A family morning in Abbotsford

We like to go and see Phoebe as a family on a Friday morning; We are able to have some time together as a family which is just great. We try to round off our trip with a visit to 'Triple O's' which is a burger place! This morning we visited Phoebe and had a great time with her - Gracie really enjoyed her time with her and enjoyed having cuddles with her. Phoebe is now 5lbs 8oz so is well on her way to being 6lbs.

Cute Phoebe video

Day 51 : Great Progress

Well it's day 51 and Phoebe continues to make progress; Laura has just come back from visiting with Alyson and the reports are good. She is now weighing 1891g (4lbs 3oz) and is continuing to gain weight steadily.

It really does feel like we're on the home stretch, although we've got a number of hurdles to cross first. There are a number of things that Phoebe needs to achieve before she will be allowed to go home.

1) She has to graduate to a cot (she's still in an incubator); At the moment the incubator is set to a temperature to keep her warm so they are gradually reducing it until it is actually the room temperature; When she is comfortable at that level and still gaining weight etc they will put her into a cot and bundle her nicely in blankets like you would any old baby!

2) She has to go five days without any desats, braddies, or apnia; which means that she needs to be able to breathe completely and do it consistently without any dips; Obviously this is as much for our benefit as Phoebe's as we don't want to spend our life reminding her to breathe! She's still desaturating quite a bit at the moment, so pray that she'll get stronger (which she will with size).

3) She needs to be able to take all of her feeds by bottle or breast for a period of 48 hours. She is currently receiving almost all of her milk (precision pumped by Laura!) via the feeding tube in her nose. Laura is starting to breastfeed her now although it's really just getting phoebe used to the taste and sensation of latching on - it doesn't offer any nutritional benefit at this stage, but is really important for Phoebe to start to develop the swallowing/sucking/breathing reflexes, and is fantastic bonding.

So that's where we're at; Please pray that Phoebe continues to develop in the coming weeks. We also need prayer for our shipping as it's taking an eternity to arrive! I received an email to say that it won't arrive into Vancouver until the 9th, and we can't process any paperwork until after it arrives, so we could be looking at a week after that at least which is frustrating as by then we will have paid for a months rent and not even spent one night there (although I did take a wee there last week!). As ever here are a couple of photos for you.

Phoebe in a deep sleep

Me getting a cuddle with my baby girl

Phoebe back onto CPAP!

So we expected that Phoebe would end up on CPAP again at somepoint, and on Sunday morning we received a call from the hospital to let us know that they were going to put her back on it that morning. While we were a little disapointed at first, it's been such a positive step for her as she has really been piling on the weight since! For the past 4-5 days she's consistently been putting on about 50g a day (2oz) so she is now weighing 1535g (3lbs 6oz). We're hopeful that this growth progress will continue as she is really starting to look more and more like a 'normal' baby. 

Gracie went in again with Laura, and Bev (Our wonderful Children & Families Ministry Director) on Monday and they had a fun time together with Phoebe, as well as visiting a British restaurant for lunch - I was working so I missed the fun. I'm really enjoying work, and am getting stuck into meetings, vision and clusters! LEFC is a really awesome church, and I'm so happy (and privileged)  to be a part of the team here - I'm preaching next Sunday, which hopefully will go well - apparently my English accent hugely stands in my favor! 

It feels like Spring is on the way, although you can never be too sure but the clocks do change in 3 weeks so we'll be ever closer to summer! Here are some photos from Monday. 

Phoebe, 5 weeks old!

Gracie and Phoebe

Bev & Phoebe

The weekend...

We have had a lovely weekend together, playing football and basketball on the drive, going for walks and playing in the park. We also picked up the keys to our new home which is very exciting! We're hoping our shipping will arrive soon!

I (Laura) went to the hospital last night and had one of the best visits yet. I haven't held Phoebe in over a week because the doctors believed she had an infection and my visits were always timed badly (they don't like her to be handled that much). So when I arrived last night to be asked by the nurse if I would like a cuddle a jumped at the chance. 

Phoebe has now wearing clothes as they are starting to adjust her incubator to room temperature which is another brilliant milestone. She has grown so much but is still too small to wear premature clothing and is in micro-premmie clothes, but I don't think she'll be in them for long as she now weighs 1395 grams and appears to be gaining a good amount every day. Because she is now wearing clothes I didn't hold her kangaroo style (skin to skin) as I have so far, but held like a 'normal' baby which felt wonderful and far more natural. This was also the first time I've held her without CPAP, so i was able to gaze lovingly at her for over an hour! She even opened her eyes and had a good look at me for a while as well.  Here are a few photos from the weekend...

Gracie looking cute in her new top!

Phoebe with her eyes open

Holding Phoebe like a 'normal' baby

Gracie Update

Gracie looking gorgeous, originally uploaded by thekingsleysmiths.

Well this morning we had the midwife round to check on how Gracie is doing. She weighed in at 8lbs 13oz!!! She's grown 13oz in 6 days.... she must have an apetite like her father!!!

More Gracie Video

Flickr Photos

More Gracie!, originally uploaded by thekingsleysmiths.

Ok, you may have noticed that there are photos down the side of the blog. This is because I have set up a flickr account to host the countless photos we'll be putting up on the web. Rather than posting lots of photos on the blog the whole time, I thought it would be easier to have some albums online.

So visit http://flickr.com/photos/thekingsleysmiths/ to look at our albums. Don't worry - we'll still add photos here too.

Gracie news!

More Gracie! With daddy!, originally uploaded by thekingsleysmiths.

Well, having a baby really is the most amazing experience! I am absolutely besotted with my little Gracie, and love every minute with her.

The 3 of us are staying in Birthcare at the moment which is a private hospital especially for new mums and their babies. The New Zealand system for having babies is absolutely incredible! We are waited on 24-7 and have midwives there to check that Gracie is feeding well; Laura had a massage from the physio this morning - it really is fab.

Laura has been an absolute star - the birth went amazingly, and she has made an excellent recovery, although I always knew she would.
We're staying in Birthcare until tomorrow, when we will return home to Point Chev to introduce Gracie to our house and her new room.

Thank you all for your comments and messages - it's great to hear from you; We feel very loved and valued.

Gracie's first visit.

Gracie & Lani (visitor number 1), originally uploaded by thekingsleysmiths.

Well, Gracie had her first visit from one of our great friends Lani. Lani currently holds the record for the most visits - i think she has been in 6 times now, and is visiting again twice today. Her and Gracie seem to get along just fine which is SO sweet!

Gracie & Amélie

Gracie & Amélie, originally uploaded by thekingsleysmiths.

Gracie met Amélie Rose Johnson for the first time yesterday afternoon and they got on like a house on fire. Amélie was born at 11:59pm on Monday 11th December. How cute is that!

The happy Kingsley-Smith family

The happy Kingsley-Smith family, originally uploaded by thekingsleysmiths.

Here we are... our first photo as a family. I'm sure there will be plenty more of these!! Watch this space!

Introducing Gracie May Kingsley-Smith

Gracie was born at 9:48 on the 10th December (her due date). She was 7lbs 10oz and is absolutely gorgeous. Both Gracie and Laura are doing really well.

Here are a few photos, ranging from 5 minutes after the birth, to 3 hours after.

D-Day (or B-Day)

Well as you will see by the counter below - today is the due date of the baby.... while these dates don't really mean anything, we're hoping that ours will be on time - with the powell military genes you would hope it may happen, but perhaps the kingsley-smith genes wipe that out!!

Last night we went to the CocaCola Christmas in the Park - if you'll remember, last year we were sat in the boiling heat; this year, we had a cold southerly wind, and plenty of rain but none-the-less we braved it with a few friends and had plenty of fun dancing along with some classic New Zealand D-list celebs! The photo above was Laura trying to keep warm last night!

Andrew Callum Gregory!

Congratulations Lucy & Al (Laura's sister & brother in-law) for pipping us to the post and giving birth this morning to Andrew Callum Gregory!

We were very excited to hear the news, and can only get more excited about our own iminent arrival! Let's hope it comes soon.

How long to go?

Under 2 weeks to go!!!

Well we are into the final countdown - Laura is now due in under 2 weeks. Aparently in the last week the baby has had a significant growth spurt - it wasn't small before, but i guess it definately isn't now. The baby is progressing well into position, and so hopefully i'll get to catch the bundle of joy within the next few weeks! I thought i'd put up a couple of photos of the babies room so you can see where it will be living.

Also - should update you on some of our most recent 'in womb' baby nicknames. Our good friend Rachel has named it Mrs Goggins, after my teady bear that was orginally named after the lovely Mrs Goggins in Postman Pat!!! I have been recently calling the baby bubbles - not sure why!!!

Baby Shower!

On Sunday I had my baby shower organised by my friend Anna. It was a lovely afternoon and very relaxed which i loved as I felt a little nervous and strange about people coming over to give me presents!

We played a couple of games-the first was to melt a tiny plastic baby out of an ice cube-the first won a prize! The second was to cut a piece of string, guessing how big i am- I then measured the string around myself (as in the photo!) -this was hysterical as most guessed massively bigger than I am.

There was so much yummy food and I revieved so many lovely cards and presents- i felt very spoilt and loved! Thanks to everyone who came!

12 weeks until Kinglett is due!

I've just realised thats there is only 12 weeks until our baby is due- how exciting and scary all at the same time!!

We are slowly making our house feel homely but it will take a while as it feels a bit empty- not surprising after moving from a tiny apartment into a 2 1/2 bed house with lots more room.

We have started to get the baby's room organised, the photos are of Paul putting together the cot- a job he did in no time and without any problems-apart from getting lost in the box!

20 Week Scan

Yesterday we went for our 20 week scan which was great! I was a little nervous as everyone has been telling me how tiny i am but Kinglet is the right size and everything is as normal which was a great relief to hear. This scan picture isn't the best and the baby looks slightly strange but we can assure you it looks normal!

We also has a DVD recording taken where it is possible to see Kinglet swallowing and the tongue more- very cute! We will try to post that later....