kg and 64cm (grown 10cm since birth and put on 3kg). He is chatting more (see the video), smiling lots and even today giggled for the first time, quite a few times while on the webcam to Granny Smith.

He's also been itching to have a kick around with his Colchester United footy and we captured him limbering up and have a practice this afternoon :-)

Finally another update

A few more pics below. Monty continues to grow and seems to change daily, now 6.5kilos 'ish and looking very long. He has already grown out of his baby bath looks like the bouncer may not last a lot longer. He's smiling regularly and cooing/chatting ....must be learning that from his mum! He's been visiting his aunts/uncles/grandparents in Aus and has been hanging out with his cousins too....nice pic below with his cousin Liv.





We'll ty and put a few more pics up in 2 weeks.

First Smiles

Little (or not so little) Monty is now 5 1/2 weeks old and has been giving sporadic smiles....have a look at the video clip below for a sneaky peak. We've also attached a few more of the latest pics of the fast growing chap.

More Pics

A brief update to post some more pics....just quickly, Monty continues to grow and put more weight on (close to 5kg now) and on the whole is very well behaved...

2 Weeks Old

Well thought it was about time i better write something as it has been a while for me. I have to say i think im still in shock that our little man is out of my belly, the labour was almost to quick that i didnt really realise what was going on and then voilla little Monty was here. All i kept thinking when i was in labour is that there is no way i am going to be able to play cards or have a spa bath if im in this much pain, i couldnt even lie down, my position was leaning over a couch and rocking, and then i was forced to lie down to be examined and to our shock i was 9.5cm dilated then all of a sudden little one was out and about and screaming at the top of his lungs - the only downfall about having a bigger baby is his lungs are already well developed!!

It really is the most amazing experience ever and i have to say my mum and simon did a fantastic job, im especially proud of Simon, cant believe he actually watched it all and cut the umbilical cord!!

The hardest part id say so far is actually breastfeeding, its harder then giving birth (well for me it is) he is loving his food and chomps away at it like a typical male and then lets out the biggest burps, completely taking after his father!! He is a complete gem at night though (so far), since the second night at home he has only been feeding every 5-6 hours at night, so we do a midnight feed and then a 6am feed and the little angel goes back to sleep (after his hiccups of course). So luckily we are all getting pretty good sleep in the household for now - were wondering when this is going to change!!

Anyway the little man is about to wake i can hear him talking to himself, just wanted to say thanks for all your lovely messages and cards and pressies, he has been totally spoilt already and i cant wait to dress him up in all his funky clothes.

Till next time.....oh and ill load more piccies soon, need simons phone to take the pic will add later on..

xx

Fathers Day

Its a week since little Monty arrived home and today is Fathers Day.

No, I didn't get woken with breakfast in bed or a cup of tea or a free pass to watch the premiership highlights from the night before, but I did get to celebrate with a present and card from Monty and Mum.....(I think Monty had some help writing out his card!?)

The present is a hand and feet cast kit where we get to make moulds of Monty's hands and feet. Cool!

Monty also got to spend the day with Aunty Nicole and Aunty Belinda...plus his cousin Georgia....very exciting for him....plenty of attention!

I'm not sure that we officially confirmed Monty's weight and length after the birth, so here it is....a huge 9lb 5oz (4,246g) and 54cm. When we checked out of the hospital last Sunday he had dropped to 4,030g which apparently is quite normal. On Friday the Early Childhood nurse came and checked him out as part of her 1st visit and he had put on almost half a kilo in the 5days!!!, so he's obviously feeding okay! the nurse was pretty happy with his progress and now he weighs in at close to 4.5kg....I don't think he is going to fit those newborn nappies for very long.

I've attached a couple more pics below and video from Fathers Day.

We'll try and keep updating the blog with pics over the coming months...may not be as frequent as the last week though....:-)

Home sweet home

As you can imagine, a little hectic now...he's a grand old 4 days old today and yesterday we brought him home. He's still pretty well behaved, although we had a bit of an unsettled night list night....we think his unsettled time looks like 4.30am! We are starting to learn that we don't think he likes us sleeping or eating...already he has an uncanny knack for wanting attention just as we sit down to eat.

Anyway, first night in his room, Lisa and I did a sleepover and despite the fact he probably only spent half of the night in his cot, when he was in it he made us melt!

Day 2

Pics

Just a quick note to say if you are having trouble viewing any of the pics send us an email (simonandlisa@gmail.com) and we'll email them through to you.

Also we have some short video clips too....they need to be viewed in Quicktime....again just pop us an email and we'll send some through.

Monty Thomas Smith

The day we've been waiting for has arrived!

The cooking is over and Lisa and I have been blessed with a beautiful baby boy - Monty Thomas....He's a big lad, at 9lb 5oz and 54cm and with that in mind is testimony to Lisa who managed the delivery with no painkillers and in an almost world record 90 minutes or so (I think I'll have to write to the Guiness Book of Records). Monty seems to have extraordinarily large hands....something that I predict will help him play in Goal (soccer)...for Engand!

Monty was born at 9.35am on the 23rd August. Its still the 23rd and getting a bit late so I'll keep this one short. However, the important bits are that Lisa and baby are well and hopefully getting plenty of sleep....On his first day Monty has been very placid and well behaved...lets hope it continues. I can truly say that this was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and am feeling very proud, of both Monty and his amazing mother.

I have posted a couple of Day 1 pics and you can be sure that there will be plenty to follow.

Thanks for all of your kind messages :-)

2 days to go?

So this is possibly the last update before the big day. Lisa spoke with the OB today and they agreed that an induction would be the best way forward. Officially Lisa is due on the 21st but the original date was the 17th...on the date of the induction she'll be from 2-5 days overdue.

Wednesday night at 8pm is when Lisa has been booked in... she'll stay over at the hospital and if in the morning the waters haven't broken the OB will try his best to get them started. It sounds like we can expect the birth to be on Thursday at some point (or at least Lisa hopes so!)

Thats it for now. As soon as we have news I'll post a blog and the first pics :-)

Day 2 of being on ML

Ok so HELP im bored already!! I do have lots of things to do...but really cant be bothered. Thanks for the comments....and Leigh..even tho i had lotsa Vino as well in spain from what i remember i think it was a boy then girl....and i only had 2....which was a disappointing reading as we want 6...but i better get this one out first and then decide!!

My feelings and majority i think are that this basketball belly has a baby boy in it.....we were a little naughty and bought a blue outfit the other day...but also only cause we kinda thought if it was a girl then blue looks cute on girls as well. We had the OB last week and all was good...my weigh in showed again no weight gain...FINALLY thats almost a month now and i havn't put on any weight....so hopefully chubba wont be too big. Our OB thinks that chubba is a good size and maybe a week or so bigger so i think we may have an 8 pounder on its way.

So no signs yet, our OB said that babies head is well down, not engaged as yet but probably wont move or become breeched which is good. The last couple of weeks i have had a couple of braxton hicks which for some weird reason i actually get excited about rather then nervous...i was originally thinking i might come early....but now i reckon chubba will prob come around due date. Thanks to everyone who could make it to our baby shower, had a ball and scored some really lovely pressies for chubba, which now i have to wash ; - ) at least it gives me something else to do.

Anyway the piccie simon posted was me just getting home from last day at work...looking big and exhausted thats why my eyes are half closed ; - )

best get back to sorting out chubbas room hope your all well and happy birthday to heaps of people this month - i think there are about 6 of you, maybe chubba might come on one of your days.

Lots of luff....
Lisa and Baby smith
xx

The final stretch...

No news as yet but watch this space....only 2 weeks to go so officially 'full term'. We seem to have been a bit slack on the updates but here's a pic to keep you going (no Lisa doesn't have a basketball stuffed up her top!)

Now that Lisa has finished work you'll probably get updates everyday! (yeah right)....rest assured that when there is real baby shots they'll be up here in a flash.

Hi Everyone, well classes are done and i have to say i cant believe simon actually watched 3 different videos of ladies giving birth, and one of them being a ceasarian!! (I couldn't even watch this one) So at least now he knows what his in for....well kind of!! So we are Aunty and Uncle's again, Cath gave birth to the Lovely Little Liv Dinnen on the 20th of June see piccie of her first day back at home below!! The birth well very long seeing she was induced on the night of the 18th, but all was fine and they are all doing really well. We are off to meet her next weekend in Melbourne.

So we noticed that no-one has entered our competition yet and no comments from our last posting, does this mean none of you actually want to win the prize of babysitting?! ;-)

So not much news really, little one is still kicking like crazy hasnt settled down yet, we're back to the OB this thursday for our fortnightly visit so hopefully all on track! I Finish work on the 2nd of August and cant wait...so not long now!! Below is an updated piccie of the belly bump....taken this morning up at Collaroy Plateau where we went for our morning walk...the OB would've been proud doing my exercise...even though we had a few pit stops along the way...including breakky at a yummy cafe...but we wont tell him that!!
Hope your all well and until next time....Bye Bye xoxox

30 Weeks

So ive hit the big 30.....not in age obviously although i do feel lately that i have aged quite a bit....but 30 weeks along and 10 more to go....the count down begins!!

Simon has come up with an idea to have a little competition, you have to guess baby Smith's weight and length and the winner....wins...see below for the prize details!! Now be nice as well, remember im still pregnant and full of weird hormones that can make me cry at the drop of the hat, so no guessing its going to be 20 pounds and the biggest baby on the planet. The pic last week probably makes you all think that and it probably doesnt really help the fact that simon took it whilst i was in the fridge. We have an updated pic below which is a bit better and artistic as simon came up with the idea of taking it infront of a mirror so you can also get the side view.

So Cath still has her baby tucked up in her tummy and the little Dinnen is still not willing to come out yet, if not here by the 18th of June then she will be induced, so next week is when the little Dinnen will arrive into our world.

Last sunday we started on the room, cleaned out ALOT of junk and removed the bed, we made the cot and change table, all up and running now, other than that its looking as bare as a babies bottom, still needs a lot more work but the main things are done now. Will post a piccie of this once all done.

Back to the OB this wednesday for another weigh-in and check up they will now be fortnightly. Lately he keeps telling me i have put on too much weight, i feel like im on the biggest loser or something i get really nervous each time i have to jump on his scales, everytime i see him im weighed and instead of going down it goes up....oh well!!

Thats kinda it for now...oh before we go have to tell you the prize.....get ready for it...

The lucky winner wins......an all expenses paid* weekend babysitting!!

*Only applies to they Sydney metro area, winners outside this area will need to make their own arrangements to get to Sydney ; - )

Finally...the May Update

Woopsie, sorry everyone we've been a bit slack on our postings lately....been meaning to post for a while but never seem to get around to it these days.

Thanks to those of you who posted ideas/guesses on names, some interesting ones but we obviously wont reveal any until the little chubba comes out!!

So not too much to report, been feeling quite good lately until the last day or so when i have been suddenly struck by the third trimester tiredness. Its weird cause i have been feeling so normal for the last couple of months, to the point where when i wake up in the night i completely forget that im preggas until i jump out of bed and see the big bulge infront of me, so now that im starting to get the symptoms of back ache and overbearing tiredeness again i think that something is wrong....clearly not....all just normal signs of being preggas.

Little one is very active and growing bigger and bigger by the day thanks to the good food the dad is cooking, and also some of you will be surprised but i have been cooking as well, starting to practise treat cooking, made cupcakes, chocolate and pecan slice and just today nana's good old jam roly poly's YUMMMMMYY!!!

On friday i had to have the diabetes test, where you have to drink 50mg of glucose within 3 minutes wait an hour and then have a blood test, not too painful, the only problem was at the end when she made me look at the labels ON MY BLOOD to make sure name and DOB correct...hmm not the best with blood and made me feel queasy but all good.

We have our next OB appt on the 6 June so will get results then, hopefully all the sweet stuff i have been having hasnt affected the results too much ;-)!!

So Cath and Rich are due to bring another little Dinnen into the world on the 4th of June a week and a half away....we think its a little girl...but will let you all know once this little one has entered!! And it seems as though there is going to be another Dinnen this year as well.....Congrats to Tim and Gayle (our cousins) who are due in November.....

Next weekend is a big baby expo in sydney so were off to that and then the following weekend is the long weekend, which entails us going to our first prenatel classes at the hospital (HELP) and thats when we might attack the nursery, simon today cleaned quite a bit of junk out of it so is slowly coming together, will def post some before and after shots for you all.

Due to popular demand, below is an updated piccie....

23 Weeks

Okay, a quick update.

This weekend we took a trip way out west and went shopping for a few of the big baby things. The plan was to get the cot, pram and car seat - so coming back with a cot, pram and change table was somewhat of a surprise, especially considering how indecisive we usually are. We also bought a funky turtle thing that hangs from the ceiling - cute!

Today we had a proper think about names.....not that we are going to share any quite yet, but suffice to say we have few up our sleeves.

We are going to make this a short update but will have more to say soon.

So finally, have attached the latest pic of the mumma to be....definitely looking bigger and I would say a noticable difference from the previous pics on the blog.

If anyone wants to have a guess at a name for the baby feel free to post a guess or email and who knows we may even list a few on the next update.

The Little Squirt

So since last time a couple of things have started to happen....some good and some weird!!

So lets start with the good things....baby is doing sommersaults, kicking, punching, head butting and god knows what else inside my belly. It feels like tiny bubbles going off inside, not like the bad wind bubble feeling, its actually a nice feeling.

Last weekend we had to say goodbye to Aunty Al as she ventured overseas to the UK for a year or two, below is a piccie of her, baby belly smith and i at the airport, she was pretty upset cause she had to leave behind her half a kilo can of hair spray (They wouldnt let her through customs with it, as it looks like a rocket launcher)!!

You'll all be happy to know she made it there safely after taking two sleeping pills and snoring the whole way, waking up dribbling on the two "hot" guys next to her....typical Al. And we hear it hasn't taken her long to introduce herself again to the inlaws already apparently bum dancing at the Kings nightclub with Aunty Sarah!! (and funnily enough dribbling over the two hot guys....again!)

As for me not much bum dancing going on back here at Kingsway, just alot of forgetfullness - from what I remember! The other day i embarassed myself by slightly running in front of a row of 20 people or so at the bus stop, then following simon right to the back of the bus only to realise as i sat that the fly on my jeans was down.... my nice undies on display for all to see. We also had the Obstetrician (not sure of speeling) appointment last week, everything is still good and on track, although he seems to think the extra 7kg i have put on is a little high....woopsi...maybe i should start exercising now.....

On friday we started sorting out babies room, cleaned out all the junk that we hoarded from our last place and made decisions on what we are going to do. After spending about an hour in bunnings warehouse we decided we are going to paint some stuff and make it look baby'ish. Big, but hopefully fun task. We'll show you some piccies once done.

Anyway happy Easter everyone, hope you all eat lots of choccies from the easter bunny....and until next time bye bye...

Half way

Wow - to think that we are already half way through the 'cooking' process! Guess that the next half will feel even quicker than the 1st?

As well as reaching half way, this week was very significant for the fact that it was the 19/20 week scan.

Well, it was all pretty exciting and all good news....

Despite the fact that the little one didn't want to play the game and seemed to be doing everthing within its power to play hide and seek, the scan was good and everything that needed to be checked was (eventually) checked. We saw a good profile, very clear hands and feet, a heart (with 4 clear chambers), kidneys, stomach etc... it did take almost an hour and a half to get everything but fortunately the sonographer was very patient and at Friday 5.30pm after getting lisa to do a number of wiggles, shakes, toilet visits etc.. she let us go.

We didn't get too many good scan pics, infact the original scans at 12/13 weeks were probably clearer...having said that the next pic is a good one of the little one doing a face plant (and the pic is placed as portrait on the screen rather than landscape cos we can't work out how to spin it around....turn the pic anticlockwise 90 degrees)

The next pic is a little clearer'ish - and is a profile shot, you can make out the nose (looks like lisa's!) and lips and chin (mine?)

Our luck with good clear images was summed up when we found out that the DVD recorder that was supposed to be recording the scan did not work.....so unfortunately we didn't get that either.

All of that said, the scan was pretty cool....the baby was clearly playing with its feet at one point and also seemed to be covering its face with its hands for a good period of time. We also found out that the baby weighed 291 grams, is the size of a coke can with arms and legs and is in fact likely to be due on the 21st August rather than the 17th (which is the date that the doctor gave us)...anyhow, we'll be ready whenever it does pop out.

So, thats it for now - Lisa's too busy to say anything today, she's watching Greys Anatomy....doing this is a good excuse for me not to!

Plan to post again next weekend with another pic of Lisa's ever growing belly :-)

Beginning of the bump

Its been around 5-6 weeks since we last posted.



When we set up this blog we envisaged posting our news every week or couple of weeks - however, we've found that things have been pretty busy and we haven't exactly been inundated with news to post. Having said this over the same period of time we have been introduced to 'the bump'....Its obviously such a gradual process it kind of creeped up on us, but with evidence below you can see the bump is most definitely making its presence felt.



Lisa's suffering from a few of the expected symptoms still...not as tired as before though unless I drag her out on a long walk.


We got back on Monday 5th March from our belated honeymoon! We spent just over a week away and went to Hamilton Island and Hayman Island in the Whitsunday islands. Wow Hayman Island was unbelievable and I'd recommend it to anyone. Treated like kings and queens we spent the whole time eating great food, sitting by the pool, drinking cocktails, or in Lisa's case Mocktails and enjoying the surroundings. Our 'Retreat' room gave us the unusual experience of being able to shower outside in amongst the trees outside at the back of our room.


I (now being Lisa typing) was quite surprised that simon liked showering in the outside shower with all the wildlife about including spiders, i was quite impressed although he refused to shower at night out there..... on the topic of spiders i have to say you would all be quite impressed in the way simon has been killing these, lots of the maternity books say you should try and not breathe in fumes from aerosole cans particularly mortein (our spider spray) ever since i have fallen preggas simon has killed all the spiders in the house....which has actually been unfortunately quite a few seeing we somehow developed an influx of redback spiders out on our balcony!! Already being the protective dad!!

So while its my turn to write thought i would discuss the topic of maternity clothes....hmmmm not so much a happy topic with me right now!! Those of you who have experienced pregnancy would probably agree with me that the hardest part coming to terms with is the whole growing of the belly and no longer fitting into your clothes. It's an exciting time because you are starting to show a bump that no longer looks like lots of Mcdonalds and pizzas and begins to look like an odd shape that could only resemble the "baby bump". Its also scary cos you know your only going to get bigger and you may never ever be the original size you used to be before you fell preggas.


Anyway as a bday pressie my hubby has offered to buy me some maternity clothes, on my actual bday we went to this shop over in balmain which we heard was meant to be good....yeh right...i think the cheapest piece of clothing was $99 for a singlet top....so we didnt really spend that long in there. We attempted yesterday again to go shopping at good old warringah mall as there were a couple of places there....just as expensive again we ended up looking at the 50% off rack hoping for the best but nothing on there was wearable really BAD jeans and everything size 16 and up, i heard about target so we went there much more in our price range (seeing we are still in debt from the wedding) and success....although i only bought one top which was black...and size 10 (YAY) but plenty of room for the belly to grow...also purchased one of those belly belts....intended so you can still wear your same jeans and pant/skirts etc with the buttons undone but this sits over the top......ill take that over buying any type of dodgy maternity jeans and pants!! Have to say so far maternity clothes shopping is really depressing....someone needs to invent a more fashionable brand without the price tag!!


Had to get that off my chest...



So anyway in two weeks, on the 23rd March we have the next big scan....19/20 week scan. The next post is bound to follow shortly after hopefully all will be ok and we will be able to show you more piccies of the little chubba!!

12 weeks

We've been looking forward to this week for a while. Being the end of the 1st trimester we needed to go and have the 1st big scan and a few tests. Even though Lisa had a quick 'date setting' scan after about 8 weeks, this one gave us something to look at that started to resemble something familiar - an alien!

Actually, the scan was pretty amazing...with junior smith jumping around and, we like to think, waving (admittedly the jumping around coincided with Lisa coffing....). It was a great 1st introduction for us and thankfully everything went according to plan and the doctor found no major issues. However, the Doctor did give us an updated due date....moving from the 21st August to the 17th August.

You may be wondering how Lisa is feeling and whether she is sick/tired/grumpy (or all of these). Well fortunately for me (Simon) I haven't had to deal with any sick yet but lots of tired (email me for the 'unofficial version' Lisa's reading this :-)

Having said this, Lisa has been feeling a bit sick on and off but seems to think that this has improved over the last week. She has however placed a paper bag in her handbag in readiness for a morning on the bus when spewing gets the better of her.

That's it for now.

The Recipe

For anyone that hasn't heard the gory details about what is really cooking, we (Lisa and Simon) found out shortly before Christmas that Lisa is 'up the duff' - what a great Christmas present!! At the time Lisa was just 5 weeks pregnant and it is only recently that we have reached the end of the 1st trimester.....so this is our way of sharing the news with all of our friends and family across the world.

Over the next 6 months we'll share with you (probably very infrequently!) any news and updates and pictures - it seems like a great idea now, but we'll probably be cursing that we thought of it in a few weeks when we've got so many other things to sort out.

So the next posting will be the details of the 1st scan and the 1st picture of little baby Smith.

Now to the recipe - all to be revealed when the cooking is done! (maybe)