Lliam Benjamin Philip Booth - a thriving wee lad.

He's only a young lad - but already generated close to 500,000 hits on this site.. He was donated 3 months of Huggies nappies, and got his Dad a cookbook, and his mum a large bunch of flowers from MoreFM. Oldest news down the bottom, Photos over here. More recent Photos here. Will put an RSS feed and comments facility up soonish. Most writing by Dad (Jo).

Pictorally this week consisted of many things. - you can see them over at February Fun. Heres a few highlights. There were 246 photos from the week - but I tend to take a few extras.

Last weekend I sorted my extensive CD collections. I installed iTunes on Linux, and Took some timelapse photos in pitch black.

I missed our wedding anniversary on Thursday - but got flowers delivered instead. They went down well. Cheers Teleflora. I was working in Palmerston.

Wednesday Wellington was foggy! My help didn't arrive from Auckland, and I probably worked too hard. Even went into work on Saturday. Got a nice stone chip in the truck windscreen on the way back from Palmy - turns out the dodgy Ford dealers had already repaired a chip in the screen prior to us buying it "new" - stone hit same spot - and it can't be repaired again. New windscreen.

Spent a bit of Sunday (6th) evening with Lliam - installing Ubuntu Linux on his iBook :) - He was keen. Teaching him young :)

Caught up with my wife once Lliam was off to sleep. Tho as I write this he's waking up again (0:51 7th). Back to it.

Thurs 3rd Feb 2005

It's Mum and Dad's fourth wedding anniversary, but Dad is off to Palmerston for work, and won't be back til tommorow. Last year it was Valentines day this trip landed on, not good. Tuesday 1st Feb 2005

0:39 - Just finished descumming and sterilising no less than 7 bottle teats. Where did these all come from? Maybe i need to be home more often to do the dishes - so we don't need 30 of them :).

Mum watched a good movie (stayed up after pumping) and made Dad's work lunch. Bonus! :)

06:35 - Rocking Lliam back to sleep in his cot (via the rocking string) when mother nature came and helped again:

Reference Number: 2359081/G
NZ Daylight Time: Tuesday, February 01 2005 at 6:31 am
Latitude, Longitude: 41.45°S, 175.78°E
Focal Depth: 20 km
Richter Magnitude: 5.4
90 km east of Wellington

Another hot day. Off to doctor today for urine tests, all good tho - should be fine.

Daddy went to WelMac meeting this evening and played with iPod Shuffles, iMac G5s and Mac minis. Got home late.

Woke up with Lliam again. Had a bath with him too. :) He was a bit fussy. Tired i suppose. He's off to sleep now.

Was making myself lunch (Chicken burgers), and making up Lliam's feed at lunch time. We are using a new Formula again - a Heinz one. The previous formula used to be hard to get to mix properly, and u woudl usually end up with lumps, that wouldn't break up without intervention. ANyway, i mixed the new formula, and gave it a good shake as per normal, and it frothes! Claire tells me that Lliam loves the froth at the end of the bottle with this formula. One more thing we have in common... Cafe Latte! Thats my boy!

Managed to score a 200 mL bottle of precious EBM via H. last night. Lliam will be feeding in style for his 13:30 feed (just heating now). Anyone know why EBM is sometimes green? Seen it happen a few times. Which reminds me. This probably needs a comments facility. Maybe I should just get Lliam a LiveJournal?

A good day. Morning time with Lliam as i'm waking up is brilliant. "Long time, no see" really. Missed getting some good cuddles, i've been too tired really to bother recently. Even slept with him in my arms the other night, mum needed a rest from him. It's so cool to have a son, and one so cute as Lliam. Way better than your kids! He's such a content wee man too.. takes after me I suppose, doesn't fuss much, and is mostly feeding ok these days.

In the evening we had the clan over (minus big sis and partner who had "other engagements" typically) for dinner. It was chinese. Lliam and Alex had a play in the activity musicy thingy together, Alex fussing, and Lliam happily bashing the paddles to get music. I supervised while Mum got some of her dinner ate, then joined the rest of them. To my delight, some egg foo yung was left! :-D.

Then us boys went off to see the Stock car meet at the Rock FM Speedway at Te Marua. Good times, Apparently we need to get to see this sorta thing more often, so eventually the girls can say - ok you've had your fun when he was young, now it's your turn to supervise the babies while we go out. The girls stayed in. They watched the last half of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring". Apparently a disatisfactory ending. They had to watch it on the computer, with the new DVD drive I purchased the other day, 'cause the lounge DVD player is still fishy on that layer change for that DVD (even tho it was the other copy from the video store).

Stopped in at Upper Hutt McCafe on the way home for a latte. there was 4 of us, and it was 10 pm or so, but the coffee took far too long to arrive, the one girl making the coffee was two busy chatting to two other people (one of them a staff member?) to concentrate on making the coffees. Willem almost volunteered to drive the machine himself and do it quicker. Still, the coffee was survivable, after we had gone back up to the counter and got ourselves some sugar...

07:57 - Was enjoying a bit of morning cuddles with Lliam (been a long time - working too many hours) and we had a nice little earth quake. I reported it. Lliam was a little suprised. Claire hid, I continued contributing to the slashdotting of geonet's site. Kaori Seismograph is broken at the moment :( No Data on earthquake up yet. Must go to work...

Reference Number: 2354133/G
Universal Time: January 20 2005 at 18:56
NZ Daylight Time: Friday, January 21 2005 at 7:56 am
Latitude, Longitude: 41.09°S, 175.06°E
Focal Depth: 30 km
Richter Magnitude: 5.5

07:51 - According to the sleep timer, I didn't. Lliam is up and about, Mum is bouncy. Rubbish day, gotta get those nappies out :) Then there is work - a few hours ago. Laters.

3am. Mum just did the 3am pump, suprisingly Lliam stayed asleep for once. Dad is still up. Useless WelMac. No sleep. Was up since 6am yesterday, and 18 hour work day the day before in Palmy. Life! Crazy. Dead tired. Sleeeeeep.

I lied. He's lost weight again.. :( only 6.14 kgs now. However for comparison Alex is 7.48kg ! Feed your babies good stuff!

Kirsten popped in, from Feilding, said hi.. Lliam played and "talked" to her. Photo maybe later.

Well, haven't posted for some time. Lliams doing ok on Formula after a few hiccups. i'll back-post some bits. He's about 6.3 kg now, been on an airplane twice, and even got a bit of sun burn. He's sleeping up to 5 hours during the night, which is a relief. Mum is still pumping, and trying to get the most of the good stuff she can into him. Lliam is officially (by audience votes) the cutest baby alive.. but we might be biased. Will post some new piccys soon.

Did a 1 am formula feed via bottle. Not good. Bad Bad Bad. Lliam hates bottles... and really doesn't like the hypo-alergenic formula. No other option really. Still he was happy and smiley by the time I fed him. Must mostly be hungry. Mum pumps for 30 mins and i'll feed him via bottle at night. During day it's demand feeding - with 50 mL or so supplementary additions via SNS. Still some frozen EBM.. but soon the day feeds will be formula as well.

I think i'm going to disobey the formula instructions and heat it.. I can't see why not -- they say "room temperature". In our house thats probably about 22°C at night... but i'm sure it must be warmer wherever they wrote the instructions. Lliam doesn't like the formula.. probably cause it's colder than EBM (amongst other reasons). He usually sneezes a bit - and coughs with the formula. Update: he takes warm formula much better. So don't belive every thing you read on packaging.

Can't sleep (03:57) -- had a mission of a WelMac committe meeting. Didn't get home til 23:00! Nutting out MovieFest finances and all - and trying to convonce the committe to finance it next year..... Had a crap day on site at work - sore ankle didn't help. Claire went off at me before it via phone for not making Lliam and her my top priority - she had a crap day with MiL issues and Lliam not getting enough food because of them.. and the family turned up in her support for the evening - both my cell phone batteries were flat - so when they(three of them - sperately) called to tell me I should be at home they got cut off. some of them twice. Still, had an extended chat with my wife this AM, and I think she understands. WelMac committee would probably fall apart without my calming influence [Kidding].

Had a late night computering session with Mum, from about 2 am. I couldn't sleep --- and she wanted food. Lliam had just gone to sleep. Burnt a CD with some pics for yomcat. Must drop it off.

Anyway - work meeting in 4 hours (at 8am onsite) - so probably better get some sleep. Ankle is hurting big time.

Meeting at 8am turned into 8:20 with the shocking traffic due to rain. Outcome ok. Kicked sufficient arse it seems.

Palmy trip was all good too. Dad had lunch with Lliam's Uncle Nat and Uncle Dan. Then back to Wellington for 3pm doctors visit for the ankle.

Some stats for Lliam's site:
(Figures in parentheses refer to the 7-day period ending Dec 14 2004 at 11:07 PM).
Successful requests: 120,440 (11,976)
Average successful requests per day: 2,205 (1,710)
Failed requests: 5,480 (182)
Redirected requests: 1,750 (50)
Distinct files requested: 916 (744)
Data transferred: 1.811 gigabytes (172.047 megabytes)
Average data transferred per day: 33.969 megabytes (24.578 megabytes)

Mum and her Mum are still battling through the file cabinet. Probably a bit futile - as things that are filed are not needed - but they aim to sort us out.. Hopefully Lliam will grow up to be a phlegmatic / sanguine like his Dad, and not a choleric -- they are too hard to please.
Mum is trying to demand feed -- but still not enough to keep Lliam fully fed, so still has to supplement with SNS. We were supplementing with Helens EBM -- but no more.. he'll be getting the yucky formula from now on. Poor wee man. Sometimes Mum gets a bit caught up and doesn't get a chance to supplement him, and MiL isn't helping in that regard either. Lack of food mean he's an unsteeled man all night - which is when Dad is home (sleeping).

Running low on EBM - as Helen is no longer supplying. Soon be a formula (plus what he can get from Mummy) baby. :(

Somehow Dad made it to work this morning -- was a bit weary. He got back home at 7 pm.. Mum and Lliam were down at Helens - and Daddy had forgotten his keys. D'uh. Spent the evening at Helens. Some photos

taken of his and the kids... [Major red eye reduction needed for the bright eyed little ppl] :) Mum has headache. :(

Dad was up and out the door early this morning, after feeding Lliam and a few cuddles. Off to work.

Lliam went to LLL Christmas party with mum. Got presents from Santa. Christmas is coming.

Daddy got home about 4pm... Had dinner out at Aunty Helens and weighed the wee ppl. 5.3 kg for Lliam, 6.3 kg for Alex. Alex was all smiley.

Another tiring day for daddy. Worked til about 9 pm. Probably too tired to write anything. Try his blog maybe

Another trip to Palmy by Daddy -- next weekend is Baileys christening. Looking forward to the outing to Palmy with the family. Dad popped in and saw Matt, Nat and Dan - up at his mums place. There are hanging out for the holidays -- a few photos over at Nat's Webspace.

Lliam doesn't seem to want to sleep at the moment. It's tiring mum out. He'll dose off -- but as soon as he loses contact with mum, he'll start to fuss. Maybe he's a little too attached. Mum was in tears with frustration by the time Daddy got home -- it's a long day with a baby that is restless. Seems to have been like this every since the injections. Dunno.

Daddy held Lliam for an hour or so this evening while Mum got some rest. He fussed a fair bit of it.. but the rest of the time seemed content gazing at the computer screen -- or daddy's face. He's always watching people, occasionally with a smile on his face. Gorgeous. Great to be a Dad. Getting married used to be a high point of my family life -- but this wee man tops it all. I'm damn tired, but I love you Lliam! You are so cool. Must get some sleep -- that way I might make it thru work tomorrow without needing to take by half-hour lunch break to snooze. Night all.

Another day of demand feeding. The wee man seems to like it -- and with less stress from the supplementing, Mum likes it too. Basically means he's permanantly attached to mum tho, trying to get the last few drops - and tends to not sleep deeply - probably slightly hungry -- but time will tell. The not sleeping as much means Mum is getting a bit tired on it.. We sqeals when he looses contact -- and the only way Mum gets sleep if to take him with her -- still attached. Dad isn't much help -- he's working long hours to make up for one of the staff missing in action.

Takeaways for dinner tonight. Dad too late home to cook. Mum went for a walk with Lliam and the buggy to the takeaway place down the road: "Oyster Palace." They really do 'fast' food - and have great service with a smile. Phone ahead, and by the time you have hung up it's basically ready! We live about 2 minutes walk away - so it's ideal. Dad just flopped on the couch - half asleep -- he only got home at 19:30, after leaving home over 13 hours ago.

Lliam spent most of the evening hanging off mum.. when he did drop off to sleep he woke as soon as he was put down, or given to Dad for a cuddle. The family watched the Prime TVs The Human Body [BBC programme?]. Interesting stuff. Brings back a few memories of the pregnancy and birth. Keen to get the 3D ultrasound technology in NZ for our next child -- that'd be awesome.

Dad just realised he was meant to change Lliams nappy before bed. In bed now. D'uh. Mum did it. Slack daddy.

The day started with "Wanna make me breakfast or change a nappy?" Guess which one I chose. Lliam was a bit restless all night, but stayed close to Daddy and Mummy demand feeding for most of the night in bed.

Off Christmas shopping this evening. 36 minutes to Joan of Arcadia - so it'll be a quick one.

Missed the first 14 minutes, as Warehouse was reorganised and Claire can't find anything. in JofA Cheif got fired. I missed that bit tho... Watching TV with my gorgeous wee son in my arms. Makes the world right.

A brand new week. Lliam had his injections today. Very sore hips and slight fever now. Cried most of the day, and won't settle without mum. Makes Dad feel a bit useless. Granny June brought round dinner for herself and Mum. Dad still at work til 21:00 :(

Stay at home day - recover from yesterday. Feed, sleep, feed. Mum and bub attempt to snooze. Lliam grizzles wwhen "detached" from mum.

08:00 -- Saturday is party day - Lliam is invited to 3 parties today.. we'll see if his parents can keep up with him.

From 12 til 4pm they will be at the Celebration of the 10 years of the Legner family being in NZ. Congrats!

Then it's off to the WelMac end of year party -- that started at 12 too -- and goes till 6pm -- with dinner about 5pm -- and movies to watch.

Yomcat (Mike) is having a birthday to celebrate being 18.. and it kicks off with Soccer on the beach - followed by dinner at All Saints Church, then a movie: Extreme Days.

Stats: (Figures in parentheses refer to the 7-day period ending Dec 03 2004 at 7:22 AM).

Successful requests: 92,660 (2,154)
Average successful requests per day: 2,155 (307)
Data transferred: 1.430 gigabytes (34.801 megabytes)
Average data transferred per day: 34.080 megabytes (4.971 megabytes)

TGIF! With a little over 10 hours sleep in total this week - Jo needs a weekend. Still another day to muddle thru yet.

Lliam has been a bit fractious for his morning feeds all this week -- mornings are the worst tiume -- you haven't had enough sleep and then the baby is crying, and Jo's work is calling on cellphone and waking baby etc etc.

Dad was off to Palmerton North again today. Popped in on Peter and Gael (Bailey Booth) on the way home, but they were out - he hears an invite for the christening (party) is in the works.

Jo got home from Tuesday work at 00:30 (Wednesday AM). Jo needs to be onsite at 07:00 for a job.

Weighed at Hospital - 5.3 kg. Birth weight was 4.2 kg. He's growing. For comparison little Alexanda is over 6.2 kg. That's breast feeding for ya!

05:00 - Woken by Mum - feeding duties again while she pumps -- duly done, I get puked on, /me is still asleep - burped him and nappied him. Then head back for some more sleep. Mum still pumping. Baby in horizontal rocker thingy. BBC news is crap! Mornings are worst bits. /me is probably grumpy.

08:10 - Lliam opened his pressy from yomcat and (i think ) the Welsh family. Cool! A nice blue set of tops and bottoms - some bibs -- very cute -- dress-up time!

Dad went to work. Long day. Sorting out a night job for the guys went to custard - and Jo had to leave right after Joan of Arcadia - as his truck is the only source of towing for the diesel powered Hot Water Blaster trailer. It's all good tho - fours hours before he returned - but he mostly managed to dose in the car while others worked.

Monday again. A "Long Day" as Claire would put it. Daddy left for work at 07:00 - and returned home at 23:08 - it doesn't take a genius to figure out who is going to be tired tomorrow. Didn't help things that the family was woken several times during the night.
Lliam is still having problems breathing during the night - let alone feeding. Mainly related to congested nose - and he hates getting ti aspirated with saline and the "sucker".
Slept with Dad Monday am (i.e. Monday morning - or Sunday night it you aren't awake yet).
Dad tends to sleep thru him waking -- unless he cries.

He cried.

Slept from about 23:00 Sunday til the 01:00 feed, which took till 02:20 cause of blocked noses and generally uphappy babies. Lliam then decided that he was quite wide awake, and proceeded to wriggle for a good hour till about 03:30 -- when Dad finally convinced him he should be sleeping.
Normally he would suckle to sleep -- but with a blocked nose, he feeds for 3 seconds and then pulls away, nipple included. After this happening 3 or 4 times inna row, Mum decided that it hurt too much - and left Dad to the sleep inducement.
Got some sleep from 03:30 ish til 05:00 when he started wriggling again. Mum offered him sustainance - but the same story with the blocked airway.
Aspirated him and got a fair bit of gunk out.. and he fed for a bit -- then decided he needed a nappy change. Dad duly did so. 06:00 by now -- time for Dad to get ready for work...
Did so, made sandwitches for lunch - thought about emptying the diswasher, and making Mum breaskfast, but got sidetracked preparing the much needed supplementary EBM, and supervising sleepy mum with warming the milk. Usually I leave them to it - but the milk generally ends up too hot -- or Mum falls asleep again. So my this time it's hovering arounf 06:30 and I really need to get dressed and showered. Do so, and out the door - leaving the dishwasher for the mother-in-law.

Good weekend - once again too tired to go into work for EOM stuff and paperwork -- might manage to catch up in the week. Probably not. Lliam has started to smile -- if you smile at him.. he smiles back! Might get a few smiley photos instead of sleepy ones! Subjected him to his first haircut on Sunday.. details in Jo's LJ post. Also popped in to see Noeline and the El Shaddai Family too, for show and tell. The new feeding ideas are working .. less pukeing. But he hasn't been not pooing for a couple of days.. and then let loose a huge one (it made it across the room onto the wall!) on Saturday. Been regular ever since. Little alex was constipated too... and only just got back into the rhythm -- maybe something in their common food source.

Long week.... "Thank God it's Friday" was uttered by Mum this morning - along with "I hate mornings". Lliam always seems to have a blocked nose by morning - and hates to have it aspirated -- and can't breathe/feed until he has it cleared. Very frustrating.

All week Lliam has been spewing up feeds - sometimes most of the feed. Tried infant Gaviscon, but no noted effect. Trialling only feeding him half what he needs in the morning -- to ease him into the day. Might work. He's had a few forumla feeds this week - could be part of the problem?
The EBM supply of real milk from Helen is shortly to draw to a close. Lliam really doesn't like the taste of the hypo allergenic formula (neither do I), but thats about our only option. It's been great that we managed to give him a good head start with Breastfeeding in the early stages, and Claire's milk supply is slowly growing.
He feeds about every three hours during the day - and 4 at night (01:00, 05:00, 09:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, 21:00) This is 7 feeds - up to 100 mL each. Mum can provide about 40-60 mL in a good 30 minute expression (compared to 300-400 from his aunt in 10 minutes). So we need to "top-up" with EBM or Formula often.
Performed some tests last week -- mainly trying to pin down causes for the limited lactation. Nothing really conclusive yet. Apparently Testostorone levels could affect lactation. Poly-cystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) has been diagnosed by several lactation consultants around the world -- but only limited studies have been performed into PCOS women and lactation, so no-one really knows what to do.
A couple of drugs have been suggested, and Mum has tried several (Maxolon 10 mg) -- now on a concoction of Motilium (domperidone 10 mg) as well as taking a couple of Homeopathic remedies of "Blessed Thistle" and "Lactation AOK". Have tried acupuncture and increasing pumping/expressing to the point of very soreness.
Maybe it is almost a good thing Dad is working long hours -- these options get expensive.

Long day. Both tired as. This week is going to be busy for Dad at work.. about 90 hours or more proposed according to the schedule.

Long, good weekend - too tired to come into work for paperwork -- and was good to spend some time off with Family (Mum and Nat down from Palmy).

Friday night Jo and Nat [MSN/Yahoo] (Jo's younger brother) played Need for Speed III, and generally hung out for an

hour or so before Jo fell asleep. Pauline (Jo's Mum) came down from Palmy in the evening - caught a ride with Alan (Fraggle), who was down to visit family.

Saturday looked like a good day, sunny and warm - tho a bit of wind -- Lliam was a bit unsettled all night, so Mum and Dad got little sleep. Those sleeping in the lounge probably didn't either - unless they figured out how to turn the baby monitor off. Nat was still sleeping at 9am in the spare bedroom - oh to be young and carefree again (and stay up till 1am playing computer games).
Alan was to meet his son on board the HMNZS Canterbury Saturday afternoon for a tour - so Lliam and the tribe got a tour too. Very interesting - the Canterbury is primarily a training ship, and is only a year away from being dismantled - but a great ship: a Leander Class Frigate commissioned in 1971 - "Although a relatively old ship, several refits over her service life mean CANTERBURY has both a tactical and weapon fit-out that is right up to date. Her Phalanx Close-In Weapon fires 3000 rounds per minute" .
They use 16 bags of potatoes a day, which get processed in a potato peeling machine, in a kitchen that can get as hot as 60°C! It's a small, low kitchen - and I feel sorry for any chefs working there that are my height. Feeds the 300 or so people on board! Had a quick peek at the location of the fire last year - fire is the ship is a big problem -- everything is old - wiring is dodgy and fire is a common problem.
Dotted around the ship are 8 minute aspirators - to allow escape in case of fire. Also a lots of pumps dotted round - ready for action. To combat fire there are chemical extinguisher barrels located about - basically you close up the section witht he fire - open a little tube, and pur the foaming extinguisher down - $30,000 each! Each crew member is trained to do fire fighting, and other general emergency tasks.

Due to an early morning attempt to sleep in, Jo hadn't had breaskfast -- so 2 pm saw us all sit down at the Queens Wharf centre in Chicago Sports Cafe for a feed. Some of the lads from the ship were there - spending there time singing, and generally having a good time. I'll hunt down a sound bite later. Jo had a "Hurricane Burger" - and it was massive! Two huge, delicious Beef Patties, Beetroot, Egg, Cheese, Bacon and Served with Thick Cut Fries & Salad. Meets and exceeds McD's attempts at every pass. The staff there were very friendly and helpful - even providing hot water in a bowl to heat Lliam's feed. Good times!

PM: Jo was up to Palmerston North for work - so afterwards he popped in on brand new wee Bailey Booth, Peter Booth and Gael Dickson - it was only a 30 minute labour - into hospital at about 01:50 -- born at 02:17 then checked out and off home in the morning. He's doing well, Peter looking a bit tired - but gets a few days off work to recover [more than Jo!] - long enough to get sick of daytime TV - "Nah man, I got a stack of videos". Bailey has it sussed - the "no hands" bottlefeeding thing (Claire: "Never!"). I took a whole bunch of photos -- up on baileys photo page. Bigger resolution for printing - chewing thru my 50 Mb hosting limit (and my 1 Gb transfer limit). Brought Nat back from Palmerston - Pauline (Jo's Mum) is coming down tomorrow for the weekend to help out - and Nat will take any excuse to skip half a days school.

Early AM: Welcome Bailey! Congratulations to Peter and Gael on the birth of Bailey James Memphis Booth at 02:17 this morning. Weighing in at 3.373 kg [7 lb, 7 ounces] - he made it! After trying to get out at 24 odd weeks - he decided he liked it in there after all. Lliam now has up to 7 cousins - 3 Slades, 2 Legners, and 1 off the "Booth clan" from Peter and Gael and then Tyler too! If all the Booth boys off and sprog - then theres another, say, 14 cousins yet to come!

Dad bought a new camera for work - Canon IXUS 430. 4 Megapixels. Might manage to sneak in a few photos of Lliam with it. Also bought a Canon printer for home -- to print some of these pictures he's been taking. After spending over $80 on film / processing / printing in the last few weeks since the FujiFilm FinePix 2800 died, he's glad to be back using digital again. WPS did Daddy a good deal with the Canon PIXMA ip3000 printer (RRP $279) for $100, and they hope

to help kick some butts up at FujiFilm/Hanimex regards the old camera. Thanks guys!
Willem gave Daddy a birthday present of his own choice - so he decided to splash out on a glowing mousepad (pictured) for those late nights. With Lliam, AND the printer as well, he feels happy with his presents this year.

Current Stats

(Figures in parentheses refer to the 7-day period ending Nov 17 2004 at 2:36 AM).
Successful requests: 27,552 (4,895)
Average successful requests per day: 1,033 (699)

PM: Got photos back from Antenatal outing and another roll - up in the more pics section. Let me know if you don't like any of them -- and they can be removed easily ;) June bought roast chicken round for dinner.
Midwife came -- weighed the wee man again - still growing. Officially 4.8 kg now.
Helen has decided to stop providing us with supplementary milk - so it's on to braving it with the formula now. I personally can't stand the stuff - Lliam takes it - but coughs a little. Probably allergic to this one too, but no real choice anymore. Good that he got EBM for his first few weeks - and Claire is generating a bit more milk -- about 30 mL at a time - and he's drinking 100 mL or so each 3 hourly feed, so about 70 mL Pepti Junior and 30 mL of the real stuff. I'll get used to the bioling water and etc etc etc soon i'm sure.

Got the report back from the camera repair people, and i'm very unhappy. The same chip that failed 20 days after we bought the camera has failed again. This time the camera isn't under warranty. I'm about to kick up a stink.. It's got to be a dodgy kinda chip to fail twice in two years. Built in failure? Isn't this camera meant to last at least a few more years? It's not like it was exposed to lightning or electrical surges -- half the time the batteries are flat! Very annoyed. Hanimex, and FujiFilm... here I come.

Mum and bub endured a day of Milling. Poor Claire is a bit frazzled, but at least the house is tidy. Apparently I suck. (Jo)

Feed at 5 am. Upping the EBM dosage - in an effort to get him awake on his own -- too often we have to force him to feed - and he'll fall asleep after the first suck. That sucks. Feeds can take up to 1.5 hours.. which means by the time you have setup and got him back to bed, it's 2 hours on.. and the next feed is only an hour away -- doesn't leave much time for sleeping.

Bath with Daddy this morning. The wee man likes to float - just a hand behind his head so he doesn't go under.. and he floats well in the big bath. Got him nice and clean for outing at lunch...

Out into Lower Hutt for 13:00 meet at Mc Donalds with the rest of the antenatal class for a "catch up" - with 10 odd sets of parents and babies.. we took over a fair portion of the back section. Good to catch up and trade "war" stories, compare babies, and feeding, and see if we stuck to our plans we had back in LBK. Julianna and Wayde and the twins made it, Sophia & Emily - very cute. Rachelle and Richard were there with Harrison - Richard is *looking forward* to being the Stay at Home Dad, with Rachelle back to work soon. Helen & Bojan came along (got there first) with Alexanda, Sally and Matt were there with a sweet looking Brooke, Aidan and Rochelle brought along gorgeous Isabelle - looking gorgeous with "Rockstar length" hair. I think Janet and Nawa were there too. Hope I didn't miss anyone :) - hope to catch up with you all again soon! When I get the film developed you might see a few photos from the afternoon.

Evening: raining off and on -- but really hot and muggy. Dad washed the cars - see webcam - and Mum fed the wee man -- and made a strategic plan for the feeding. :)

PM: Pizza for lunch. Unle Stu came round. Got a couple of (film) photos. Stayed and chatted, might get him to switch yet. Lliam is trying to sleep thru feeds. Bit grumpy when awake - tired?. Probably ditto that for Dad ;) Mum popped out for a blood test this morning. Lunch soon.

Evening: Had a call from Jo's Dad, Graeme, up from Nelson for the week -- gonna catch the train out to Upper Hutt with Tim (Jo's youngest brother) to see and do. Jo's looking forward to it (2 years since he spoke to his dad), But Claire isn't. Lliam wasn't sure when we asked him earlier - he just said "goo". Look out for the webcam playback at about 8 pm. Update: Came, bearing gifts - flowers for Claire and a red sunflower for Jo. "You're my son". Lliam got a great card from Tim:

To: LLIAM, the newest arrival, by the time you are able to read this I would probably have wished you many other happy birthdays. But I give you this card on a very important birthday - your birthday! I wish you and your parents best wishes until it is time for another of your wonderful birthdays.

Love, Tim, one of your many uncles.
XOXOXOXOXOX

Be sure to stay young and enjoy not just this, but many other. :)

Tim (12 y.o) has gone into the card business under the brand TIMPRO. Timpro publishing, Motueka... Hallmark - look out! Claire gave his a few tips from her handmade card "business".

Weighed the two cousins, Alex and Lliam. "Press button to zero scale, attach ~~fish~~baby to be weighed". 5.53 kg vs 4.86 kg -- Nine days age difference. It's not a race! ;) Luckily I got the "Lliam on Top" photo. He may need it later when they grow up. Maybe Lliam is just tall, [dark, handsome] and slim like his dad.

AM: Mum took pity on Dad, it's his birthday after all. Let him sleep through the 2 am feed. Lliam woke at 5 am -- nasal aspirator needed. Fed him (90mL via SNS), and prepared Golders Crumpets with "Nodding Thistle" honey for grown-up breakfast. 06:42 - and Dad's off out the door for work. Party at 5pm (fish 'n' chips in the lounge) - so he's gotta start at 07:30 - on time!

Daddy got home late - worked till 20:30 at North City Shopping Centre in Porirua. Mum tired after long day too. Dad made fruit salad, and icecream - the "Awesome 4some" stuff. Mum had the Goodie Goodie Gumdrops quarter - and Dad the Vanilla (with a little bit of cookies and cream). Reliable sources tell us we should be feeding the wee man 80-100 mL at each feed. Alex (his cousin who gets the same EBM direct) is gaining up to a kilo a week. We managed 0.4 kg.

It's a first - especially for such an experienced Dad as me. Found myself hanging out washing at 1 am (it's raining too!). Gosh, remember that uneventful LBK? Made desert after the washing was out. Pavlova with cream, strawberries and kiwifruit -- it's not all bad at 1 am. Soothed by the [not so] dulcet tones of the wee man - Lliam seems to be keen on regurgitating his feeds at the moment. Not good. According to estimeed sources (our Tupperware lady) chiropractors can help that. Grain of Salt. Taken.
1 am feed stretched to 02:40 am -- he's still hungry after first lot. Chatted on #WellyLUG with patrick, who is moving - and burped Lliam, typing one handed.

Long day for mum - up all early AM with unsettled wee man, hospital appointment in morning, and not a chance to snooze all afternoon. Dad at work all day and NMG meeting til late pm. Dad picked up photos from Rally and Baby this evening. A few good shots. Dad misses his digital camera tho -- $300 to fix... camera is worth about $400 now (purchased for $1200 2 years ago - 2 MegaPixel FujiFilm FinePix 2800Zoom (6x optical, movie, sound, 128MB SmartMedia card) Is it worth it? Or should he buy a new one? Lots of pictures of Lliam need taking!

Aunty Helens birthday today, and only 3 days til daddys birthday on the 12th. Bath time at 06:40 this morning, then short baby massage by Dad, dressed and cuddled - while Mum made Dad sandwiches for lunch - then off to work. Mum visiting lactation consultant this morning. Dad typed up the 12 feeds sheets last night in prep. Did a nice graph showing then end of the road is coming.... Took some more "continuous shots" this morning. Will put gifs up after work. [Update: Maybe not. Bit silly. Snapshot only -->.]

The Most Requested Image is this one: Nikki, Mike and Lliam - All good looking ppl in that photo.... :)

Dad is probably obsessing but these are nice numbers for a 16 day old boy:

Philip not Phillip. Enuf Ll's already.... :) Dad spelt it wrong in the birth notice in the DomPost. Saga ensued. Hospital spelt the first name wrong too (Master Liam Benjamin Booth) - and their system doesn't seem to have room for his second middle name. The issue is that everything to do with hospital (ENT/EYE appointments, Hearing tests (Sometimes doesn't appear to hear us - probably strategic ;) ), Plastics referrals (misshapen ear), Xrays (broken clavical), Malabsorbtion support notice, and more) has Booth, Liam Benjamin. Will sort it eventually. Yet to register his birth officially. Supposedly meant to get forms from Hospital when we checked out.. but dunno - we didn't. Online maybe?
Dad is home for the weekend -- maybe. He might try to catch up on sleep!

Daddy is HOME! After a long trip to Palmerston North, daddy got back tonight at 20:00. It's Lliams' longest stretch without Daddy cuddles, and Daddy missed him lots too. Mum and Lliam had a [good] couple of nights at big Sis's place. On to 4 hourly feeds at night - as Lliam is growing ok. Last weight was birth plus 200 grams, and that was a week ago. Feeding schedule looks like 01:00 / 05:00 / 09:00 / 12:00 / 15:00 / 18:00 / 21:00 - with on demand bits in between as needed. Early start tommorrow to help out the magical CE, so Dad is off to work soon after the 05:00 feed.

Both mum and Dad tired. Dad went rallying in weekend to get a break. Tuesday 2-Nov: Jo off to Palmerston North for a few days for work. Might catch up on sleep. Mum and bub staying with helpful (and soon to be sleep deprived) relatives.

Claire got a bath this morning with Lliam - tho Jo stole most the hot water. Jo took some photos of the laborious dressing process after bath, and animated them. Fractured arm is still sore :( - ( Midwife due this morning -- but probably off delivering a baby. Internet stayed connected to Paradise for 10 hours now. Alarm sorted -- onto other line where it won't disrupt me. Off to work this afternoon. Mum and Bub sleeping now (11:48). Will make them lunch and go...

Jo (Dad) had a snooze, and left the visitin' hordes to it. Back up at about 16:30 for feed. Claire off to bed. Alarm guy turned up -- and as part of tests had to set the alarm off (once per zone - 8 zones... plus two triggers form box opening) Not much sleep was on offer - so Claire took Lliam for his first buggy ride. Buggy cover hasn't arrived yet -- so she had to make do with a jersey over him. Not good. Will ring for the LAST time in morning. Made dinner while she was walking... Steak (200g left form the other night) - Watties? Potato Pom Poms, fresh steamed carrots and celery, with (cooked) frozen peas, and a sliced beafsteak tomato (provided by Grandad Willem). Meal sorted, Alarm sorted by 17:00, but no Claire back. Tries cellphone twice. June thinks she is over the road at Louise and Tims.. Nope. Claire calls back... she's at Grandads, can we pick her up. No worries. Tea in oven to keep warm, and pop round. Willem supplies some fresh meat (I think he has half a cow!) and Silverbeet -- looks like we will be eating good for the next few days!

Finished dinner. Jo has to go and pick up and drop CAM WLG trailer into work from Mainfreight. Claire and bub wanna come too. Bubs first ride in work van :) Trailer only has minor dings, and mud gards are ripped slightly off where a thoughtless forklift driver didn't widen his forks enough.. but nothing major. Drove it to office. Bub wakes up every time I stop truck and crys. :( Drive home. Sleep. Slashdot post of the day is the one about SG and Nintendo and Zelda and trademarks {Not suitable for minors!} Lliam was sleeping at the time ;)

Loaded batteries into the philips baby monitor. Very portable now. Edumicated the girls that the baby monitor is generally on -- and all their secret (?) discussions in the bed room can be heard in the (full of people) lounge. Entertaining to say the least.
Busy morning with no less than 6 adults in our living room.. all family.. but tiring. Plumber round to fix a leaking pipe. Pete The Plumber - only response this morning - the rest of them didn't return calls. Good service, quickly fixed, and even fixed it for good with 90° bends rather than stretching the pipe like the last plumber had. Alarm servicing guy is due round this afternoon too -- getting monitoring changed to better suit my internet usage on that phone line, and general service. MiL smells smoke from the alarm cabinet. Prolly not good. Still works.. so dunno.

Lliams' Aunty 'Chel popped round, after going shopping for us! She got us a Nasal Aspirator (Tommee Tippee) to solve the clogged nose problems. Nice. (<--- See photo)
Cousin James (3 years) got a horsey (camel in my case) ride. Chocolate mouse at lunch! Midwife popped in and got MiL cross because she parked over the driveway. Overreaction if you ask me! She was here for all of three seconds to pick up the blood-pressure machine. Avocado, aparagus, tomato and salami sandwitches for lunch. Thanks June. Claire, of couse, ditched the asparagus and Avocado :) Yum!

We've decided to switch to the slightly less intensely regimented demand feeding. Sleep until woken by the kid. Feed him, and change him, and then try to get some sleep.
Lliam has a blocked nose. Solutions include putting your mouth over his nose and sucking, or going to the baby shop, and getting a "sucky thing". Tried the former. Will buy the latter.
Dads at home today -- tho the work phone is still in his ear. 6 calls this morning, and still counting. Both still exhausted, but he's a beautiful kid, and i wouldn't want it any other way. Mum had muffin splits, and Milo for breakfast, Dad went with the off-day trial of museli instead of the everyday Weetbix. Used the All blacks bowl. Kid in one arm bowl in other, laptop on knee, phone in ear. Mum looks the same -- with pumps and tubes feeding taped to her. Gosh, Remember LBK?

03:00 - Heh, walked past the hammock early morning -- and saw the Huggies snuggle bear (thanks Huggies) looked like he had hung himself. My mum had clipped him on when the little man was in it yesterday. I finally understand what Claire meant by the "suicide bear" on the hammock. Heh. Am using my little webcam for photos at present -- but macam (webcam driver/offload util) is crashing on startup -- i'll post a photo later.

Dad made it to work... Supreme High Court in Wellington even. Nice place. Fitted out with Bluetooth Logitech® diNovo™ Media Desktop™ keypads and mice for each person, nice LCD flat panels, decent leather chairs. Good on them! Also visited the nice folks at Meridian Energy *-- they provided a full free lunch last time I was there... nice! If only I bought my power from them, maybe I would get more than a free lunch.
Anyway -- back to the real story: Dad was so focussed on work, he forgot to stop off and grab the essential EBM this morning. Got all the way to Welly this morning, and realised. D'uh! Lliam went hungry 'til the evening. Well, not really. He hung off mum all day, which doesn't help the tiredness factors for either of them. No time for lliam.slashdot yet - maybe tomorrow morning (night). Oh -- News: Lliams' belly button / umbilical cord bit finally fell off. No goey mess as mum was expecting, just nice and dry.
Dad's mum, Pauline Booth popped in today, with "fraggle" (Alan) - took a few photos -- but no Digital Camera..... so wait for film etc. Pauline has been busy knitting - and we now have an awesome sizable wollen rug for Lliam to snuggle in. Thanks! Mum also got presents - relaxing ones.
With Lliam grumpy all evening and crying whenever he's off mum, it was difficult eating the nice rump steak, kumera chips and eggs Dad made -- He had to cut them up into little pieces for easy one handed feeding... Topped it off with instant mousse - chocolate -- and Cadbury Dream white chocolate sauce - which only came out of the bottle when Dad heated it next to the EBM in the hot water :). Had to work out how to get crusty snotty bits out of an infants nose this evening -- saline solution and covering his mouth briefly worked. He wasnt feeding cause he could breathe porperly with his mouth closed.
21:36 -- must go -- the Baby monitor (thanks to Mike and Nikki) has signalled my nappy changing services are needed. Laters.

Back 21:53 - Lliam is back hogging MY bed with Mum ;) We turned on the TV for the first time since we've been home earlier - it was getting dusty. "Remember life before kids?" they say. Got a Plastics appointment for Lliam's floppy ear - but it's two weeks away -- it'll be set crooked by then! Must ring and hassle hospital. Speaking of hassling ppl: No Buggy Rain Cover yet. I'm giving you three more days and one more answer phone message, and i'll tell them all... it's been a month!

Both dead tired. Fussy wee man all (morning). Re-increased his feed at 3 am, and he's sleeping better at 9am. Todays slashdot post of interest is the geek booting OS X via PearPC on a 25 Mhz Centris. At an emulated 0.05 Mhz it's about two weeks till the boot screen pops up... And it seems that the NZ Herald wants me to switch from my quiet enjoyment of Mac OS X to Linux at Work ;) Thanks to Mesh Net, i'm surfing the web in the lounge via wireless with baby in one arm and laptop in the other. The new SNS system is brilliant, but a bit slower (and probably better for Lliam and Claire). Means i'm up for almost an hour each feed tho. :( Claire too. Grandma Pauline (Jo's Mum) is visiting this afternoon from Palmerston North!
Dad had a morning bath with the wee man.. Discovered he floats! Just let him go, and he floats! Cool. No digital camera, else you would get the obligitory pics -- WPS has it. Paid my $40 checking fee, and it's off to the majic camera fixit place in Auckland or something. No promises.. but might still need a new one?

Despite an 0 0,3,6,9,12,15,18,21 * * * /local/lounge.feed; happening,

Jo snuck in a nine hour work day. Dropped in to say hi to Chris and Jess at MoreFM, and to thank to them for the cookbook and flowers and nappies they sent to us - during lunch. Dropped digital camera into WPS City Store for possible repair. Stopped in at the Hutt Hospital SCU on the way home and picked up some Nutricia Pepti-Junior from the SCU for lack of milk emergencies. Dad went shopping (PAK'N SAVE with SHOP'N GO ) this evening. Took a list even! only added some yummy looking new Cadbury chrunchy chocolate, and Quality Bakers muffin splits. Redeemed the first of Huggies generously donated free nappies. Lliam is a bit restless - but lack of sticking to the schedule while i'm out is to blame IMHO :). Mum is decked out with a new contraption this afternoon -- a Medela SNS drip feeder. Much better than getting sore hands with syrines - and baby does the work even! Still pumping, with better results.. about 20 mL now. Our lounge [read: feeding room] looks like a Medela showroom these days.

Settling in -- manged to have an afternoon nap for 2 hours - seems weird for a working man, on a Monday afternoon. Still haven't fixed digital camera. :( Will pull apart this evening - and silence the rattle. Might fix it. Kept the little tike awake this afternoon for a bit, and only gave him 40 mL of the good mummy juice in the 3pm feed. Supposedly this will help him be awake and alert in the day. Mum's milk is getting there slowly with 2 hoursly "pumps", but still suplementing with about 50 mLs of EBM from sister.

Dad is figuring out what 3 hourly feeding means to (lack of) sleep patterns. Especially when feeds take up to 40 mins before sleep again. Got it down to a fine art tho. Procedures in place and Templates at the ready. Lliam and Dad enjoyed a 3am slashdot session, reading up about rat-brain powered flying lawnmowers - It seems his current "awake" cycle starts about 3am.. :) Mum enjoyed the first "at home" bath with him this morning - no baby bath yet, so he gets to really swim in the bathtub. Our FinePix 2800Zoom Digital Camera seems to be rattling and not going :(- so maybe we need a new better one -- or even a Samsung 5MP phone (SCH-S250)

Mother and Lliam are home, settling in. A bit tired, and still sorting out food, but happy to be home. Feel free to drop us a line on 04 9713413 and leave a message. See the photos for more!

Subject: Claire and Jo announce Lliam's arrival...

After 5 days of sleepness nights with off and on again labour and contractions we finally went in and encouraged the wee man to come with an ARM and synotosin drip.

Lliam Benjamin philip Booth was born at 19:07 on the 20th of October. After a 8.5 hours of labour, and then 4 hours of hard pushing by his mum, Claire, he finally made it. In his 41 weeks and 3 days on the inside he managed to tied no less than two knots in his umbilical cord and grow to a impressive 4.205 kgs (9 pounds,4 or something in those imperical thingies). He needed a bit of specialist help to get breathing at first -- but soon let the world know he was hear with a few hearty cries.

His mum ended up braving it all -- and had no pain medication through-out the labour, despite almost giving up several times - she made it thru with only a few sore bits. Dad got to hold the "Ll BPB" (little blip) for the first 30 minutes, and got him off to his first snooze under the bright lights.

A fair few of our friends and family txtd us during the day -- hearing us on the radio -- and Dad listened most of the day, despite being told he wasn't allowed his cellphone(s) in the delivery suite, even if he was only listening to the best radio station ever :)

You are welcome to send him a few well wishes to lliam@ mangee.net.nz or leave a message at home 9713413, but visits are probably out until mum and bub settle into a bit of routine, and get some sleep (if any)

A big thanks to MoreFM and Huggies for their help and the 3 months supply of nappies!, and also to our awesome midwife who helped us thru this all - and cheers to the friends and family that have sent us their well wishes or visited. There are a few photos of you up already

Lliam is the first of the "Booth" grandsons, and firstborn to Claire (25) and Jo (24). His cousin Alexander just got in before him and was born a few days ago to Claires younger sister, so i'm sure the two will have a blast growing up in Wellington together.

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Subject: Claire and Jo announce Lliam's arrival...