Update on Phoebe

Phoebe has now been in Musgrove Hospital in Taunton for 3 nights; She has Bronchiolitis, which is described here. She is in a stable condition and is simply in hospital to recover; They are hopeful that she will be home with us by Christmas Eve - she is in an oxygen box which is helping her with her breathing and she is taking most of her feeds by nasal gastric tube. They are keen to make her recover as easy as possible, hence all the support.

Meanwhile, Gracie is over the worst of Tonsilitis and is herself again which is great. We're holding up well, and look forward to all being back together for Christmas. Some photos...

Back where it all began...

Sorry we've been out of contact for a long time. As you know we've been living down in Devon, and we didn't have an internet connection. Fortunately we had electricity for the last few weeks of our stay there, and I understand that they're hoping to go to colour down there any day now (everything is currently in black and white).

I will write a full update on what's been going on in the near future, but for now I wanted to bring you up to speed with where Phoebe is at; Phoebe has been quite sick this week with a very bad chesty cough, and has ben struggling with her breathing - we took her to see the GP on Tuesday and he sent her away saying that unless she was blue and floppy there was nothing that could be done.

We called NHS Direct last night as she seemed to be going downhill yesterday; she had been pretty unresponsive for most of the day and had no colour in her. They sent an ambulance for her immediately and she was taken to Musgrove Hospital in Taunton. She was kept overnight, and she is likely to be there for another night.

They believe she has bronchilitis which isn't too serious, but she's in an oxygen box, has a feeding tube up her nose again as she's not been keeping any food down. Laura is with her, and was up for most of the night while the doctors and nurses where in and out - I was at the hospital until gone 3am.

Meenwhile, I am now back at home with Gracie who also has the flu - she's not left the sofa now for 2 days (other than going to bed) and is sleeping LOTS! She's not eating and isn't in good spirits at all, but fortunately she is loving her new Peppa Pig DVD that she got for her birthday.

So bear us in your thoughts and prayers as it seems the year is ending in a similar manner to how it started. We're in good spirits, but this is the 2nd christmas on the trot that is being hijacked by ill health!

I'll keep you up to date via the blog, facebook and twitter.

Paul

Phoebe on Oxygen after arriving in the ambulance.

Busy, busy busy!

We're sorry that our blog has been a bit quiet recently but we have been busy enjoying the start of a lovely summer: beautiful weather, visits from Paul's parents and my brother, Tom. We've been having lots of fun discovering a few of the delights of British Columbia. We will post about some of the fun things we've been up too over the next few days...but firstly a little update on our gorgeous girls:

Today Phoebe is six months old- we can't believe that she is already half way to one! She is doing amazingly and we really don't think of her as a preemie any more. She is incredibly healthy and is a delight to have around; smiling lots and making cute little noises. She is catching up with her actual age (six months) in size and is plodding along nicely in development at her corrected age (12 weeks). She is very relaxed and reminds us more of Paul's personality where as Gracie is far more like me.

Gracie is loving life and is so much fun to be around. She makes us laugh a lot! Her current interests are photography and singing (nothing new there!), however, to Paul's delight she is currently into Coldplay and sings 'viva la vida' and 'fix you' at least once a day! Gracie is growing up so fast and in September she will start pre-school. I'm slightly freaked out about all the things I have to get organised for this huge event in our lives....snack box, bag, labels etc. But more worryingly I will need to get myself and Gracie up and dressed (Phoebe can get away with p.j.'s!), all fed and out the door by 8:45am two mornings a week! I know most people do this every day but we are often in our p.j.'s until 10am...oh the start of our schooling career! Anyway, enough of my ramblings, here our some photos!

Two pictures from Gracie's photo-shoot this afternoon...(there we A LOT more photos, but sofas, the floor and the toilet might not interest you so much!)

(funny faces are a must!)

And Phoebe at six months old...

Summer, Birthdays & family fun...

It's been a busy week in the K-S household; Last weekend it was Laura's 29th birthday which was great fun. We threw a little surprise party for her which we all enjoyed very much. On Monday, my parents arrived from the UK for their 2 week holiday in Canada.

On Tuesday I had to take my driving test for my BC license - it was fairly intimidating doing a road test after accumulating 11 years of bad driving habits! I did pass fortunately and we headed off afterwards to Harrison Hot Springs which is a beautiful lake and and hot springs surrounded by beautiful mountains... We had a wonderful afternoon there with mum and dad.

We waved goodbye to my parents on Wednesday for their trip to Vancouver Island, and yesterday welcomed Laura's brother Tom to stay with us for a little while. We're pretty tired but we've got plenty to look forward to... Tom and I are off to watch Coldplay in Vancouver on Sunday night, and Laura and I (and the girls) are heading up to Whistler on Thursday night with mum & dad... All in all, life is good!

Phoebe's favorite past time!

New plat... not sure she's happy about it

Presents on the bed for the birthday girl

Darla and Phoebe with Laura at her party

Darren & Wendy

Grandpops meets Phoebe for the first time

Granny & Grandpops out for lunch in Harrison

"I will use the paper" when I run out of arm

The week in pictures

It's Friday again which means that it's time for a day off; This week has been a very busy week and we're all pretty tired. Laura, Gracie & Phoebe are on fine form; Phoebe now weighs 10lbs 9oz which is fantastic and she is starting to go much longer at night which is brilliant. One night this week she slept for 7 hours straight and followed it with another 6 hours - we're hoping that sleeping through the night will come soon! The weather here is absolutely glorious so we're enjoying getting out to our local parks and today we're off to the beach! We're just 2 weeks away from Laura's 29th birthday also which we're very excited about at this end; Gracie loves singing happy birthday! Photos....

Gracie basking in the hot sun in our Garden...

Cup of tea?

Phoebe lost her head going down the slide!

A pre game BBQ before watching the church softball team...

No words needed...

Gracie on her trike...

Our little 'kiwi'

Girls in spots...

One of our favorite outfits when Gracie was a baby was a beautiful red dress that Brent & Anna gave us - it's finally warm enough for Phoebe to wear it so below is a photo of Phoebe wearing it, and a picture of Gracie wearing it back in 2007!

The spotty girls!

Phoebe - 22/5/09

Gracie 13/01/07

Lazy Holiday Weekend!

This weekend we had a visit from Mike (our old vicar in Auckland) as he was passing through Vancouver on his way back from London; We had a great time catching up on the news from St Paul's, reminiscing about our time there, and Mike and I had an interesting car journey with 2 ladies we met in a hotel which led us a very nice lake here in Langley (longish story!)

While I was collecting Mike from Vancouver, Laura took Gracie and Phoebe to the water park which is just a couple of minutes walk from our house... Gracie had great fun there until she collided with an 11 year old boy, sending her flying up into the air and landing flat on her face in the water. She tore her nose apart and cut her lip... Apparently there was a lot of blood spurting out and when we returned from Vancouver it really looked like she'd had been given a facial by Edward Scissor Hands - she wasn't put off though and we returned to the park yesterday for more fun in the sun.

Today has been a public holiday so we went to Fort Langley for their annual Victoria Day Parade which was a total blast; It was everything you could hope for from a North American parade including a motorcycle display, marching bands galore, square dancers and the obligatory person dressed up in an animal costume! We went with our friends Cal & Darla and their 2 girls - it was a great morning.

Mike and I on our mystery tour!

Having fun at the water park

Gracie's war wounds... they looked a lot worse the day before!

Fun on the swings

Phoebe sleeping through all the fun!

A picnic with Cal & Darla and co

Gracie watching the parade... she had such a great time

Cal and Denaya

Not sure who this guy was meant to be... William Wallace?

What's been going on?

Yeah, it's been a long time since we've blogged; Life has been pretty busy as you can imagine with a toddler and a newborn baby in the house. Phoebe will be 4 months old on Monday although her corrected age is almost 3 weeks...

She is doing so well. She had her final MRI scan last Friday and the results came back completely clear which is amazing, and the nurse commented on how rare it is to come across a baby born as young as Phoebe with no side effects of prematurity - she really is such a miracle. She weighed in last Friday at 9lbs, although we think she's had a growth spurt this week so goodness knows how big she is now!

We're all doing well considering the sleep depravation and looking forward to the holiday we were going to have when Laura went into labour (we had planned to go to Whistler for a week when we first arrived). We don't have any time booked off yet, and no idea where to go but we'll hope to go somewhere soon.

Here are a few photos of the girls.

Comb over!

Gracie at the Vancouver Aquarium

Happy 'Birthday' Phoebe!

Believe it or not, today (18th April) is Phoebe's actual due-date! It seems a little surreal to think that she has actually been with us for over 3 months now (click here for the beginning of the story). She's continuing to do amazingly and yesterday was finally given the all-clear from the eye doctor, saying that her eyes are in perfect order. We're thoroughly grateful for this as I'm sure she will be when she's old enough to appreciate them! She's still not poo-ing enough so please keep praying that her bowels would loosen big time!

This week has been a busy and fun week; It started last Saturday night with the arrival of Granny (Paul's mum) from the UK. Gracie had the time of her life on Easter morning with eggs galore laid outside the house by our landlord Marcel - she spent the morning gathering and eating, and we spent the rest of the day dealing with a girl who only wanted to eat chocolate!

We've had a great fun week seeing some of the sights, relaxing at home and having interesting chats with interesting people... The first chat was with the Google Street View driver who was photographing our street (we proceeded to follow him once he was done to ensure our google fame). Our second interesting chat was with Gordon the Cowboy Poet this morning...

'Oooooooh'

Granny arriving into Vancouver

Grannies first cuddle with Phoebe

Gracie's Easter egg hunt

'If only I was just a little bit smaller'

'Why is she in my carseat?'

Mum chatting with the Google man!

Bath time!