A little visit from Canada

Just after Mark's parents found out that they would be expecting their first grandchild - they were researching tickets to come down to meet Baby Wilcox. They arrived off the plane, and Mark picked them up heading to the house first as NICU had visiting hours that didn't start until noon, despite their 6 am arrival time. They finally did get to meet Thomas, just after noon on the 11th. 

We had an exciting four weeks planned with a move to a new house, visits to the zoo, the museum and a few beach days - nothing like a good beach day in the Wilcox books. Rob and Joanne enjoyed some record breaking temperatures while they were here, the worst of it around the time we were moving. 

Grampie is a big Boston fan: Red Socks, Celtics and Bruins. A trip to meet his first grandchild would not be complete without a set of matching team supporting outfits. Here's Thomas in his first Red Socks outfit - wearing the "home team" colours. 

Nana seemed to have the magic touch when it came to sleeping Thomas in the early days at home. She was so patient with sitting and rocking him to sleep in the heat. 

Although a lot of what we did together this trip was repeats of things that Mark's parents loved about Auckland last time they were here, plus visiting with the new apple of their eye, one new adventure they had was the paddle boarding. Here they are moving to the other side of the surf. It is one of the few pictures Mark was able to get with them both in the same shot as they moved in different directions once they were standing on the boards. 

Nana and Grampie playing with Thomas on the floor on one of the last days before they left for (cold and snowy) Canada. 

The Tui's Nest

As many already know, about two months ago, we said goodbye to our first real New Zealand home at Fiddlehead Flat in order to accommodate our growing family. We were sad to see it go and our wonderful neighbour Pamela, but excited to accompany the new bundle of joy with a change in address.

Having Dad down to give us a hand moving was amazing as the two of us loaded the van together and hauled everything into our new house. This freed Mary-Ellen up to relax and focus on Thomas while Mom did a bit of cleaning before we moved things into place. After a few trips we were settled in, all the furniture reassembled and moved into place, at least till Mary-Ellen decided she wanted to move things again. Two months in and we are starting to feel like the space is ours. We have a larger kitchen will be great for all the cooking I will do this Winter. A proper space for our dining set means we can use the table for what we purchased it for!Our living room is well set up to entertain and convenient for feeding and changing the little one. It is also nice to be able to set up the furniture to face each other, which we were unable to do with the old living room.

Thomas has taken up temporary residence in our room so we can keep an eye on him through the night while the second bed room is set up for the numerous guests we have visiting us over the next several month. Eventually the room will be slowly converted to Thomas's room.

Outside, we have plenty of green space which Thomas can enjoy as he gets older and finally a decent space to put a barbecue which Mary-Ellen was thrilled to get. The gardens are nice and fairly simple but there is a lot of work that I have to put into them to get things back to what they were when they were planted. Having a covered carport is also amazing, allowing us to hang laundry out and get Thomas in and out of the car without getting him wet when it is raining.

And after two months we are quite settled in and we have named our new place The Tui's Nest, a place for us to raise our little Kiwi-born child. And after all this work to get a place where Thomas can rest his head comfortably, turns out he is not to discriminate as to where he decides sleep.

Grandparents at the Zoo

While Mark's parents were here, one of the things we all wanted to do was visit the zoo. Mark and I should really invest in an annual pass as it seems to be the thing we do when we want to get out of the house for a day but not really drive anywhere out of the city. We also love going at different times of the day so that we can see different animals as some are more active at opening time and some closer to closing. This time we went early in the morning so some of the animals were being fed and were a bit more active then they would be later on in the heat of the day.

This time the highlight, like when we went when I was 38 weeks pregnant was the kiwi. We actually saw the kiwi at the zoo! Twice now! Unfortunately, you can't take photos because of the "night light" in the display.

The giraffes as always were a favorite of both myself and Joanne. I also enjoy the big cats while Mark loves the Galapagos turtle. A lot of the chickens that roam around the zoo also had little fluffy baby chicks with them. Adorable.

The rhino was amazing as well as it was the best view we've had of him in all our trips to the zoo. The flamingos were also a thrill to watch as it was early morning and they were all dancing and squawking and preening their feathers. Here are some of the photos that highlight the best parts of this particular trip to the zoo

Thomas taking a break from the stroller while everyone else was checking out some local birds. 

Thomas enjoying the elephants, sort of, before drifting back off to sleep 

Mark's favorite animal at the zoo!

Oh, the irony! The wood pigeon sitting on a sign about the wood pigeon.

Monkey friends

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Tāmaki Herenga Waka Festival

Over the long weekend, Auckland Anniversary weekend, we decided to head downtown and take in some of the festivals while Mark's parents were here. There were several going on all over the city but we decided to attend the Tamaki Herenga Waka Festival as there was to be a cultural performance of a Haka Waiata which Mark's parents really wanted to see after having seen the performance last year at the museum.  We were hoping to take them to the Otahuhu College Haka Waiata House competition, but the competition was to be held a week and a half after they had already gone home.

We set out early in the morning as there was to be a traditional boat race between some of the iwi (family tribes). Unfortunately, after arriving it was decided that the waters were too rough and windy for this particular type of boat. There was a boat on display though, so we were able to see the handcrafted beautiful work that goes into the boats up close.

We visited the stalls of jewelry, crafts, traditional medicine, wood working and food. There was a lovely area set up for children with traditional children's games and lots of adults were taking part in the fun.

As lunch time approached we all settled down to eat, and afterwards headed back to the main stage of the festival to watch the Haka Waiata performance. It was a school that performed, the school that won the Haka Waiata competition last year. I missed their name, so I'm not sure what school it was that was performing. They did several performances all in a row. They did the traditional Haka and the Waiata and followed it up with some traditional kids songs that have actions.

After the delightful cultural performance, we wandered around the area as there was also a buskers festival going on to celebrate the long weekend. We got to see two of the acts.

In addition the buskers, we were able to see some of the Auckland Dragon boat teams compete in some friendly races around the harbour. 

 

Despite the windy start to the day, the sun was out in full force and the water was fine by noon to have small paddle boats out in the water. Thomas of course slept through everything, except this. No one, not even Thomas, can sleep through bag pipes! 

Thomas's First Trip to the Beach

As a Wilcox, the beach is in Thomas's blood. It's where he will holiday and explore. It's where he will play in rock pools, identify shells and fish, sleep in the salt air, learn to swim and eventually, if he's interested, learn to dive.

Thomas's first trip to the beach was exactly one week after being home. In true Thomas style he slept through most of it, but then again when you are at the beach you are to do what makes you happy and relaxed and for Thomas, that's sleeping. Thomas slept in his stroller, he slept cuddled up to mummy and he slept in the front pack as we walked for coffee and daddy took  him down to the water. He even slept through lunch allowing us all to sit down and eat at the same time.

Arriving at the beach and setting up in the shade

Thomas doing what he does best - sleeping

A day at the beach can't get much nicer than this

Cuddles with mummy 

Listening to the waves as Daddy gets his feet wet

Deciding what to do about lunch 

Thomas's Birth Story

Welcome to the world little one! 

Thomas James Alan Wilcox 

December 29th 2015

3730g and 51cm long 

Unknown to family and friends, Thomas's birthday had already been tentatively decided as December 31st, 2015 because he was presenting as breech. This decision was made after careful thought. My wonderful midwife was comfortable with breech births and was supportive encouraging us to do research on both vaginal breech birth and cesarean sections. Jaz, our midwife, was ready to support us in the path we chose and had no bias in her conversations with us. Once we were refereed to the hospital, Jaz attempted to come to all visits and continued to support us by helping to advocate for us and answering any questions we had after the appointment was over, as well as directing us to resources to help us make our decision. In short: she is awesome. 

Jaz booked us to see a specialist at the hospital to try an ECV, a procedure where they try to push on the baby from the outside to turn the baby head down. We were booked in and the procedure was unsuccessful. Stubborn already! The next step was to meet with a surgeon who would discuss the pros and cons of birthing via cesarean. We did that at 38 weeks. We were then scheduled for a follow up appointment that included another ultrasound to see if baby had turned on it's own. The ultrasound and doctors appointment were scheduled for the 30th, and a cesarean was scheduled on the 31st. The pre-surgery appointment was scheduled for the afternoon of the 29th. Yes, we had to go to pre-surgery consultation, before we had decided about the surgery as that was the only appointment available. When you are having a baby between Christmas and New Years, the scheduling doesn't always work out due to staff holidays. We had decided that if the baby had not turned itself around, we would go the route of the cesarean.  

Thomas, it turns out, had other plans.  

Thomas has never been a big mover and kicker while "on the inside" but he was predictable. Usually within 20 minutes of eating, I would feel Thomas twirl and stretch but on the morning of the 29th, there was no movement after breakfast. I tried a few other known strategies to get him to move such as poking, laying on my back and eating something full of sugar, but the baby would have none of it. No movements. Something was not right. 

Finally at 10:30 I called our midwife and explained all I had done and that the baby was not moving in response. She asked us to meet her at the hospital for a fetal assessment, and assured us that usually by the time you get to the hospital the baby is well and moving and it was all just a scare. 

We arrived close to 11 and I was hooked up to a fetal monitor. They were able to find a heartbeat, but they were unable to detect any movements. After a ten minute stretch, the doctors were called in and it was decided that our baby would be born, today, and right now.

Mark and I were ushered into a room where I was instructed to change. Once that was done, an IV was placed while Mark and I were listening to possible complications and signing papers. Next thing we know we were moving down the hall towards the operating theater where things moved very fast. Doctors are still explaining the cesarean procedure what I would hear and how things would happen while the epidural was being placed.  

Thomas was born very quickly, and it felt like it took forever to hear him cry and when he did cry it was so weak and tiny. He was placed on oxygen right away and moved directly to NICU to receive help with his breathing. 

Thomas started in Level 2 in an incubator on CPAP but it was quickly determined he needed more help with his breathing and he was moved to level 3 NICU where he was intubated and placed on morphine to sedate him so he wouldn't knock out any of the IV lines with baby wiggles and squirms. 

Thomas at one week old (on his original due date) once most of the monitors were off and the worst of it was over. 

Upon further testing, it was found his glucose was really low. His glucose level was 0.1 at birth. The lowest the nurses had seen before Thomas was 0.3. He had IV's placed to receive medications and glucose and then his heart became confused and kept reverting back to gestational circulation, and  on top of it all he was treated for an infection in his lungs - which is what the doctors think caused the whole thing. Gestational pneumonia. 

With all the blood tests, his blood stopped clotting properly and he was offered medications to help with clotting.  The doctors had no idea how long Thomas was in distress in the womb, and were worried that there could be seizures due to lack of oxygen to the brain so Thomas was hooked up to the BRAINZ monitors as well to watch for seizures. Over the three day monitoring period, there were no seizures. It was such a relief to hear. 

Thomas and mummy snuggles in Level 1 NICU, once most of our tubes, IV lines and BRAINZ monitors were removed

Daddy snuggles are the best

In addition to all of this, Thomas was given a feeding tube to receive nutrition as he had too many sensitive lines to be held to feed and he was too lethargic to feed on all the medications.  His feeding tube was the last thing to be removed as it took Thomas a while to figure out how to eat on his own and to have the energy to do so after such a traumatic start in life. Thomas spent 21 days in NICU before coming home.

Thomas being fed via tube 

Finally going home!