Christmas Tree and the Beach

We dragged the Christmas tree out of its box last weekend to assemble and decorate. Setting up the tree is usually a painfully meticulous process as Alison and I "discuss" the finer points of bauble balance and distribution. This year however we had an adorable arbitrator to settle disagreements, and she even helped with placing the star on top.

Nelly's first Christmas is rapidly approaching and all our shopping has more or less been done. Absolutely can't wait till we're up in Toowoomba with the rest of the family for what will be a very memorable holiday season, what with two new babies in the family now that Eleanor and our new nephew Thomas are here. We'll also be spending the week following Christmas up in Coolum with James, Dora, Thomas, John and Sheena which will be great. 

For this weekend we drove down to South Port on a little field trip. In truth it was mainly due to my desire to try out this ramen place (Ichiban Boshi) that I'd heard about. The ramen actually turned out to be good although not great (compared to Hakataya ramen in Sunnybank in my opinion), but the trip was good fun anyway.

After lunch we headed down to the water for a stroll, where Nelly cackled at the seagulls and pelicans flying around. I imagine that obese pelicans primarily nourished from the cast off potato chips of visiting tourists look kinda silly to an eight month old, perhaps even to 29 year old mums who keep referring to them as "smellicans" and giggling. We weren't dressed for the occasion but I have a feeling that once we get Nelly on the sand and water she's going to love it.

Before heading back to Brisbane we stopped by Baskin Robins for a quick treat. Not sure if we were being irresponsible parents, but we decided to give Nelly a bit of Rocky Road from mummy's cone to see what she would think. She didn't go into anaphylactic shock and seemed to take to the chocolate quite naturally. I think she's going to have a sweet tooth.

Sit Down for a Meal

Eleanor's latest trick has brought our interaction with her to a whole new level. Just over the last two weeks she's pretty much mastered the art of unassisted sitting (only occasionally smacking her head on the floor when one of us isn't looking), which brings with it a surprising number of new things to do. Obviously this new posture now allows a slew of toys that were not appropriate before and have suddenly become necessary.

It also means that feeding time is a lot easier now that Nelly's core is strong enough to keep her upright. We had her outside in her nappy, eating watermelon and mushed up banana for breakfast, which she mainly fed herself. Still a little messy but I have no doubt that her table manners will improve with age.

Another big bonus for me is that she seems to enjoy sitting on her mat while I play the guitar in front of her. She seemed so interested in my six string that I thought Alison's ukulele would make a nice toy for her. She managed to pluck a few notes before attempting to eat the instrument so it might be a few more months at least before the music lessons officially start.

Haven't uploaded a montage in a while and I did go video crazy so here's a few clips from this weekend. She's just adorable!

Half a Year Later

Yes, we're those parents. Any milestone no matter how small should be celebrated, if only to provide an excuse for tea and cake in the park. No, Nelly did not partake in her half-birthday cake. We thought we'd give the poor girl a few more months (hopefully years) before subjecting her to the same high fat, high volume diet that her parents seem so fond of.

First stop in the morning was to get a quartet of icing encrusted morsels from the Cupcake Parlour. Then we drove down the road to Orleigh Park to find a lovely spot under a tree for some morning tea. Nelly was so well behaved and happily gave us lots of smiles for the camera.

As an aside, I've recently upgraded all our iOS devices to the latest version of iOS5 which, amongst many great new features, includes iCloud. Can I just say that having Photo Stream is an absolute life changer now that I don't need to synchronise four devices manually after taking few (ok, perhaps more than a few) photos. You can see my personal picks on the album here.

Eating the cupcakes fresh this time made a world of difference. These were super moist and had great flavour. I ordered the Turkish Delight along with the Marbelous (which is the one with a Guylian chocolate on the top). Alison had the Fairy Floss and Very Cherry (with the Cherry Ripe). Eleanor seemed interested in sampling the sweets but we convinced her that a bottle of milk and blended beans, carrots and sweet potato would be just as good. Kids are so gullible.

It's amazing how much she's changed over the last six months (as I said, we're those parents). Just over the last few weeks since Canberra have allowed Eleanor to improve her upper body strength when pushing herself up on her tummy. She's also interacting a lot more with us vocally, which is unbelievably rewarding. I had actually thought that she was going to be a laconic lass with very little sign of joviality, but I've been pleased to see her develop a musical laugh and happy squeal that melts my heart every time I hear it.

Happy six months Eleanor Chua. Your mummy and daddy love you very much.

Airplanes, Flowers and Canberrra Weddings

The last time we were down in Canberra was to renew my passport and see the wonders of our capitol city with hosts Meg and Rich. They did such a wonderful job of looking after us for our last visit that we couldn't pass up the chance to come down again. Especially to attend their wedding.

The flight down from Brisbane would be Eleanor's first experience with the joys of air travel. It's not a long flight, about an hour and a half in the air, so we were going to take this as a test run for what it will be like traveling back to Malaysia in January next year. If this experience was any indication, then we are very lucky parents as Eleanor was very well behaved. In fact, she slept most of the way and kept calm through take off and landing.

John and Sheena were at the airport to greet and drive us to the serviced apartments in Kingston. Being Floriade it was a good chance to see the flowers on display, though it was a shock to the system walking around in the cold after the Brisbane climate. Nelly and everyone rugged up and we had a lovely time walking through the different arrangements.

Speaking of dressing for the cold, Eleanor's Aunty Dora found this charming bear hat in Singapore a long while ago. We were hoping to use it but it turned out to be too big for Nelly and would likely be too warm in Brisbane by the time she grew into it. Good thing we actually got to use it in Canberra as we think she looks adorable in it.

I'd forgotten about this until we arrived, but we missed our chance to try a Canberran culinary institution during our last visit. It seems like queueing up for Brodburgers in the freezing cold at night is the local experience that all visitors should try. This is about as far from fine dining as you can get; three guys serving huge burgers of repute out of a stationary crimson trailer that is lit up like a gypsy's caravan at night. Catching up with Nat this trip to show us round town, I knew I didn't want to miss out again. So we stopped by for succulent beef burgers, slathered with Brie and tomato relish, even after a pretty big dinner and dessert before hand. It was 10:30 at night in pretty chilly conditions but that didn't stop people from gathering in front of the iconic red caravan.

There are some pretty nice restaurants in Canberra but as it stands, the people's vote on Urbanspoon is for Brodburger at the number one spot for popular places to eat. I would have to agree with that assessment. Incidentally the Asian Noodle House in Dickson on the second spot was pretty darn awesome too (which was where we had dinner before the obligatory supper excursion). One of the best laksa I've had in Australia.

The main attraction of course was Meg and Rich's wedding. The ceremony was to be held on the grass in the sculpture gardens by the National Gallery, but inclement weather meant that it was touch and go if the service would be moved under cover. In the end things were set up on the slate tiles overlooking the gardens and the Knot, where so many proverbial ties have been made. Megan and Rich looked great and happy, if perhaps a little cold with the weather.

The reception was held a short walk away at the Lobby. Great food, heart warming speeches, lovely company. It was a great chance to meet more of Alison's friends from school and hear about old times. The grandparents had driven all the way from Toowoomba to meet us in Canberra and look after Nelly so we could enjoy the wedding without having to worry about a baby. Seems rather silly that we spent most of the night talking about our little girl and cooing over photos that we had taken of her that day. Parenthood is a funny thing.

The rest of our time in Canberra was spent revisiting the tourist spots; the war memorial, the national portrait gallery and parliament house. We also received a fascinating tour of the Royal Military Academy, courtesy of Nat. I doubt that Eleanor will remember much of the trip but I think it's nice that she's already been on top of the centre of our nation's government.

Anniversaries and Solids

We haven't been up to Toowoomba together in a while to see the family, so Mary and Peter's 60th wedding anniversary was a great chance to catch up with everyone. All the Snow cousins have just grown up so much since the last time we saw them at Christmas. I'm starting to develop a bit of a height complex from having to look up at all the kids, who haven't even finished growing.

I haven't used my camera to take photos of anyone aside from close ups of Eleanor for such a long time, it was refreshing to have the opportunity to take candids and group photos on the day. I love taking photos of Alison's grandparents not just because they tolerate me clicking away constantly, but also because they are really great to photograph. Mary and Peter are such beautiful people and I don't feel like I have to work especially hard to get an interesting photo out of them.

With so many other shutterbugs there it was also a great chance to get a family photo of the three of us. Uncle David was happy to oblige. Shame that Eleanor felt a little too tired to accommodate by this point.

Even though I tried to focus on the Snows on the day, I still found my view finding gravitating towards our beautiful daughter. She was looking pretty cute on the day so I just couldn't resist taking the occasional shot.

It was a really fun day for everyone. The rest of the photos in the album can be seen here.

Nelly's been busy with more than just modeling patiently for her dad. Mobility isn't quite there but she's advanced to rolling onto her back occasionally, a milestone that was very exciting for her parents.

Then there's the topic of nutrition. Books and doctors seem to differ in opinion on when parents should be introducing solid food to their babies, varying from three to six months of age for the first spoonful. Of course solid is a relative term as the consistency of the rice cereal doesn't appear to be that different from the milk that Eleanor devours daily. Common advice suggests that once your baby is old enough to have proper head control and begins to show interest in the food that you are eating then it's a good time to start them on the mushy stuff. Consistent and reliable head control has been a recent development in the last month, but I'd comfortably say that our little one has been fixated on our meals since her first few weeks in the world. Certainly one clear indication that she's my daughter.

Now that Eleanor is a little over four months old, her doctor has given us the green light to start broadening her diet. Today we successfully shoveled two meals of cereal into the little one and got most of it to stay down. The first few mouthfuls were strange but by the end of the first bowl she got the hang of things.

We'll have to see how she goes over the next few days before adding more interesting food groups to the mix, but early signs suggest that she's going to be a tolerant if messy eater. By the time she's six months we expect to have her trying everything that she'd eat as an adult (aside from honey as that apparently can cause botulism in the first year), including the usual scary items like peanuts, seafood, wheat and other potential allergy inducing food stuffs. Looking forward to adding dad's favourite sea urchin roe to her porridge.

Kitchen Refresh

One of the problems with buying a house from owners that were DIY enthusiasts is that every now and again you have to deal with a project that wasn't built to last. Our kitchen was one such project, though we didn't know it when we first moved in of course. Over the last couple of years the cupboards next to the stove have slowly listed clockwise, to the point that our microwave door would actually close itself due to the angle. There's also the cupboard doors that no longer lined up straight and drawers that refused to close properly. We put up with this for quite a while, until mum suggested that the cupboards were in danger of collapsing soon if we didn't do something about it. Reason enough to pull our finger out and call an expert.



The kitchen company that we got in to quote pretty much agreed with mum's assessment (why wouldn't he?) so we booked in a date to fix this up. Our initial fear that the entire cabinet would have to be replaced was quickly put to rest. Apparently all it needed was to be propped up properly and adjusted which would just take about half a day. Even so this meant that we would have to clear out everything in the pantry and drawers. Amazing how much stuff you can hide away and forget about.



We even had to dump things in the second bed room.



The kitchen had always been one renovation project that we were going to leave to the next owner to deal with (along with the bathroom), but since we were already doing some work on it we couldn't pass up the chance to give the appliances a little refresh. Especially when they were already going to be calling in a sparky to remove the oven, why not put a new one back in afterwards? In fact a new stove top wouldn't go amiss either.



It's surprising what a big difference this makes to the room. Even the new metallic kick boards seem to make the space seem larger. Very happy with the results I must say. Hrmm, now how about that bathroom?

Fingers are Fascinating

Eleanor is growing up so quickly. The pile of clothes that she can't fit into any more is getting bigger which means lots of sorting into stuff to keep for the "next one" or to pass on to other expecting parents. On the plus side, this also means that the choice of clothes available for daily wear is changing over time. We've now entered a size window with a few garments we love, including this gorgeous rainbow hoodie that was given to us by Nelly's aunty Dora. We dress her in this every chance we get.



Speaking of aunty Dora, we got some pretty exciting news this week from the family in Singapore. On Tuesday afternoon on the 19th of July 2011, we were blessed with a nephew (and Eleanor a cousin) when James and Dora welcomed Thomas Liley into the world. Mum and bub are healthy and are now home and being looked after. One set of grandparents already flew over with another pair to join them by the end of next week, but thanks to the wonders of technology we have all been enjoying photos and video calls with the new family. Young Thomas is a beautiful baby and we're sure that he and Eleanor will soon become the best of friends.

Nelly has also hit a few development milestones in the past few weeks. One of which is a growing fixation on her digits. It's become commonplace for her hands to be covered in slobber as she tries to decide if the left or right one has superior flavour. It makes her happy and it makes for some cute photos so we permit it for now.



It can however be a little annoying when you're trying to take some nicer photos of her that don't all involve shovelling fists into her face. Even when they are out of her mouth the hands aren't very far away. My other theory of this seemingly defensive posture is that she's attempting to prevent us from applying moisturiser to her face. The doctors gave us a few things to deal with her eczema so we are now following a strict regiment of QV cream through the day and judicial use of cortisone in affected areas. This was a prescription that Eleanor was less than pleased with and she reminds us of that at each opportunity. Can't argue with results however, her skin is starting to look a lot healthier.



We spent some time this afternoon going through another photo shoot, which you can check out here. Bit of an alternative chick look this time to celebrate our girl hitting 14 weeks. It's actually hard for me to believe that she'll get bigger than this. Wish we could keep her like this forever.

Photos at 2 Months

Been busy working with photos over the last month. Guess it's pretty obvious that the main subject would be little Eleanor for most of these, though in truth I'm surprised and a little embarrassed that I haven't taken more photos. She's 9 weeks old today and growing up so quickly. Thankfully she's developed a routine and is starting to sleep through the night and isn't as bothered by the small things like changing clothes and diapers.

Capturing the little bub on camera was a challenge until a week ago when she started to develop something resembling posture to allow assisted posing. It's difficult to think too much about composition when you're trying to photograph a baby with the rigidity of a blob of jelly (incidentally one of her nick names).



First photo project we had to put together was for our thank you cards that we sent out. I smashed something together in iPhoto and got them printed out on card which worked out rather well. The selected photos are titled "Zsa Zsa darling", "Downward Facing Dog" and "The Fonz" in clockwise order from the left.



Another photo project that I've been working on in iPhoto for a few months now (in secret) was to put together our wedding album. Alison has been on my case for years since the wedding for not allowing the photographer to put an album together for us (as I thought I could do a better job naturally). It took a while but I got my act together and compiled what I think is a pretty nice book for us to keep and sent it off to Apple to print. Aside from the great quality of the book, it was also nice to see Alison's confusion and concern when she saw the Apple logo on the box.



The book includes photos all the way from the start of the proposal in Sydney to the end of the honeymoon. Compiling this took over three months of subterfuge and secrecy so it was nice to finally give this to Alison.



As for Nelly, we were heading out to meet some friends for lunch today and decided to dress the little one up. She looked so cute in her outfit that we just couldn't resist grabbing the camera for an impromptu photo shoot. Alison worked hard to distract the baby while I took as many shots as I could. We even tried to be creative with some props. Here's Nelly having a great time with her friends (who were very compliant I must say)



Not all the photos turned out as well as I'd hoped, sometimes because of the angles and some unflattering cradle cap that I had to crop out. Played with cropping up close with this shot and desaturated for what I think is a haunting yet surprisingly arresting effect. If I weren't so lazy I'd try and photoshop my reflection from her eyes.



My favourite photo amongst what I believed to be the keepers was this one. She didn't really smile but I love that she's staring right at the camera and looks so adorable. Daddy bias may affect my objectivity of course.



You can view the rest of the photos from the shoot on Facebook here

Three Decades and a Full Moon

Not totally shocking, four weeks of parental leave have just flown by in a blink of an eye. I now face going back into the office on Monday, but at least I get to finish things off with a lovely birthday celebration with the family.

We originally had thought to turn my 30th into a big event with loads of friends and a big party at home. Reality of life with a one month old and the realization that I don't really have many friends to begin with meant that we ended up dialing things down a bit, opting for a quiet day by ourselves. After a breakfast treat of pancakes with bacon cooked by my darling wife, we decided to drive out with mum and Uncle Wing to Cleveland for fish and chips by the water. The food there wasn't spectacular and the weather was a little windier than we had hoped but we had a great time anyway.



In lieu if a birthday cake, Alison picked up a selection of cupcakes from the cupcake parlour. Very tasty and colourful but I think we may have bought too many for the four of us. Eleanor passed on the sweets having drunk more than her share of milk beforehand.



For dinner we called Cam Ranh and booked a big table, to accommodate the baby capsule and an indulgent number of dishes, and gorged ourselves on seafood. There was the staple specialty tofu, grilled chicken, pork spare ribs, pipis in XO sauce and not one, but two plates of crab; one in chili sauce and another in ginger and shallot gravy. I think we all thought we would be packing quite a bit to take home but we somehow managed to consume all that food without too much effort, much to the surprise of the chef. The last time we had this much crab was with Tim and Christine and it was absolutely sublime, as were all the other dishes that night. Great eats.



I got some great swag for presents this year too. Nellie gave me a very thoughtful robe to keep me warm when I have to change her diaper at two in the morning. It's a stylish grey with monkeys on it so I'm all set when my invitation to the playboy mansion comes through. My darling wife bought me the perfect gift for a balding male teetering on the edge of a midlife crisis, 6 laps on a rally track learning to drift in a WRX. Hopefully I won't embarrass myself by crashing the car.

Got a bunch of other great presents too, but of course the best gift is having the family here together. It has been really nice to have Nellie's Ahkong and Amma here to spend time with her. It's hard for them to find the time to come over here so having them both with our little girl is really great.



In addition to spending time with the baby, showing Wing the features of Brisbane was another key part of his trip. He's been here before for business trips but would usually be whisked to the Gold Coast or stuck in stuffy hotels, so it's not surprising that his impression of our city has not been overly positive. Knowing what he likes we focussed on the food markets at Rocklea and shops at Sunnybank to prove that you can get great produce for the dishes he enjoys. He seems to be very impressed by the quality and range of Asian food available and is even appreciating the meals beyond Chinese cuisine which is a pleasant surprise. In saying that I think his highlight was when we bought two salmon fish heads and fish bones from the Rocklea markets to cook fish curry and grilled the salmon heads on the BBQ. Oh so yummy.



On Sunday we had another little gathering which included John, Sheena and Barbara. We cooked a heap of steaks, prawns, sausages, chicken thighs and (something a little different) a bag of marinated chicken necks that Wing spotted at the butchers. Food and company were once again fantastic and I got to blow out my candles on a birthday cake this time. Even after stuffing my face silly I still managed to wolf down almost half a tray of creme caramel that my beautiful mother in law had made for me. I'm actually feeling a little ill from overeating now.



The other important occasion that we celebrated was Eleanor's full moon, as she is now one month old. Mum brought over the powdered dye to make red eggs for everyone to eat and we had given Eleanor a nice bath and dress her in new clothes before the arrival of her visitors, except she proceeded to soil that half an hour later. Even looking back at the first few pictures we took of her at the hospital it almost seems like a different girl. Back before she was born, I naively thought it would take a week for us to get a handle on things and establish a routine. Hasn't quite happened yet and I'm no longer holding my breath, but if the last four weeks is anything to go by I'm looking forward to discovering all the things I don't know about our little girl in the months to come.

Family Gatherings and Parenting

The past two weeks of have just flown by as we continue to take our first tentative steps on the path of parenthood. I think I made the point in the previous post that we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves without the help of friends and family, but it's worth noting again that we have truly been blessed by a wealth of assistance and advice from all our loved ones.

Last week was really special as the family in Toowoomba all came down to spend Anzac day with us at home. This was the first chance for Mary and Peter to meet their great granddaughter and I think Eleanor made a good first impression. It was a good excuse to break out the old camera and take lots of photos to mark the occasion.



Alison and I were forced to sit back and relax while the rest of the family dealt with food and assorted preparations. We may have protested a little at first but it was fantastic to put up our feet for a bit and talk while others cooed at the baby. Once the feast was ready to eat I got another opportunity to point out the benefits of purchasing the larger outdoor table to Alison. So much food but it was the company that made it a great meal.



The following weekend we took advantage of family hospitality once again by spending a few nights in Toowoomba with John and Sheena. I'm sure they enjoyed having Eleanor there to fuss over and show off to their friends and it was nice to have Aunts and Uncles pop in to visit. With the grandparents available to take care of the baby, Alison and I actually managed to get quite a few nights (and afternoons) of sleep so I think the dark bags under our eyes are starting to disappear.



It's funny how I've switched most of my internet time from researching gadgets and games to looking at prams and baby accessories. We had bought a bunch of stuff from a workmate of Alison's which included a pram and baby carrier. We found that neither of these were actually usable in our experience because they were too big; the pram because it wouldn't fit in the car and the carrier because Eleanor is just too small to fit in it. It was a little grating to have to buy replacements when we already had something available, but a quick trip to the store convinced us that the Baby Jogger City Mini was a must have. That easy one move folding action has been a life saver when packing up the car to head to the shops. Very impressed with the design of this stroller and I can see us packing it up for a trip back to Malaysia in the future.

The other huge success we've had today was with a new baby carrier. Little Nellie is very clingy and loves being held, and despite our best efforts to transition smoothly from cradle arms to the cot she often wakes up in a few minutes screaming for attention. After quite a bit of internet searching we found the Sleepy Wrap, which turned out to be one of the cheapest and yet versatile products on the market. The postman delivered it this afternoon and we can say that initial results are very positive. Nellie pretty much slept in it all afternoon and woke up in a great mood for a feed. The best bit is we went out on a walk with her and Alison had full use of her hands for hours without any worries.



The wrap theoretically handles up to 18KG of baby, and Nellie's weigh in at the Doctor's today marked her at 3.31KG so we have a ways to go yet. With the fabric spread over shoulders and waist it does seem to spread the weight very evenly so hopefully our backs won't give out before then.

Eleanor's Amma is going to be flying in tonight so we'll be heading to the airport soon to pick her up. She's no doubt very excited to see her granddaughter and her new iPad 2 which I spent the past two days setting up. No matter how much I love my technology I think it's pretty clear which one she's more eager to get her hands on.

Only have another week off work but I think we're finally getting the hang of this. Heck, we even managed to watch a whole movie yesterday afternoon (The King's Speech, which was excellent) and she slept right through it. In the next week we'll be celebrating a super Mother's Day, picking up Uncle Wing from the airport and there might even be a day set aside for me to grow a year older. By the end of it I might even be ready to return to the office, though I imagine that I'll miss my girls terribly.

Eleanor Madge Ying Yuen Chua

It's a little later than I expected, but I've started to compose this post typing slowly with one hand. You see, the other arm is currently occupied holding my one week old daughter. The week has been filled with more challenges and victories than I would have thought possible in such a short period; though one thing is certain, we're very happy to have our little girl with us in the world.

Alison sent me a message early in the morning on Friday the 15th to say that she was feeling a little peculiar. This was a reasonably frequent observation so we remained cautiously hopeful that this would progress to the next step. By the afternoon I received another SMS to say that things had fizzled, and so we set ourselves up for another weekend of waiting impatiently. By 12:30AM on Saturday Alison continued to experience occasional cramps and pains, though nothing resembling what we were told in classes or had read in the literature. Calling the hospital at the time got us stern dismissal that the symptoms resembled actual labour, and Alison was effectively told to go back to sleep and set in for a few days of feeling rotten.

Waking up with less than an hour of sleep on Saturday morning, Alison was still feeling cramps and now had waves of nausea to deal with. Sleep deprived and worried, we tried to pass the time by watching TV and keeping her mind off the discomfort. At least until 11:00 that morning where we called the hospital again to check in. Once again the nurse at the other end felt that the description didn't really fit the traditional signs of labour, but they were concerned that the baby wasn't moving as much as they would have expected so we were asked to come in to the assessment unit.

Packing the trunk and driving in was a pretty subdued affair as we were both convinced that the midwives would just tell us to turn around and come back home. All that we were hoping for was a little something to help Alison deal with the nausea, even planning a trip to the grocery store to pick up some ice blocks on the way home. Imagine our surprise when we heard an audible pop during the assessment, followed by the midwife telling us, "Oh honey, you're definitely in labour". Seven centimeters dilated in fact, so it was a good thing we came in as we were mere hours away from meeting our daughter.

First thing we asked for after the obstetrician arrived at the scene was to get Alison the epidural. All the different coping techniques, positions and equipment we learned about in antenatal class went out the window as it soon became pretty obvious that something was distressing the baby and getting her out fast became a priority. With each contraction the baby's heartbeat would drop from 150 down to 110, even lower as the labour progressed, and as low as 60 BPM at one point. After a handful of pushes with vacuum assistance it became pretty clear why; the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck. It caused my own heart to stop momentarily, but our obstetrician calmly clamped the cord and cut it before pulling the baby out.

The midwives rushed the baby over to the pediatrician, who was standing by to clean the baby and her airways of the meconium in the water. Seconds later we heard the first of many healthy cries from our baby girl. I nervously shuffled over to perform a ceremonial cut of the remaining cord and meet my beautiful daughter. I'm comfortable enough to admit that there were a few tears in the room at the time.

Once the doctor was happy, they brought the baby back to Alison for us to be together. After appreciating the wonder that had just joined our family we whispered her full name softly into her ear; Eleanor Madge Ying Yuen Chua. She was born at 2:42PM on the 16th of April 2011 and entered the world in a Lilliputian frame, weighing merely 2.96KG, with a height of 49cm and a head circumference of 34cm.



We have found it challenging coming up with an English name that matched well with Chua but using my mum's name (Ilona) as inspiration we were both very happy with Eleanor. The origin seems to be a little vague but I think the ambiguity lends a certain depth to it. With the Greek interpretation (a variant of Helen), Eleanor means "Compassion" which I would think she fits; while the German word "ali" means foreign. Madge was Alison's paternal grandmother, a very strong and funky woman who I sadly never got to meet. We are both thrilled to give our girl names from such wonderful women in our lives.

It's important to us for Eleanor to have a Chinese name that was more than an afterthought. Alison and I asked mum to help us with this and she has come back with a name that perfectly matches the sentiment we were aiming for; Ying Yuen (英雲). As with most Chinese to English translations, the precise meaning is up to interpretation and context. Ying can mean "beautiful” or "brave", while Yuen (also romanized as Yun) means "cloud". I also like that the character for Ying is used to mean English (英国), quite appropriate we think for a child of mixed heritage to be brought up in a "Western" country.

The grandparents are obviously excited about the first grandchild on both sides of the family. John and Sheena even raced down when they heard that Alison and I were in hospital, arriving in the birth suite just half an hour after Eleanor was born. It would have been nice to have mum there too but we're trying to involve her as much as possible through a stream of photos and short video clips for her to see. At least she will be here on the 6th of May and Uncle Wing to follow shortly.

We had received a bunch of visitors at the hospital as well and little Nell (nickname is still in flux) has been showered with a heap of lovely gifts. It's fantastic to share her with friends and family and has been a highlight in the last week of sleepless nights. That and putting her in silly poses and hats to take photos for our entertainment of course. I call this the downward facing dog.



The three of us were originally supposed to be discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, but opted to stay another day to ensure that we felt fully prepared to take a little person home to look after. The staff at the Mater Mothers Private, particularly on our floor 11, were absolute angels. We needed a lot of help in the first few nights trying to figure things out, which wasn't helped by Eleanor being jaundiced for the first two days either. There was a lot of information to take in and process and as new parents we had to make quite a few decisions that necessitated long debates between Alison and myself, just because that's the sort of people we are. Not the best practice when tired and frustrated at 2 in the morning. Through all the options we tried, the midwives and consultants at the Mater were nothing but supportive and we could not have made it through the first few days with our sanity intact if it weren't for them. Especially stuck in a small room for five days, even if the food was pretty good.



On the subject of food, it was nice for Alison to finally satisfy the sushi craving she's been fighting for the past nine months. There was a sushi train not far from the hospital so I picked up a few pieces of nigiri to wolf down as a midnight snack. They do say that eating food you love is a great way to produce oxytocin and helps with breastfeeding so I just like to be able to do my bit.



Of course we have been getting loads of help from our own parents, aunts and uncles. Sheena was down for the first night that we got home on Thursday to help with cooking and cleaning and it will be nice to spend more time with the family over the Easter break. Strapping little Eleanor into a baby capsule was interesting but she seemed to enjoy it once she was in the car.



I always figured this whole parenting caper was going to be a challenge, but can see how so many fathers have been telling me that one can only understand what it's like when they actually have their first child. In addition to all the support we have received it's also good to know that we will be going on this journey together with other family as James and Dora will be proud parents of a baby boy in July. What a year this will be for the family.



No doubt we're only on the tip of the iceberg at the moment and there will be many frustrating moments to come. At the end of the day we look at her face after spending three hours trying to settle her screaming and think it's all worth it. Love you lots munchkin, just be patient with your mum and dad while they're learning.



Oh, and it only took about seven hours to complete this post intermittently. Alison is now nursing the baby to give me a chance to finish this off. Something tells me that big blog posts won't be a big feature over the next few weeks, even if I want to.