I don’t often plug (promote) other websites but here’s one I have to share:

http://www.babyparcel.com

They have distinguished themselves as arbiters of fashion, taste and good sense by selecting Sophie as their Baby of the Week! Bravo.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Sean

Thought for the day:

You know how every proud parent says their child is the most amazing? One of us has to be right, eh?

Sophie was born at 11:23 PM, Monday October 6th at Puri Bunda Hospital in Bali, Indonesia.

…first image, Dad (that’s me) is cutting the chord. Everyone had told me the chord would be surprisingly difficult to cut so, of course, I overcompensated slightly — you could probably hear [...]]]> Here are the first few minutes of Sophie Helen’s life.

Sophie was born at 11:23 PM, Monday October 6th at Puri Bunda Hospital in Bali, Indonesia.

…first image, Dad (that’s me) is cutting the chord. Everyone had told me the chord would be surprisingly difficult to cut so, of course, I overcompensated slightly — you could probably hear the SNIP! from a few miles away.

Then Sophie Helen meets her mother for the first time on the outside…

…she must have been surprised because at this point, all she did was wail, howl, weep & cry.  Athina on the other hand is tired but delighted.

The last (and biggest) image, shows mum & Sophie Helen just after baby has been whisked away for a little personal hygiene & grooming. Sophie Helen’s not crying any more and Athina can’t stop beaming with pride. Sophie Helen Puspita Hynes is now about one hour old.

Here she is again later in the morning — around 9:00 AM — October 7th being held up to the camera by her grandmother…

Athina is there in the background totally wiped out and I can’t remember if I’m taking the photo or if I’ve also slumped into the next bed.

At some point, anyway, we slept. 

Here’s Sophie Helen having her first “proper” bath and getting prettied up for the cameras. Note she’s posing but there’s nothing really on display.

In my opinion, a remarkably precocious display of social awareness and elegance — proof positive that not only is Sophie Helen beautiful, she’s also a genius. Amazing.

Freshly bathed, dressed & accessorized, little baby Sophie Helen takes a few minutes out of her busy schedule to be photographed with fans… in this case Auntie Galih and Grandma.

The next day, October 9th.

Here I am, I’m sure everyone will agree, on the WRONG side of the camera.

Some people might mistake that fixed glaze as the expression of a proud, new dad but in fact I’m just poleaxed and during the course of the day could be found in various nooks and crannies around the hospital staring just like that at tiles, vending machines and old cigarette boxes.

The other chap is the doctor. Athina, you’ve already met and, just at the bottom of the shot, Sophie Helen.

Later that day (just after we meet the doctor) we’re allowed home. Which gives us all the excuse we need to start playing dress-up with our new toy:

So there you have it: the opening hours of Sophie Helen’s life after a gruelling 41 week wait.

And the scan of course.

The montly event to which I [...]]]> Went to the doctor yesterday for our regular check up… Athina had to pee in a cup, get immunised and get jabbed in the ear a few times to make sure she bleeds and congeals properly. I watched a replay from Euro 2008… you know, “DAD” stuff.

And the scan of course.

The montly event to which I look forward the most… wow, I sound like Yoda today. Let’s just say I love the scans.

At Merdeka Clinic, the scans are not great… I think it must be an old ultrasound image that gave rise to that popular phrase, “he can’t tell his arse from his elbow”. Apparently, I’m that bloke.

Ah well, forget about that: here’s the main news:

1. Sophie is — the doctor is “100%” sure — a GIRL. Which, of course, is brilliant. I was not looking forward to sitting down with my tearful young son (Boy Named Sue playing on endless loop in the background) and explaining why we named him Sophie. And hats off to the doctor… I have no idea how he could be so sure…

2. Sophie is a happy, healthy 730g (just a hair over 1.6 pounds if you’re Imperial) baby.

3. Likely expected date has been brought forward to September 29th so we’ve just taken a hop into the 25th week and heading at top speed into week 26. Excellent.

I’ll upload the incomprehensible and frankly not much-use-at-all ultrasound tomorrow morning.

Here’s the Video:

Or watch at Google:

Sophie Hynes – Ultrasound June 19 – I’m a Girl, Can’t You Tell?

Sean

…for what it’s worth, we’re hoping for a little girly sprog and, according to the doctor this morning, that may be what we’re going to get… because there are 4 lines between the legs that usually indicate [...]]]> Doh, it’s may 14th and we still don’t know whether the prawn will be a boy or a girl…

…for what it’s worth, we’re hoping for a little girly sprog and, according to the doctor this morning, that may be what we’re going to get… because there are 4 lines between the legs that usually indicate the vagina (labia minor & labia major) at the developmental stage.

Update: You can now see the video on Google Video by clicking here.

Truthfully, I don’t know a lot about that… he could have said what he liked and I would have nodded along like the amiable dolt I am. So, there you go: it’s probably a girl but could still be a boy.

We did try a whole bunch of different angles and so on to get a clearer picture of ‘The Package’ but, as usual, our baby twisted, somersaulted and, memorably, knelt down twice as if in prayer to avoid showing her (or less probably ‘his’) parts and keep us in suspense as long as possible.

Today’s scan was 3D (sometimes called 4D in Bali… I’m not really sure why) Ultrasound — here’s a quote from Wikipedia:

There are several different scanning modes in medical and obstetric ultrasound. The standard common obstetric diagnostic mode is 2D scanning.^[1] In 3D fetal scanning, however, instead of the sound waves being sent straight down and reflected back, they are sent at different angles. The returning echoes are processed by a sophisticated computer program resulting in a reconstructed three dimensional volume image of fetus’s surface or internal organs; allowing one to see width, height and depth of images in much the same way as 3D movies but no movement is shown.

Ahem. We just wanted a bit more detail than our usual scan (which, in terms of picture quality, comes down to the same process as discerning shapes in cloud formations).

Most exciting for me was the appearance of a face and a fully formed hand (not just flipping about but waving before the thumb was sucked in and swallowed for some good old fashioned stress relief).

And though we’re still not absolutely sure and there’s always room for a surprise and the doctor was appropriately tentative, I’m officially upgrading ‘The Prawn’ to Human Being (Half-Baked Bean in Tomato Sauce) by the name of Sophie Helen Hynes… and I now know Sophie’s nose is completely unlike mine.

Well done. You’re already starting to make good decisions.

Unless of course that wasn’t your nose but just a slightly squidged up cheek. Oh well.

You can download the MPEG here… it’s 18 MB and should play on most computers without too much trouble.

And you can now view on Google Video by clicking here.

The big news today, I’m ashamed to admit has nothing to do with me or Athina… one of our colleagues, Sudari, has just given birth to a baby boy (her second).

Weighing in at 3.1 kilos and measuring 50cm, top to toe, mother and child look happy and healthy. The father looks like he could do with [...]]]>

The big news today, I’m ashamed to admit has nothing to do with me or Athina… one of our colleagues, Sudari, has just given birth to a baby boy (her second).

Weighing in at 3.1 kilos and measuring 50cm, top to toe, mother and child look happy and healthy. The father looks like he could do with a bit more sleep.

Afternoon,

Sean

Confused &, again, thrilled… we got the whole pregnancy thing with a 2-month discount.

Before I share [...]]]> We’re 8 Weeks & 3 Days Pregnant.

Athina & I returned to the doctor last night and it turns out that Little Shrimpy is not 7 weeks and some but 8 weeks and 3 days (as of today, Feb 21st).

Confused &, again, thrilled… we got the whole pregnancy thing with a 2-month discount.

Before I share that little story, however, you may want to take a quick look at Athina’s favourite website at the moment: 3DPregnancy.com — I guess it’s more of a portal than anything else but the real hook for us is the rotating 3D image of the foetus on a week by week basis. Cool although possibly slightly creepy.

You can have a rough idea of where we’re at by going to: 3D Illustration: 8 Weeks Pregnant — the foetus really does look like a prawn.

Confused in Bali

Bali is not the greatest place on earth for medicine and medical facilities. In fact, if you’re coming out here, don’t get sick. Or pregnant.

Last year, Athina and I wanted to get started on having a baby but it just wasn’t happening.

So, we asked around, got a few recommendations on Ob/Gyns and ended up at Kasih Ibu for a consultation with Dr. W.

Long story short, we ended up with Athina on a course of hormones that, after a few months, seemed to have little or no effect. Unless you count lots of arguments.

We decided to wait another year before really throwing ourselves into the process — give ourselves time and space to travel and enjoy married life. That was 2007.

2008 kicked off with a conversation about what we wanted from the year — my plan was to get my picture taken on a camel in front of a pyramid in Egypt (no, don’t want to go inside… just want the piccie) but both of us felt this year might be good time to start once more trying for a baby.

Too many Dude Hormones

By the start of January, Athina was going into her 3rd month without a period — her last period was October 14th, 2007. At first, we barely noticed — Athina has never been regular.

She took a pregnancy test; negative.

So, not being super worried but just to be sure, we visited a new Doctor that had been recommended to us — Dr. I. at Merdeka (Freedom) Clinic in Renon, Denpasar.

Dr. I. did his tests and concluded Athina had a certain hormone deficiency and attacked the problem in two steps.

Step 1:  January 15th, 2008 Prescribed Norelut — ostensibly to postpone and then provoke menstruation.

Norelut is commonly prescribed for amenorrhea (Abnormal suppression or absence of menstruation). In other words, he said, after taking this drug for a week, Athina would have her period and then we could test hormone levels in the blood to see how we might bump up our chances of getting pregnant.

You can learn more about Norelut by clicking here.

One week later, no period, and we ran into a Bali public holiday so didn’t get the chance to follow up with Dr. I. until the following week, we saw him January 29th.

Dr. I.’s conclusion on the 29th was that Athina had too many male hormones and put her straight onto a course of Cyclo-progynova (a widely used hormone replacement therapy).

Naturally, I had tons of fun with Athina calling her, “Dude” all night.

You can learn more about Cyclo-progynova by click here.

It’s worth noting that by January 15th (when Dr. I. prescribed Norelut), Athina was already 3 weeks pregnant (Shrimp was conceived somewhere around Christmas Eve according to our very, very rough reckoning).

By the time he told us she had too many DUDE hormones and started her on Cyclo-progynova, she was 5 weeks pregnant.

Both of these drugs are not recommended during pregnancy (but we’re not expecting any problems either).

We’re 7 Weeks & One Day Pregnant

Last Saturday (Feb 16th), Athina was feeling nauseous and weird so, smart lady that she is, picked up an off-the-shelf pregnancy test. Last thing Saturday night (after watching Man U. stuff Arsenal in the FA Cup), I laid the test out in the bathroom where she wouldn’t miss it the next day.

4 hours later, Sunday morning, I’m rudely awakened by my wife boucing up and down on the bed saying odd words like “positive” and “two lines” and “pregnant”. Didn’t make a lot of sense to me at the time.

I dragged myself out of bed while Athina made arrangements to see Dr. I. who was not at the clinic and wanted us to wait until Monday… yeah, right: we’re going to wait.

An hour or so later, we were back at Kasih Ibu with the original Dr. W. listening to heart beats and watching a prawn on TV.

Dr. W. told us the wee bairn was 7 weeks and one day old with a target delivery date of October 4th.

Cue shock, awe and celebration. Or, rather, cue two bleary-eyed peeps making hiccupping noises of happy surprise and later falling asleep together on the sofa.

No, We’re 8 Weeks & 3 Days Pregnant

Last night, we went back to see Dr. I. at the Merdeka Clinic to check everything again and schedule the normal battery of tests required for a pregnant woman.

I confess: I was very interested to see how he’d react to finding out Athina was already pregnant by the time he’d diagnosed (or misdiagnosed) too many DUDE hormones.

But he kind of blew straight past it. Cracked a few silly jokes. Blah, blah, blah & yaddah-yaddahed the whole thing.

He’s a weird guy.

At one point, he kind of suggested Athina could have taken another pregnancy test before starting the Cyclo-progynova.

The Putz.

You might think we’d be better off to stick with Dr. W. and go back to Kasih Ibu but here’s the kicker: Dr. W. was Dr. I.’s student. They’re practically twins.

Anyhoo, another exam with the USG Wand, another beautiful picture of the Little Shrimp (we can now see a little beating heart) and another estimate of the age of the foetus and the due date.

The story now is that Shrimp is 8 weeks and 3 days old (impatient, apparently) and Athina’s due on September 29th.

That’s all for today.

Sean

Don’t know what I’m talking about?

Click here: Hello Baby : Sean Hynes

Given that Athina’s already 7 and a bit weeks in (7 weeks & 4 days today), we missed all the early tests completely and now have to go back and check blood, virii, and so on… luckily I [...]]]> Waiting slightly nervously for a visit with the doctor tonight as the preamble to a battery of tests tomorrow.

Given that Athina’s already 7 and a bit weeks in (7 weeks & 4 days today), we missed all the early tests completely and now have to go back and check blood, virii, and so on… luckily I clipped my nails last night so have nothing to nibble on.

Weight today (not mine; Athina’s) 100 pounds exactly or a hair over 45 kilos.

By the way, if you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about… click here.

Sean