Paul McCormack’s Web Site

As requested, I have uploaded more photos into the gallery.  We had a family trip to the beach at Curl Curl on Saturday to walk Wellington, followed by lunch at a cafe in Dee Why.

Wellington had a great swim in the lagoon and Miranda found that being carried in the sling is really comfortable.  Grandma and Granddad Hickey really enjoyed their lunch as well.

So far, trips out of the house have not been traumatic, although the Jeep does get pretty crowded with 4 adults, baby seat, pram, change bag, coats and the dog all piled in.

Thanks to everyone who has been checking the web site regularly for photos.  I’ve received a number of e-mails recently asking for more photos.  Be assured that there will be new photos coming as soon as I get a couple of hours of free time!

Miranda Lucy Lilly McCormack was born at 20:29 (Sydney time) on Monday 30th June 2008 weighing 4.16kg (9lb 2.8oz).  Both Deborah and Miranda are doing remarkably well.  Photos are in the Gallery.

We are now pleased to be home after spending five nights in hospital - one having been induced and waiting for labour and then four further nights for recovery (this is standard for a natural birth at our hospital).  Deborah was in labour for five hours and despite the epidural only partially working, there were no problems with the delivery.

As requested, the obstetrician passed Miranda to me and I then placed her on Deborah’s chest before cutting the cord.  Miranda has lost a little more of her birth weight than we would like, so we need to keep an eye on her feeding until Deborah’s milk comes in fully.

It is great to be home and sleeping in our own bed, despite it only being for two hours at a time due to the feeding plan to increase Miranda’s weight.

Speaking of which - I need to have a nap now!  More news later.

Finally, after many months of tiring work, the nursery is complete and ready for the little one to arrive. We completed the painting last weekend and added the finishing touches on Sunday. We didn’t finish until late on Sunday night, so we’re pretty broken today, but the euphoria of completing it is keeping us going!

Not being satisfied with just a lick of paint, I started by ripping out and rebuilding the window frame. The old window sill was badly warped and anything placed on it would simply slide off!

After that, I ripped up the carpet and pulled off the skirting boards so that I could lay a new laminate floor. I then realised that the wardrobe frame was not fitted very well, so proceeded to rebuild that and re-wire the electric socket on the landing to hide the wire on the inside of the wardrobe.

There was a fair bit of damage from my enthusiasm with the crowbar (that’s a crowbie to Aussies) so I had to patch up the walls before we could even think about painting. Debs had seen a photo of a striped wall in a magazine, so the trusty laser level came in very useful marking up the wall.

Photos of the end result are on the Humblebee web site here.

Debs went bargain hunting on Monday and bought the final items that we needed. Just little things like the car seat, rocking cradle and baby bath! She bagged some great bargains, so we’re all set for the arrival. The due date is 3rd July, but Deborah has been suffering with a painful unstable pelvis which may get worse as the baby grows to full term, so she may be induced up to two weeks early to ease the pain.

You can be sure that any news will be published here as soon as possible, so stay tuned!

We had our 20-week ultrasound on Wednesday of this week which is exactly half way through the “standard” 40-week pregnancy.  Happily, we have been told that our baby is perfectly normal and healthy.  My Mum and Step-Dad are staying with us at the moment so Mum was able to come along to the ultrasound and see the baby jiggling and wiggling around.

We chose NOT to find out the gender of the baby at this stage to avoid family and friends trying to catch us out!  You will find out straight after we do - around 3rd July if all goes to schedule.

Debs is now able to feel the baby moving around and kicking.  He didn’t like the curry that we went out for last night … (I said “he” just then, but you can’t catch us out remember) … and was kicking like crazy afterwards.  We have been listening to her (!) heartbeat on a hired ultrasound machine, but now that Debs can feel movements we’re going to send it back.

Before we send it back though, we thought that we should record a bit of the sound.  So, if you follow the link below, you will hear an MP3 of three things:

1. Blood passing through the placenta (sounds like wind blowing through trees) - 5 seconds
2. Deborah’s heart beat (about 70 bpm) - 13 seconds
3. Baby’s heart beat (about 130 bpm) - 45 seconds

Click here to download / listen (726kb download).