All about Updates

Oliver
Oliver's rash looks pretty bad still. However, he slept a lot better last night, he woke up once around 11:00, it was really strange, I'm still not convinced he was awake. He was kind of grabbing at his shoulder and writhing around. He calmed down and went back to sleep when I sang to him. He slept rest of the night and woke up around 7:00 am in a really good mood. He was in a pretty good mood all day.

He still doesn't have any sores in his mouth (that I can see). Unfortunately, his friend Marie (Jose & Chantal's daughter) is now sick with the exact same thing, so I think Oliver gave it to her. In addition, the school says there is a case of hand-foot-mouth disease at school, so I'm pretty convinced that is what it is.

Mom
Mom got her staples out on Monday and is now getting around with a cane. She can navigate the stairs with limited difficulties and Dad is making her do all her exercises.

All about Baby "Tobe" II

First off, Mom is doing well and sat up today. However, she is still groggy from the pain medicine as she let Dad win at cards!

Had another doctor's appointment today. By my calculations I'm 32 weeks pregnant, the doctor says the baby is measuring at 33 weeks - so time is ticking away!!

The baby has also turned, which explains all the kicking in the ribs I'm getting. The placenta is also looking good, and there is plenty of water in there.

My hemoglobin is a touch low, so I'm to eat more beef. No problem! I had a steak for lunch. Yummy.

Now, Joe and I don't want to find out the gender, but I think the doctor let it slip. While doing the ultrasound, she said, "there's the legs and there's the thing". Confirming (I believe), my belief that baby tobe is a boy. I wish she hadn't slipped up though. Oh well.

Here is some information on baby development at week 33:

• Amniotic fluid is at its highest level during your pregnancy.
• Your baby's head size has increased 3/8ths of an inch due to rapid brain growth.
• Neurons and synapses are developing in huge numbers -- forming connections in your baby's brain will give him the skills he needs to thrive as a newborn. This week, he may be able to coordinate sucking and swallowing with breathing.
• While most of his bones are hardening, his skull is quite pliable and not completely joined. The bones will be able to move slightly to make birthing easier.
• You baby takes intermittent deep breaths -- of water! That's okay, though since she gets oxygen from the placenta. This breathing exercises muscles and encourages her lung cells to produce more surfactant (a protein essential for healthy lung development).
• If your baby is a boy, his testicles will be descending from his abdomen into his scrotum. Sometimes one or both testicles won't move into position until after birth.
• Your infant is now 17.2 inches (43.7cm) long and weighs 4.23 pounds (1918gm).

Now, doctor said that the baby was 2.1 - she must have meant 2100 gm (hence saying its 33 weeks) or 4.6 pounds! Yikes! No wonder she keeps saying the baby is big. Oliver was born at 7 pounds 15 ounces.

All about School

First off, an update. Dad called this morning (evening in Winnipeg) and the surgery went really well and he left Mom doing a crossword puzzle. So Mom, this blog's for you. All about your favorite grandson (and favorite 2 year old), so get better so you can come and read this blog at home.

Oliver has been in school now for a over a month. He just moved into the Nursery 1 class, from the Toddler room. When we first signed Oliver up for school, he was very very excited. He kept saying "I need a backpack. I need a backpack for school." So Oliver and I went shopping to United Square by ourselves. We took the MRT, Oliver walked the entire time, we stopped and had ice cream, and Oliver picked out his backpack. We had such a nice Mommy and son outing, which we rarely do. This is what he chose, over Dora and Thomas.He loves it. He has never seen the Cars movie. We have to take it when we go out, its now become our diaper bag.

Back to the topic at hand. He is loving school. He wears a uniform, there are are two kinds, a formal one and an informal one.

This picture you've seen on Joe's blog:


And here is the informal uniform:

He's been learning Mandarin, he can sing a little song in Mandarin, and today, he was pointing at my face and saying "funny" words. I think he was saying face or hair or forehead (???) in Mandarin to me. Apparently, he can also count to 10 according to the teachers, but I haven't heard it.

Here are some pictures of artwork from school. For his Father's Day gift, see Joe's blog.

All about hip surgery

Mom is going in for hip surgery today.

So I went onto Wikipedia to give you some interesting facts about hips and hip surgery.

The earliest hip surgeries used ivory as a replacement for the bone.

Dr. San Baw, from Burma did over 300 hip surgeries from the 1960s to the 1980s. He used ivory as it worked better and was cheaper than metal in Burma. But ivory is now of course, banned.

Dogs can also get hip replacement surgery.

Once an uncommon operation, hip replacement is now common, even among active athletes including racecar drivers Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett (who? and who?).

Having hip replacement surgery takes you one step closer to being the Bionic Woman (or man). Not sure if Mom will be able to run faster than a speeding car though. It's only the one hip, so if one leg starts running faster, will she run in a circle or will she hop? And what if that speeding car is driven by a racecar driver that has had hip surgery? Ah, those ancient questions that can never be answered.

Good luck today Mom!!!