trying to get a nice photo....

is never going to happen with 3 crazy boys who cant look at the camera at the same time, and smile without pulling faces....or zack who cant stop wearing that silly tea towel. I would love to get some photos of him with his lovely sun bleached blonde hair.

Back to School

The first day back to school was very easy and non stressful this year. It was nice going back to a school where the boys werent the "new" kids this year. They both found friends before they even got to their classes so they were very relaxed and I could have almost not been there. It was good though to meet their teachers. Since we are still newish to the school I dont really know many teachers yet so it was good to meet them. Ethan and Daniel were also excited to show off their new brother to their friends and new teachers. Sam was a real hit with everyone. After we dropped them off at school Zack was a little sad on the way home. But we ended up having a really nice quiet day at home. I am definately enjoying being back at school and having a little peace during the day with just the little boys at home.

Zack of course had to be in the yearly back to school photos this year. He has an obsession with wearing a tea towel on his head at the moment and so almost all photos he looks like that!

giving the "baby" a bath

Since Sam was in hospital for so long, which required me to be there pretty much all day everyday, the kids spent a lot of time at my parents house so Matt could also come into the hospital. While Zack was staying there one afternoon he asked aunty Erin if he could give the baby a bath. The baby which was Ariel. he is so facinated with bathing Sam and always has to get a chair to "help" me bath.

Samuel Murray Jury

A month ago yesterday we welcomed the last member of our family. Little Samuel Murray Jury on the 5th January 2012 at 9:13am via C-Section weighing 4080g. He was a big boy but not my biggest!. All our boys have family names as their middle names and he is named after my grandpa ( Docking). He came out looking very chubby but so gorgeous. It was by far the most relaxing of all my c-sections. The anethesist was awesome. I didnt even feel the spinal go in....his supervisor on the other hand was not so good and I felt every try he made of trying to get my canular in.....it only took 5 goes and left my hand very sore and bruised.

The boys were very excited to visit and meet their little brother....and very happy to have another boy and not a sister as it means the big boys will get their own rooms when we do some minor renovatng !

unfortunately on day 3 doctors decided that Sam had dropped too much weight. He dropped a third of his weight and was admitted to the special care unit to have a feeding tube inserted. Sam was tube fed and breast fed for 5 days. We then got weekend leave however on returning to the hospital on the monday he had lost more weight so he had to stay.

Sam was also born with a condition called Bilateral Hydronephrosis. Which essentially means water on the kidneys. through out my pregnancy we were monitored very closely not knowing when he may need to be born, and unsure what the outcome would be. we were given so many different scenarios of what may happen. Only 2-3 hours after he was born he had his first renal ultrasound. over the next 3 weeks he endured endless blood test, ultra sounds and invasive test to determine what kidney function and what damage he had. From the test we found out that he had grade 5 bladder reflux on his right kidney, and that kidney only has 25 % fuction, and the left kidney had whats called a PUJ obstruction in his ureter with 75% function in that kidney. The Damage in both kidneys is irreversable. His Surgeon decided from these test that he needed surgery to try stop any further damage to his "good" kidney and on January 25th he had surgery to place a stent in his ureter. this is a stop gap to allow him to grow a little before he has major surgery to repair the ureter in the next few months. That day was certainly not how i expected to be spending my wedding anniversary. Ive never had any of my kids go under a general so I was more then a little worried. Thankfully that Surgery has been successful and 2 days later he was FINALLY discharged from hospital with what felt like half a pharmacy as he has been on antibiotics since birth and will continue to be possibly for the rest of his life and he also has to take sodium ( which taste like liquid playdough).

a big birthday

back in october we got to celebrate my Grandpas 85th birthday. We had a special family party for him with all but 2 grandkids making it for the occasion. It was the first time in a long time that the family had all been together, and it was a lovely night to catch up especially with those that I dont get to see very often. And the kids got the opportunity to meet some of there second cousins for the first time and they had a great time playing. Grandpa has dementia and doesnt remember us now but he was very aware that everyone in the room that night loved him and that he had created a beautiful family.

2 weeks to go

only 2 more weeks to go until this little person arrives in our family. It has by far been the longest pregnancy ( im sure it has been more then 9 months!). I also had forgotten how hard it can be being pregnant with a toddler, and a high maitenance toddler at that.
It has been fun though trying to help Zack understand what is happening and setting up his little room so that we can fit a cot and a bed in there. Thankfully they wont be sharing for long as Zacks room is SO small, but for the first month or so they will. all I can say is bring on January 5th.

Our Weekend In Melbourne

I have fallen a little behind this year with the blogging. I just cant seem to find the time to sit down on the computer, So I am playing a little catch up at the moment.

Back in June I took the older 2 boys to melbourne for a couple of nights.It was their first trip back since we moved 4 1/2 years ago. When I first decided to do it it seemed like a fun adventure ( which is was) however very tiring as by the time we went I was well into my first trimester and very tired.

We stayed at Plum hotel and apartments in Southbank and got an awesome deal thanks to Auntie Leah who works there. The first full day we had there we went to the Aquarium which the boys just loved. I had never been myself and loved it also. after the Aquarium we headed to the outlets to do some shopping ( the boys were very keen to spend their hard earned money). the boys bought themselves all sorts of bits and pieces. For the sports mad Daniel the highlight of his day was riding the train with all the football fans on it heading to a game. they werent even Collingwood supporters but he got into the spirit of football chatting with the supporters.


The next day we headed off to the Zoo taking the tram ( I learned at the end of the day the train would have been easier!) The zoo was a lot of fun and Daniel had a huge facination with the apes. By the time we had walked around the zoo, had lunch and bought half the gift shop it was time to head back to the hotel to grab our bags and head to the airport home....or so we thought.


at the airport we found out that our flight had been cancelled ( thanks Tiger) and that due to the back log of flights that had been cancelled the previous week due to the ash cloud there were no flights on any airline for days. So off we went to a new hotel that tiger was putting us up in ( although yet to get my refund for that still). We stayed at the Mantra hotel in conjoined rooms. IT was probably the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. the cleanest , nicest bathroom, and nothing like a king bed all to myself , watching tv and eating chocolate. It was a nice relaxing night.



Thanks to Tiger we had an extra day and we got to spend the day with auntie Kelly and the cousins ( auntie kelly took them out of school for the day). it was so nice to just relax and let the kids play together as they dont get to do that very often.



That night after saying goodbye to our cousins we headed back into the city and down to port Melbourne to catch the boat home. I wish I could say i love the boat but I dont, especially when it is rough.

When we arrived in Devonport we caught about our billionth taxi to mcdonalds to wait for Matt and Zack to come and pick us up. We were all very tired and relieved when they arrived and eager to start the drive home.
It was a great weekend, although next time I think i will take matt with me if I am taking kids.

Our traditional photo at Ross Bridge. Matt makes us stop there every time we pass and take a photo. It was very wet and cold that day