A bit of an audio breakthrough

Emily, being the sensory beast she is, doesn't like anything near her head. Sunglasses, ear muffs, ear protectors, headphones, the list goes on.

For the sake of her's and Sue's sanity on the plane ride to Oz, I've made it my mission to get Emily used to wearing headphones, so she can partake in Singapore Airlines' onboard entertainment system. Otherwise, it's going to be 24 hours of bored Emily, which NOBODY wants.

This week, we finally made a breakthrough.Emily was in that dozy tired state she gets in to when she's tired. Usually at this point, she's more amenable to new things than she is when she's all hepped up and ready to bounce.

I put Dora the Explorer on Netflix on the laptop, but had the headphones plugged in. Emily was quite excited at seeing Dora, but confused at not hearing it. When I put the headphones on her and she got the whole sensory experience, she didn't want to fight the headphones any more.

This is a BIG win for us, even though she still wants to run out of the room - with headphones still on - when the map bit of Dora comes on. I need to persist at this and introduce different shows, and probably different devices so Emily doesn't just associate the headphones with Dora on the laptop.

This does show great promise for a less hellish trip for Sue and the girls to Oz though.

They're back from Oz!

Went to the airport this monr and picked Em and Sue up.

They're both present and accounted for and doing well. The fear I had of the flights back from Oz being a complete nightmare were, for the most part, unfounded. Which is good.

We made it!

After two flights and a 3.5 hour stop over in KL, we made it to Adelaide!

Our worries about Emily acting up and ruining our trip were VERY overrated. On the flight from London we got a bassinet, so she was able to sleep in that for about 9 of the 12 hours we were in the sky. As we took off at 10pm, this made for much relaxed (and sleepy) mum and dad, I can say! We didn't have to have her on our laps for any of the journey, apart from take off and landing.

From KL to Adelaide, there was an extra seat available so we switched with a couple and Em had her own seat. Not only that, they actually gave her her own meal as well! Not bad at all.

The only time she really acted up was the last bit of the flight to Adelaide. She'd obviously had enough and wanted to walk or crawl ... anything but be on that plane.

Now bring on the holiday.

Nappy rash

Sue's been doing some investigation into the causes of nappy rash, as Emily seems to have come down with a down under case of it.

Sparing the gory details, but it seems to be more of a fungal infection, than just "something babies get". To this end, Sue has swapped the sudocreme for a more powerful anti-fungal cream, and it seems to be doing the trick.

Also, reports from Adelaide tell me that Emily is still being rather irritated by her teeth. Apparently, whilst out shopping with mum and nanna, she was gnawing on some cardboard packaging to try to alleviate the pain.

It also looks like Samuel is getting on better with Emily. That initial "I'm the baby around here" jealousy seems to have been replaced with something much more akin to love. Which is good.

Web Camming from Oz

Today was the first real day I was able to converse with Sue and Emily since they got to Oz. We spend well over an hour on the web cam where Sue showed me all the wonderful borrowed things that are keeping Emily occupied.

She even sent me a screen capture of Emily in a borrowed "floor scooter" thing from cousin Samuel across the road.

Seems that even though she has nappy rash, Emily is still quite a happy and content baby, wowing and winning over everyone who comes across her.

Not having had children before, I really hope this carries on through her life and doesn't end when she stops being a cute and cuddly infact.

As it's the 6th of September, there's exactly a month left before the two of them are back. I'm quite excited about this, but I imagine that Sue - with the pampering she'll receive - won't really be looking forward a month with anything but remorse. I could be wrong.

Arrival in Oz

Well,

Got some IMs from Sue yesterday. The flying duo made it safely to the land downunder and apparently Emily was a superstar on the plane. Far from being the nightmare sleeper on the plane, she managed to catch about eight hours on the first London - KL leg, while poor old Sue only managed to get around four.

Sue rang last night to say that all was well, and that they landed safely in Adelaide.

It's been a strange old couple of days without them, moving Emily's toys and glancing over at Sue's schoolwork laptop, knowing they're going to collect at least a modicum of dust in the next month or so.

I type in a land down under

We arrive to a wonderful family greeting on Sunday morning around 7am, and as I type this now we're still fighting the jet lag (it's 6.30am!!)

Sue, however, is having maybe an easier time of the jetlag, in that she's suffering from babylag and is quite tired a lot of the time anyway.

Sue's mid-wife asked her to try to book an appointment here to check blood pressure, etc. She made the call yesterday and the local mid-wife deemed it not important enough to book an appointment. Not sure if that's encouraging or a sign of laziness on their behalf.

Yesterday we were treated to a showing of all the stuff Sue's mum has bought for the baby. It's amazing! There's so much stuff, I don't think we need to buy anything at least for the first couple of months (or maybe years).

My only concern, from a pragmatic male-point of view, is how are we going to get the stuff home? My case is kinda half-full but I was hoping to actually get the odd X-mas pressie and Aussie purchase to put in there and Sue packs like there's no tomorrow, so I'm just a bit worried we're going to have to post it back or something rather expensive like that. Time, I guess, will tell.