And another

Connor in real clothes

Comparision

Just though people might want to see how Connor is growing, here are two of the daily photos, top one taken around 1 week, and the bottom was last nights.

Something different

Ah, another 2 weeks without a blog entry, well last weekend was a bit wet and yucky, so not much really happened (I think, I certainly can't remember anything of interest except having to do an autopsy on Gleep (one of last years lambs)).
On Sunday morning we discovered she was dead, so out of interest I cut her open to see what had caused it, her liver was very pink, instead of deep red, and her gall bladder was light yellow instead of flouro green, and she had leasions on her lungs. Since I had her open, I took the rest of the skin off, and turned her into cat food (only the muscle though, didn't use any offal).
Yep, I think that was it for last weekend, this weekend though, I actually learnt a new skill (not that it is really a skill, but useful all the same). It started off around Thursday with the fire in the lounge pushing lots of smoke back into the room every time you opened the door, I thought "hm might be time to clean the chimney", but Saturday morning we hadn't organized anything, so I rang a few local hardware stores and found one close that had chimney brushes. After a quick trip to Carterton to collect one, and then around lunch time, by which time the fire had died down enough to work in the fire box (the warmth of the residue heat was quite pleasant), I got the ladder and rope out and proceed to the roof.
To cut a long story short (it ain't that exciting anyway), I successfully managed to sweep our chimney, and in all it cost us $30, it would have probably been more expensive to get a guy out.

Then on Saturday afternoon Andy, Alex and I continued chopping up that gum tree we felled a few weeks ago, not quite done yet, but made a big dent in it.  That evening, Steph and I (Connor was asleep so he slept in the car seat in one of the bedrooms) went over the Jules and Andy's for dinner.  They have been here now for 12 months to the day, so we all thought a bit of a celebration was in order. 3 bottles of wine, a lovely roast Bob (one of the lambs that I dispatched), a very nice crumble, and then lots of cheese. In all a very pleasant evening, we trundled home around 11, and crashed out for the night.

I did manage to get out for a hunt on Friday evening, we went down to Joe's farm, and tried a new area, unfortunately we only saw 2 rabbits, and had 6 shots at one of them, but missed all :-(
Consequently Saturday morning I spent a few hours knocking over targets, still need more practice though, as always.

Then that leads us on to today, well it's only 9:20, and I sent Steph out into the paddocks around 8, I tried getting her out at 7:30 but she was dilly dallying. Connor sleeps for a few hours in the morning, so it seemed like a good chance for her to play with Markissa.

Hopefully this afternoon if the weather stays fine, we'll do a spot of fishing.

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If I get in quick, I can still say I blogged this week

It's been quite a good week. Oh, I only have Sunday to write about, cool...

On Sunday, since I had the chainsaw back, the main plan of the day was cleaning up the felled tree, and tanning the bunnies. Well plans are great but there wasn't much wind so I thought whilst I had the chance, I would fire off a few rounds into milk cartons and try and get some practice with the rifle. 35 rounds later, and a few holes in the milk carton, it was no surprise that the previous hunting trip was unsuccessful! Oh well, hopefully this weekend I'll get it sighted back in.

After that, I decided that I really should get on with the chainsawing, so with a nice sharp chain, and started carving chunks out of the big pile of branches, a few hours later, there were a few (but large) piles of branches, and some other timber for burning, which I gave to our neighbors.

After a lunch of bacon sandwiches (hmm yumm), we decided that it would be fun to fell one of the gums. So, tractor, bike, dogs and trailer all went down to the bottom paddock where we picked which of the dead gums was going to fall. We quickly noticed that the electric fence was going to get in the way, so I pinned it down, and Alex went up to the house to turn it off.
Once it was safe, I started chainsawing though to 2/3. As I got to 2/3's I heard this almight crack (loud enough to be heard over the chainsaw, and through ear defenders!). As you can imagine I got out of there very fast! But the tree didn't move!
So back I went, and put the chainsaw in and cut out a nice wedge, and started on the felling cut, and just as I got the chainsaw about 1/2 in, a just of wind blew the tree backyards and it pinched the bar. Bugger!
So, armed with the tractor and a bit of rope, I put the rope around the tree as high I could, and got Andy to give it a good tug whilst I nipped in behind the tree and grabbed the saw..such fun playing with trees. Anyway, the tree moved enough for the chainsaw to be recovered, and a few cuts later the tree dropped, the only problem was it went the wrong way and fell into our neighbors paddock! Bugger again!
Anyway, a few hours of chopping saw the tree deminish to a few big trunks and a trailer load of firewood. A good day!
Other news of the day was that Snowwhite kindled on Saturday night, so we've got another litter of bunnies coming on.

Other major news of the week was that Connor had his first jabs on Tuesday, and his tongue-tie snipped, not a happy chappy.

Oh and the goat is making a huge improvement, she is finally mobile, only via her back legs (still using her knees on the front legs), but she's getting there.

Till this weekend.

Connor "Spock" Huck

Bit of a catch up

It's been a couple of weeks since I last gave you a full update, and whilst it's only Saturday, I've just managed to get Connor to lie down for a bit (it's amazing what 80's music can do when it's louder than his crying!, but saying that he is now fast asleep).



He's currently enjoying Harold Faltermeyer and Axel F, a true classic.



As you can see from the previous photo, he's doing well and has mastered smiling and making cute noises, hopefully soon I'll catch some on video.  He was weighed the other day (finally got a plunket nurse), and just before the 6 week mark he was 11lb and something, or 5.12Kg.  Despite the amount that comes out the far end, going by that weight gain, some of it must be staying around!.



Thankfully he's still sticking to his night time routine of only waking once around 2am.



Anyway, what else is happening down on the farm...The goat is still alive, she's eating well, slowly getting motor functions in her back legs, but the front is taking a bit longer.



Last week, as we're so desperate for grass, I fenced off all around the arena, and we're now grazing all the way around except for near the flaxes, hopefully  that will hold the sheep and alpacas out for a few more days.



The rest of the goats are still out the back, and very low on grass, we're having to feed out hay every night, and it's the first time ever we've had to do this, bloody dry summers!



I've finally started tanning the rabbit hides, I've just got 9 hides out of the pickle and will flesh them after writing this, so hopefully they will be drying for Wednesday, when I'll kick the rest off. Not sure what I'm going to do, maybe make a bedspread or a coat for Steph, we'll see.



Today was quite productive, this morning Connor was having a bad morning (read Steph was having a bad morning), so I took Connor into Masterton when I went to pick up the chainsaw, he slept all the way in and back thankfully.



Once I got home, I got into the trees on the back lawn, I've only got a few boughs left to chop up, and now it's much better, I'll post photos tomorrow, it's a bit dark now.  It's going to be one massive bonfire, the pile of branches is about 2m high, 2m wide, about 5m long, and that's only 1 of them, there is another pile about 3x2x2m and another collection too! Might have to start that burn in the morning, but we can't burn that until I've got the 3 wire electric fence done down in the 3 tree paddock (our only paddock with grass left in at the moment). Hopefully tomorrow I'll sink a few posts and get the fence up so we can strip grass it with the alpacas, goats and sheep!  I'll be glad once we get rid of the alpacas; last night I even considered if they would taste good!



Anyway, time to flesh some bunnies.

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Some new photos of Connor

Blah day

This morning there was a wicked frost, man was it cold! Seemed like a good day to stay inside and make cat food and sausages. Well when the air temperature is so low, things don't defrost so well, so the cat food production was off, but sausage making was all on.
I decided on a wild rabbit sausage, a made up recipe:

800g Rabbit meat
1 onion
4 slices bread (white)
ts fresh sage
ts pepper leaf
100g Lard

mince meat
crumb bread
mix
sausageify

Really simple, and they taste yummy!

That chewed up a good hour or so, and then we decided that the sheep needed weighing, so I went across to Jule's and Andy's and after a cup of tea we all headed back (sheep aswell) to give them a quick weigh. Turns out that they are a few weeks off, hopefully they'll start piling the weight on soon.
Once we weighed them, I and took a poo sample from the ram with a really runny bum, and set the microscope up, we had a coffee and waited for the eggs to float. Ended up finding a couple of eggs so we drenched all of them.

Then this afternoon, I slaughtered the rabbits and put them in the freeze, not bad really, 5 rabbits and 7.5Kg of carcases.

Sorry, no photos today!

Bye, baby bunting, Daddy's gone a-hunting

Bye, baby bunting,
Father's gone a-hunting,
Mother's gone a-milking,
Sister's gone a-silking,
Brother's gone to buy a skin
To wrap the baby bunting in.

Well, that's todays poetry lesson! So apart from finding old nursery rhymes, what have I done today.

One thing Steph and I are noticing is that having a baby has caused us to be lazy, yep this morning it was pushing 8:30, and we were both still in bed! Last week we didn't have breakfast till 11am! Anyway, after dragging our backsides out of bed, I gave Joe a ring (a shepherd friend) to see if I could jack up a hunting trip on his farm, that all sounded good for the late afternoon, so I headed over to Andy's to check that he was keen too (all good), and then whilst I was over there shooting the breeze, we got a phonecall from Steph asking us to go up to the other neighbors to help move a lounge suite. After that I headed into Masterton for some milk and fencing stuff; nothing major thankfully.

After lunch I attempted to clean the barn whilst Steph worked Markissa, and Connor slept in the workshop, but he got bored of that and I ended up taking him for a walk around our place, down the drive and then into the farm behind us. The boys loved that, a good chance for a high speed run.

Once Steph finished working Markissa, and Andy got home, we headed down to Joe's place, after a quick chat and directing us where to go, we headed off in the truck. When we pulled up against the marcocarpas from where we were supposed to walk from, a baby rabbit was hopping in front of the truck, and just jumped into the wood lot, we decided that, hey why not, so Andy had first shots, unfortunatly he missed, oh well! We then walked bloody miles up hill and down dale (didn't see much else though, a hare and a feral cat (which in future we've been told to take out too)). Once the light started fading, we started heading back along the track using the lamp to try and spot bunnies. We managed to find one, at a range of about 75 to 100 metres. 4 shots later (first one missed, second one destroyed a front leg at the elbow,third one hit dirt infront and the forth one went through the ribcage and took out the internal organs (that's the sort of shot you're after)) the rabbit was ours, a bloody big one too, more like a hare in size. We gutted it there, and boned it once I got home, 800g of meat, not too bad. I'm going to make wabbit-wieners tomorrow (yep bunny sausages).

And then it's now, and thats bed time...so till tomorrow...maybe some photos.

Connor's first shower.

Another video

The farting is him!

QUeens Birthday weekend

Well, this weekend was a long one (three days), so Steph and I set out to get a few jobs done, as you can see from the first photo, I laid waste to another tree, a big plum tree (we never got the plums, it was too big), but now we have unfetered views of the hill behind us, and it really opens up the back garden (to the tune of a few hundred acres, shame it isn't ours).
The only down side was that the chainsaw decided to break 1/2 way through, so I ended up limbing the plum tree with a small pruning saw (and will continue to do so, until next pay day, damn these three fortnight months).
Sunday, I decided to rediscover the garage, wow, what a mamoth effort, after an entire day, and a full trailer of rubbish and recycling, we can now see the floor. The rat I caught in the live trap on Monday, turned out to be a mum of 3, which is good, that's 3 more for the price of 1.
On Monday morning, I dismantled an ewe for cat food, and then around 2pm headed down to the coast for a spot of kite fishing, since it's been a while, only caught 2 red cod, but they will go nicely into the cat food too.

Oh, on the goat front, it was suspected that it was Johnes disease which is fatal, and contagous to all ruminant. After a blood test, it turns out that she is negative for Johnes (phew). She just had a high worm burden, she and the rest of the flock has been drenched, and hopefully will make a full recovery.

I've been pestered a bit for some photos of Connor, so here are a few.

Life is never dull

The plan for today was I would work from home (since it's Thursday), and Steph and Connor would go into town and do the shopping. Well, this morning when I checked on the sick goat she had started scouring, not good! So we phoned the vets and had a change of plans. We would go into town with an 18 day old baby, and a sick goat in the back of the civic!
After loading the poor girl in the back and heading into Masterton, I went to the vets, whilst Steph went to Pak'n'Save.

Whilst coming home from the back of the car we heard
"Sneeze,Sneeze, Bleet" very surreal!

Life goes on

This weekend was our first by our selves. So what did we get up to..
I can't remember on which day we did what, but I remember that we dagged the sheep and checked the hooves of the sheep and goats. Whilst we were doing that we discovered that one of the goat does had lost a lot of condition and was quite weak, she's now up by the house, and getting a better diet, just to try and build her weight back up, poor girl.

On Saturday afternoon I remember felling two macrocarpas in the back lawn area, I decided that I wanted a view from the kitchen window and those trees were in the way, unfortuanlty I now need a new chain for the saw, so we've still got a tree on the lawn!

Oh, yesterday I caught the little friend in the garage!

No doubt some of you are interested in the doings of Connor, he was weighed sometime last week, and had gained almost a lb, he's feeding well, and still sleeping most of the night. Last night was the first bath without any objections.

Steph is also doing well, she has started getting Markissa back into work.

Tomorrow is our first big road trip, we're all heading down to Wellington to visit friends, should be fun.

No photos this time.

It's fallen off

Yep, sometime last night Connor's cord fell off. That's all folks!

On the other subject of farmy things, the goats are getting their heads stuck in the fence again, time for the trick of putting a stick or something across their horns (and attaching with cable ties).

Just some more photos

1 Week.

So, 7 days old, and what's changed, well, he was weighed again today...Ah, sorry, not much farmy stuff this week so it'll have to be baby stuff instead, but next weekend we're dagging so expect something more animally next week, back to it....

His weight, he has gained 240 grams in the last week (for all those non metric people, that's 8.5 ounces).He's doing really well, last night he almost slept the entire night, we put him down at 9pm once he got back from the pub and had a "snack", and at 3:45am, we woke him up purely for Steph's comfort (other Mum's will understand!) . Yeah it's sad that we think that around 4am is the morning, but it's only 1 hour off my normal wakeup time, so not too bad really (fingers crossed for this evening).

Other things that happened this weekend was Steph's birthday (unfortunatly, due to the circumstances, not a great deal was done, but I've got plans for next year!), and we also had all the grandparents down, along with Aunty Amy, Uncle Nigel, and Uncle Tristan (or Amy,Nigel and Tristan to the rest of us).

Note:Next paragraph not suitable for older sisters (ie you Carisa!).
Whilst out in the garage looking for Possum this afternoon, saw one Rattus Norvegicus, the good old Norweigan Brown Rat. Consequently three traps have been set using the tried and tested bait of peanut butter, I'll get the little(actually not quite so little) bugger!

That aside, here's some snaps from the weekend.

Connor's First Trip to the pub (at 170 hours old!)

This evening we all decided to have a trip out to the pub for dinner, the Gladdy, our local. Here is Connor, and in the background you can see the fireplace of the pub, and mural of Gladstone.

Today's Excursion

Well, today was a major milestone for Connor, his first trip into the local hunting and fishing store.....cant start too early, 4 days old seems a good age to start.

Nah, really, today Steph and I took Connor into Masterton, since it was around lunch time, we had subway for lunch, then strolled around the town center for awhile, then went to the Warehouse and to Pak'n'Save for the weekly shopping. Connor slept all the while, and even slept through the rescue of a car on the way home. About 2km from home there was a car off the road and in the ditch, and the driver needed a bit of help getting it out. We tried putting some extra weight to see if we could balance it back down so as to reverse it out, and in the end, just straight reversing it worked fine!

Other than that, we also took Connor out and around the paddocks in the pushchair.

Ah, thats about it for today...

And no photos today (I hear you all breath a sigh of relief)

Things so far

Well, things are getting back to normal. Connor slept for most of the night, OK early days and we expect it to change, but I'm not complaining! He had a feed at the end of Boston Legal (10:30ish) and then we put him to bed in his own room. Both Steph and I were awake from about 1am expecting to hear crying, and didn't really doze until he did at 4am! Tonight will be a different matter though, I'm going to go back to sleep! I will admit to going in once during the night to check on him because we got 5 cats and I forgot to check that there were none in there. We've tried to maintain the nursery as a cat free zone for the timebeing, but there was a few minutes before bed when the door was open and the makeshift catscreen was not in place. So around midnight, I peeked in with a torch and all seemed well.

Today, back on the farm(let) life goes on, Steph and I moved some sheep across and setup some new fencing (only temporary electric) for Markissa (whilst Connor was asleep up in the house (with his bedroom door closed)), and earlier on Steph got to groom and lunge Markissa, something she hasn't done for a while, meanwhile I was mowing the lawns.

Earlier on in the day Connor slept through the boys barking their heads off, and me vacuuming his room - I think this is a good sign.

Oh, and I bathed him today, only drowned him once, but that's not major. Before the bath we were all eating dinner (well, Connor had just fed, so it was just Steph, myself and Jenny), and Connor was on the floor in his car seat - half way through we started exercising his lungs again, and we even had tears..So we carried on and finished tea, then since I don't chew and finished first, I had to calm him down (well attempt to). Once Steph had finished she came in and filled the bath, and I then bathed him. He was still exercising his lungs, but he did seem to enjoy being on his front. After that it was a quick dry, and a feed, and now he's in bed.

Gee's the rabbits are growing, I went out today to feed them, and they are almost ready! Oh, and I also managed to clean out the garage, as we're going to store the pushchair in there as it's going to be going cross-country every day when Steph takes him down to Markissa's paddock and we figured that we didn't really want it back in the house!

Anyway, more later, and theres another few photos on the albums ( (http://picasaweb.google.com/matthew.huck/Connor)

Oh, just one photo here today, Connor learns to flip the bird!

Bye for now.

Connor Day 3

Don't worry, we're not going to do a blog and photos for every day (well actually I do intend taking a photo a day and then running them all together to create a movie of his development, but that won't be here for a while, strangly enough).

Today, Steph came home, and things are still going well, Connor had a really good night feeding, ie every hour or so! But Steph, as expected, coped with it well, but she did crash this afternoon for a few hours snooze, thankfully so did Connor.

But todays images are Connor playing on the play mat Aunty Amy and Aunty Carisa bought him, and his first encounter with Strider. He did also meet Gandalf, but the photos didn't come out very well, oh well.

There were going to be photos of the clothes he came home in, the blue knitted top and hat Grandma (Mum) made him, but just before we took the photo, I changed his nappy, and he pee'ed all over the top...And those buttons...grrrr...cute but I think they might be coming off (they are train shaped buttons, and are a bugger to get done up or undone)...Thanks Mum!

Anyway, here's the photos.

Connor's First Bath

Well, thats day two over, and Steph is doing fine. Connor has started feeding properly and Steph almost has got the hang of it.


Not a great deal of excitement or anything today, I changed my first nappy (hmm, not pleasant), and Steph gave Connor his first bath.


We're hoping that tomorrow morning Steph will be discharged from the hospital, she's only there tonight to get a little bit of help on her technique, but other than that, shes all sorted to come home.


Thankyou for all you comments and emails, Steph and I will attempt to reply soon.

Enjoy the video....

Weird Things in hospitals

Steph seriously thought about pressing the third button many times, but like Simon said, the whole thing is a miracle.

I tried pushing it, but nothing happened.

 

Same photos, but a better size.

It's funny how last night I was really careful to try and get all the detail in, yet still this morning, I remembered bits I forgot, not to worry. Moving on with the happerier side, here are some better photographs (actually just a better size), be sure to check the top level albums occasionally as I'll start putting up the really good ones.

http://picasaweb.google.com/matthew.huck/Connor1Day

and

http://picasaweb.google.com/matthew.huck

Now for day 2 of Fatherhood.

Just another weekend, Yeah Right

OK, wow what a weekend, the best description I can think of is to quote the Cypher off the Matrix "Jesus, What a mind job".


There is nothing in the world that could have prepared me for Saturday, I will try and put down as much as I can, and unlike most story's I'll start at the end, and then go back to the begining.


Steph, Connor and I are all well, and very happy, despite the following account, the outcome was fantastic, and I would do it all again; the day will still rate as the worst, but also one of my happiest, days in my entire life! Why? I will explain.

Friday:

Both Steph and I were quite anxious about the concept of induction on Tuesday, consequently we tried almost any idea to induce (some more fun than others!). It just so happened that I had a chiropractor's appointment that morning, and she suggested several things to aid things along, namely Steph moving around on all fours, gently pressing on an area above her ankle, and stroking her tummy.


Obviously one of these methods worked, 'cause around 6pm contractions started, and were around 15 minutes apart. After 2 hours, we rung the hospital, and they invited us in, instead we went to a friends place for a coffee and chat for an hour. At 9pm, we rung the hospital, and headed up to be put on the FHM (Fetal Heart Monitor) just to see how things were going. After packing the car etc, we arrived at Masterton Hospital around 11pm, and were taken down to the Lowkey delivery room, where they start monitoring you. They stuck the FHM on Steph, and it was reporting reasonable contractions (Steph could still manage them), and a healthy fetal heartbeat.


After a few contractions, a unusual trend was seen, the fetal heartrate dropped after each contraction (typically it will drop during the contraction (think bear-hug!), and then rise, and drop back down). In our case, it went the other way, consequently we were asked to stay on the machine for longer, and meanwhile, an exam was done to gauge progress, which was 4cm, only 6 to go!

Saturday:

After a few hours (3:45am Saturday morning) the contractions started getting stronger, and Steph was getting tired, and unable to handle the pain, and requested some pain relief. The midwife wanted to start with Pethidine, but after mentioning Steph's allergy with panadol, and her possible sensitivity to pain relief drugs (she gets high on 2 nurofen), we decided that Peth was to high risk, and decided to give gas a go. As you saw from the photo yesterday, gas became her new best friend. Both Steph and I managed to get about a few hours of sleep (admittedly my sleep wasn't broken, unlike Steph's, she was so tired she basically slept between each contraction). Around 8am, Simon (our doctor), came in, and examined Steph, and by this stage we had gained an extra 1/2 to maybe 1 cm! Since things were heading in at least the right direction, things were left to trundle along.


Around 10:30, Steph's contractions (well, duh they wouldn't be mine would they!) actually started to back off, and instead of being 5 to 10 minutes apart move to 15 to 30 minutes. Once more Simon's weekend was disturbed and he came in. At this point he decided (in consultation) that this baby was being delivered today, so he broke the waters.


Now, OK this bit, many people(women) will disagree with me, but it's my blog and my thoughts and perspective on things, so take with a huge pince of salt! I'll continue...Ah the waters breaking, I was dreading this happening, both for Steph's sake as she was on the receiving end, and mine; I'm not particularly good with my own blood being spilt, or even worse, my loved one. Anyway, the actual procedure, was "uncomfortable" for Steph, really I think I'm understating it bit, (and even that is an understatement). From the perspective of my thoughts for Steph, it was dreadful, but in terms of the procedure, it seemed very simple (that doesn't mean I'll do the next one), and was over quite quickly. The amnihook did truly look like something out a grandmothers crochet basket. Once the waters were broken, the contractions came in quick and hard.


At the time, I thought there was nothing worse than the feeling of total and complete uselessness I was feeling then. There was Steph going through excruciating pain, and all I could do to help was hold her hand, and tell her:
"All be over soon", what a complete lie, we had no idea how long it was going to take
"Just breath dear, deep breaths", quite frankly, I think she had more important things to do than listen to her hubby telling her to breath, if I was her, and her,I, I'm pretty sure my reply would be along "I am colorful-expletive breathing", I really don't think I could have done it!
"Just think of your special place", not sure if that one helped, at one point I got the reply "I want to go home now", I can't remember my reply, but it might have been "Sorry dear, but it's a bit late, and it will all be over soon!" Once more empty promises.


After a few hours of these contractions, I was sitting with Steph holding a wheaty-heaty on her back, and the FHM on her tummy (as the straps were a real pain the ass and it wouldn't stay in the right place), and a contraction hit, she started sucking really deep on the gas (which by this stage was cranked right up), and as you would expect with little oxygen, and a greater concentration of N2O2, and an awful amount of pain, things just shut down and she fainted. This for me would have been fine, I knew why, and didn't worry, but she started toppling forward off the bed, and the only thing I could catch her with was my cheek (on her shoulder!). She was out for around 30 seconds, and then came back. I thought nothing more of it. A while later, we had 2 midwifes in with us, and Steph was on the edge of the bed, and I was standing behind her hold once more the wheaty-heaty and the FHM (I think I became the Sound-Technician) and once more another contraction hit, and she took back the gas nice a deeply, and once more visited the land of the unconscious (I expect it was a better place than Masterton Hospital at that stage). And just like last time she toppled forward, and I couldn't catch her so I called to the midwife to catch her. Oh hell, did things go into super panic mode. Panic would be the wrong word for the midwife's behavior, they knew what to do etc, but things moved so fast, I got caught in the moment, and this was where I discovered the next worse thing!
I was told to get her on the bed and on her back, Steph was just coming around, and fighting going onto her back as it hurt too much. O2 masks where coming in from the side lines, and she was fading in and out of conscious , I could see her eyes roll in to the back of her head, even now, it brings tears to my eyes!


Be warned the next bit does not represent rational thought, things just changed from Steph just being in pain to midwifes being "very" busy with Steph, pressing the "alarm" button, requesting Simon to be called etc so fast I did not have time to keep composure.


At that point, the thoughts going through my head; well instead of trying to put them nicely I'll just put them down; I thought that this was it, we tried for 5 years to get pregnant, and I was going to lose her during delivery.


Unfortunately, even that wasn't the worst part of the day! Back to story time (and with all story's this one does have a happy ending)


Once Simon came in, Steph during a lucid period requested him to bring on the drugs! He suggested going straight for an epidural, but once more, things progress so fast, you can't really think, so we hesitated, and he then suggested putting in a small amount of Peth into her drip, and monitoring it from there. Then for a few seconds, everyone was out of the room, and Stpeh had another lucid period and we were able to just exchange enough words for us to decide that we should just go straight to the epidural, bollocks to our plan of having it as natural as possible, hopes and dreams are great, but Steph comes before any dream or hope I have, and she couldn't stand the pain, and quite frankly I couldn't stand watching her in pain. At least I didn't have to lie for the few minutes we were waiting for the anesthetist, I could tell her "All the pain will go soon", that felt good, felt honest, which wasn't a feeling I had had for most of the day!


I had to read the epidural consent form out to Steph, in honesty I skipped a few bits because I felt she didn't need to know them, and a few were reworded, and for the really crazy bit, they expected a lady in immense pain to be able to do a signature, I could not sign it for her, and there goes my honest feeling.


Anyway, a few minutes later (about 10), the anesthetist arrived, nice guy, especially since her took all Steph's pain away .. back to the story, they wheeled the trolley in with all the kit on, and there were several drawers. The trolley was labeled "Epidural trolley", and one of the drawers was labeled "Scalpels/blades". Ok now you know I don't do good on blood or Steph's blood, well I don't do great on just the thought either, my world started spinning, head down and a few breaths and I was back, well until I saw the needle anyway, thankfully I didn't faint, I promised to Steph a few things before we went, and that was one of them!
Just to set the record straight, the epidural took a few minutes to do, and Steph felt hardly anything during the procedure, the anesthetist was fantastic.


From there on, things really picked up, Steph was doing well (oh by the way, it's around 1pm), so well in fact, I let Jenny in to give a hug to Steph. After that I thought Steph was going to try and snooze until 3pm, when we were expecting Simon again, so I quickly headed out to the carpark with Steph's parents for a bite to eat and to try and regain some mental composure.


At 3pm, I headed back in to the delivery room, and I had another surprise, the room was full, and the specialist had been called, Simon quickly described what had happened whilst I had been out, Steph was now fully dilated (A promise I had broken, I had promised to be there for her, for all the exams), but Connor had rotated too early (on the way out they rotate after the head is out, he had done that a bit prematurely, and now was not deliverable). The specialist was coming in to decide the next course of action. He was there in a flash, and we discussed the options, they would attempt a vontouse delivery, and if that did not work, they would do a c-section. He outlined the risks with the vontouse, and at this stage, since for the c-section etc I could sign for Steph, I was seriously considering skipping the vontouse, and just requesting a c-section, I didn't want to attempt anything that would endanger Connor, I just don't want to follow that thought.
Anyway, the specialist explained the risks, and then he stated that they would only attempt once or twice, and the risks are actually quite low, so I consented. The important thing is "I consented", why I reiterated this will be apparent soon.
Forms, checks and more checks were being made, lots of doctory talk, things like "I'm elevating this to a code 2, get theater ready",......still upsetting me......continuing....I asked what do I do, I'm feeling even more like a spare wotnot at a wedding than before, one of the midwife's just turned and said "Go with her, hold her hand, put these on" and handed me a full set of theater gowns. I dashed into the loo and got into them, and then followed Steph, the midwife and Simon down to the theater. Thankfully since I've helped Steph once or twice at her work, I understood the big red lines on the floor, and her and I were discussing the relative merits of a red line over a yellow/black line and how they stop bugs and germs, but one of the midwife's told me to don my overshoes whilst up at the ward, and I questioned her (because of her work, I didn't think it was right), and some chirped up "No, only once your down there"
Once we were in the clean side, one of the theater staff came out and told me that I had to wait outside (and pointed to the far wall) and stay there until I was summoned, she promised me that I would not be forgotton (oh I wasn't by the way)
Now, this is easily the worst feeling of the whole day, standing in that corridor, watching people run around getting the theater ready, people were even still arriving (one of the surgeons hadn't arrived by the time everything was in place, and Simon stepped in to fill that role), it seemed like chaos from my point of view, they all knew what had to be done, and all that was going through my head was thoughts like:

• What am I going to go into, what state will she be etc.
• What happens if it all goes pair shaped
• Who would I chose if only 1 could be saved, sounds bad, but honestly that thought went through, tears followed (hm, they are still here!)
• Could be I strong enough for Steph.
• Will I faint and cause other problems (I've fainted in theater before, OK it was a vet theater but the smell and heat of them I do not like)

Those 10 minutes or so were easily the worst thing I have ever had to endure, the human mind is an amazing thing, and sometimes an active imagination is your biggest enemy, and I have a very active imagination, so many different scenarios were played out in those 10 minutes, I ended up just talking to my self out loud to try and rationalize it all, there was no one else there!


After an eternity the lady with the colorful headdress, that's all I can really remember, called me in and sat me beside Steph, I recognized a few faces, the anesthetist who came in for the epidural was there, Simon was present and so was the specialist, and one of the midwifes. They sat me down at her right arm, and all I could do is hold her hand, once more how pathetic is that, there is my wife, having all sorts done, going through so much pain, and all I could do is hold her hand.


Wow, an earthquake (1:25am Monday), back to the story, almost done.


The specialist started with vontouse do-hickame, and from the comments I heard the rotation was successful, but they could not extract him with the vontouse alone, so they used the forceps (http://www.fmed.uba.ar/museos/risolia/forceps.jpg) and with Steph pushing in time with the contractions and them pulling Connor was delivered at 4:01pm, the lady in the colorful headdress was right with Steph giving her words of encouragement, and instructions.
Simon called me to have a peak just as the head was coming out, now since this was just normal (well normal, but not common) blood etc, I can handle that no worries, and quite frankly the head looked like a giant poo. As they extracted the body they pulled the cord etc out, and I heard several exclamations on the thickness of the cord, apparently it was huge, then they discovered a true knot in it, possibly it was because the cord was so thick this story has a happy ending, no more need to be said!
There was also a loop, but Connor was taken over to the table in the corner, and his APGAR done (scored 9/10), and a quick clean up, and then I was called over to look, and Simon shook my hand, at this point I cut the cord, give me a sheep, and my hand is steady, and I can cut things easily, a simple thing like the cord, my hand was all over the place, and it took two cuts.
Then they wrapped him up and gave him back to Steph and I, Steph was still on the bed being put back together (stitches). Unfortunately Steph had some slight shakes from the stress before the epidural, and the epidural just amplified these so much she had problems concentrating on anything else really.
The epidural was removed whilst in theater, and I was given back Connor and taken into the recovery room where I waited for Steph. A few minutes later, she was wheeled in, and they started monitoring her, which was made more difficult by the shakes, but 10 or so minutes passed, and the midwife had Connor on Steph, flesh to flesh, and a little while later where taken back to the ward to recovery.
Phew, I am so glad reliving that is over, it's nothing like the day, but still I think the main bits are there, and now onto the happy ending (or is it our beginning).


Fastforward till next morning (let Steph get over the epidural wearing off)
This morning I took Steph her first "Mothersday Card", she is very perky, and feeling happy (although a bit sore), Connor is doing well, and Dad is thrilled to bits.
Connor has only had a few feeds, but we're getting there and had a couple of soiled nappies, the joy just begins!


A few stats about the little guy:
7lbs 14oz (3.75 Kg)
18" long (50cm)
Born at 16:01 on Saturday 12th May, after ~22 hours of labor, by a vontouse & forceps delivery with an epidural.


Not sure if any of the staff will ever see this, but if they do, I would like to extend them a great big thankyou. The staff of the Masterton Hospital Maternity ward, and the theater crew of that day did a wonderful job, and Simon was great. I will always remember their efforts.


Now, here's the bits every has been waiting for, the photos, and 'cause I always have problems I've put all the captions here!

• Guess who!
• Connor Luke Huck, 12-05-2007. The first male Huck since me and my cousin Gavin some 30 years ago.
  Also the first Huck to be born in New Zealand.
• One happy Steph.
• A very scruffy, but immensely proud father,very proud of the mammoth effort Steph put in to get here, and just proud to be a dad!

Bed time I think, since it's 2am...but some video before I go...

All done!

Full story etc to come later, but to keep everyone in the loop, the 2 important facts, Steph is healthly and happy, and Connor is healthy too, and of course some pictures.

One happy but tired dad!

Connor 4 hours old

One happy camper, several hours before everything kicked off!

Thunderbirds are go!

Yep, looks like it's all on...we hope! We'll keep you posted.

A Contraction

Nothing to be excited over, but Steph had another contraction like thing this morning at 8am....Fingers crossed

Another weekend

A late post for last weekend, and not because I've been busy with baby. There has been no real movement at all, so we're still just sitting tight and waiting.
As for the weekend, not a lot happened, we did a bit of work on the tractor and tried rotavating some of the paddock that we want to resow, and I did some woodwork but other than that, not a great deal. I suppose I should enjoy these quiet weekends whilst I still can.

So much for having broadband and blogging frequency increasing.

Oh, by sure to check here for photos as I'll put them up as soon as I've got back from hospital.

Till later.

Lets Twist

Well, this weekend was a wet one, and not because Steph's water broke, we're still waiting! It was wet because it rained, whilst the ground was softish, I decided to get the rotavator out and start breaking up the paddock we're going to resow, but after two loops of the paddock I managed to split on side of the shaft, and completely twist the other part about 120 degrees around!

Other than that, the weekend was quite quiet.
Today is our 8th wedding anniversary, so this evening Steph and I are going out for dinner, oh and today I got a big antenna, so hopefully we'll be able to get wifi over to our neighbours place.

Hm, that's all a bit random....

More later maybe.

Catch Up

Well, it's been a while, and there hasn't really been any photos for quite a while, well that's about to change (no not because Connor is born, he's still hanging on), anyway, where was I, ah catching up on the news to date. OK so to start, ah, it's only been a week or so, that's not too bad, anyway, since the desk has been made, I've worked down there for a few days, which is quite good, it's not uncomfortable and quite a good environment to get down and get things done, so that's cool. Other than that, the only other stuff has happened today and yesterday. Yesterday Steph picked up (bought) a new ram for the princely price of $30, got him home, and he made our ram look a bit silly, as he knew exactly what and who to do, so unfortunatly since we're low on lamb, the ram met his maker today, what a little shit he was...first of all, last night I put him in the paddock at the back of the house, and this morning, he wasn't there (he was in with the Alpacas). Not a major I just moved him back. Ok, sounds good, well this afternoon just before I was going to "do" him, he decided to jump the gate, go through the fence into Rex's place, and then jump the next gate into the driveway, barge through a fence into Julia's, head up the dry stream into the next paddock, barge through another fence into Christines (I was thinking at this stage of popping him off from a distance!), and then Alex and I managed to gently push him back down into the paddock of Julias, from which exited in the same manor that he went in, straight through the fence, over the next gate, and then over all then fences in the yards. At this point, we thought we might have had him, but he left just easily as he got in, and then proceed into Rex's big paddock!. I was more than willing to pop him there (I even had Alex get the rifle!), anyway, whilst Ken, Steph,Jules and Alex we trying to stop him going to far up the paddock, I grabbed the "Super Crook" off Rex's bike (I want one!, oh, and a super crook!) and opened the gates into the wool shed, and headed off to join in the fun.
He tried barging through the sheep netting into Jule's big paddock, at which time I went for his legs with the Super Crook (and missed, see I need one so I can get more practice), and then we managed to herd him back into the yards, thankfully he wasn't to worried that none of the gates were open, and he headed straight inside. I ran for the gate and swung it shut, but as it shut a pissed off ram came out at around 4ft off the ground, aiming squarely for me! What could I do, I just turned slightly and caught him like a bloody big rugby ball! Ok so that sounds so well controlled and professional, trust me, it was nothing like it, and really quite bloody stupid! Anyway, I wrestled him to the ground and we put him back into the wool shed to let him calm down.

Oh, in the excitement of writing that little episode I forgot to mention that I had my jeans ripped off me by a horny goat!! OK, a bit of explaination needed there. We brought all the lambs,ewes, rams and goats in for drenching and foot trimming, after drenching the lambs, checking the ewes and rams, I crutched the goats, and trimmed their feet, but whilst I had one on it's back it got her horns into a hole in my jeans, and proceeded to move her head lots (oh by the way, this is right by my crutch, I almost had a "crutching" too!) The side effect of this was a massive hole in my jeans, oh well, everyone now knows that today my underwear was color co-ordinated with my T-shirt (by chance!)

Anyway, back to rammy, after a hour or so of settling down, I did the deed, and now he is chilling out in the meat closet.

Ah, now for some photos

Another few jobs off the list

Well, its been a busy day, but we've managed to cross a few more jobs off the list, which is always a good thing.
First thing this morning, I started investigating what was needed to install the new window catches for the nursery, it turns out that the holes that the old catch used, is the same as the new one, but the screws are not quite the same, so I spent a short while filling the old holes in with plastic wood (only to redrill them tomorrow morning). After that, I assembled a cheapy bookcase from the Warehouse for all our uni books, otherwise the spare room has no space for Jenny!
Once that was done, the next job on the list was putting the top on the drawer unit for the nursery, thankfully that was only 4 screws, and another off the list. Then came the harder stuff. I needed to make a desk, big enough for me to work on (programming work), so I had 2 sheets of MDF, and after measuring up the office (tackshed), I decided on 1m by 1.95m, which is a good size.
It took an hour or so to build the desk and assemble it, then came power and net cabling. Thankfully I had some cat5 that was just long enough, and now after an entire day, the office is all set up (will still need decorating and insulating at some point, but there is no spare cash at the moment for that).
So, still no photos, to tired to plug the camera in, some have been taken, just can't be bothered uploading yet! Maybe tomorrow.

Gees, I'm knackered

Well, that's today done, the handles are on the dresser unit, the top is done for the drawer unit, the door is hung, the sheep, goats and alpacas are all in the paddock I sprayed out on Tuesday morning (oh on Tuesday morning I sprayed the paddock out, found a fantastic way to wake up, I was filling the spray container, and managed to get a splash on my face, so I just turned the hose pipe on my face!

Anyway, dinner is close so I'll post more tomorrow.

Things coming along nicely

Well, 2 days into the holidays, and things are looking good. The nursery has carpet, and even some furniture (photos later this evening), broadband is installed, and I'm even starting to get my workshop back! For the last few weeks it's been overrun with nursery furniture!
I've also started on the office, and hopefully I'll build my new bench tomorrow and move in then.

Steph's doing well, can't wait for Connor to get out! Oh and we bought a stroller today, so that's us almost ready (equipment wise).

Till later.

Another weekend

This weekend went reasonably well, Friday morning was spent at the doctors, vets, bank, hair dresser and at the wool packers. In short the morning was very hectic, especially since I had already done a few hours work first thing. The doctors appointment went well, with Connor growing as expected, this time though Simon was able to hear him hiccupping, so, finally he has had hiccups. Also Possum went to the vets and had another checkup for her eyes, they had slightly improved, but unfortunately after the trip they had regressed again. After shopping, selling the wool etc I spent the afternoon doing the rest of my day’s work.
Friday evening, Steph and I headed out to Carterton to collect Amy and Nigel. Whilst we were in town, we picked up “Ice Age 2”, gees, what an appalling movie.
Amy and Nigel came up for the weekend to help us make some more headway with the decorating in the nursery and lounge. We started nice and early with Amy sanding down the walls, Steph heading into town to pick up some paint rollers and beer (the day looked like it was going to be a scorcher), Nigel and I started measuring and cutting the skirting, scotia and alcatraves. Once all that was measured and cut, we started painting it.
By lunch time, we had the undercoat on the walls, and several coats on the woodwork, and the scotia for the lounge started (it needed sanding and some filling of holes).
Steph very handily had a antenatal social event, so she headed off to that, and left the three of us to paint (which was good, really!). In between coats, Amy decided that bathrooms, and our porch needed cleaning, and Nigel continued with the wood framework, meanwhile I was slaughtering the last three rabbits from Snowwhites previous litter.
Steph got home in the early evening, just as we were putting up the last coat in the nursery, after which we discovered that two of our rams had escaped from their paddock and were in with the neighboring farmers ewe flock! Steph and I rounded the flock up (about 150 ewes and a few big rams), and attempted to draft them through the yards so as to get ours out, that wasn’t going to work as they were being stubborn. It was at this point I discovered that Rex’s crook was still on the front of his bike, and that seemed like it could be easier. What a fantastic tool (not toy!) after a quick investigation of how it works (there is a special clip that catches the back leg and doesn’t let the sheep escape), I proceeded into the holding pen and just slowly moved around the sheep (they were going all ways). After identifying our rams, I put the crook under the stomach of the ram, just as a ewe ran past and got herself caught instead! After flipping the ewe and unhooking her leg, I tried again, and caught me a ram! That one was quickly thrown in a holding pen. The other ram decided to be in the race part, so he was just pushed into the holding pen. That was the easy part, then we had to get the two rams, and the other ram still in it’s paddock into a more secure facility (ie the other paddock with sheep netting, not large holes). I tried carrying the ram but he was too wriggly (bit like Connor at the moment, the only difference is I could drop him at will and get someone else to carry him!) We ended up with me on the front legs, and Jules on the back and just carrying him across the paddock and dropped him over the fence. The other ram, I thought would be easier just to crook his back leg and left him run (in a semi-directed manner), and then Jules and I threw him over the fence (gently-ish).
Sunday, hmm, the morning was spent putting up the skirting and scotia, so that’s now the nursery almost ready (in the room sense anyway, still little furniture, not “little furniture”, but not much furniture). I digress, after doing the room, we headed over to Jules and Andy’s for a coffee, and found out that they were heading to Cape Palliser to look at the seals, so Steph and I headed to Whangamoana to do a spot of kite fishing. The beach was packed, there was a kite out, and a kon-tiki, consequently Steph and I had to walk miles (read:1km) down the beach, but it was worth it. The first set went out, it really needed the sky hook but after 30 minutes traveling and 10 minutes fishing, we brought it in with 1 fish, no idea what is was though, so it went back. The next set was put out with the sky hook, and it went out much better (after we got the weight right, at one point the bottle and hooks all went into the air). After twenty minutes fishing, and after Jules and Andy turned up, we brought the set in. We only had 1 fish, but by golly what a fish, a nice conger eel, it was massive, as big as my entire body, with a mouth that could swallow ships, ok so that’s a slight exaggeration, it was about 8lbs, maybe 10, so we’ll round it to 15 just to be safe!
We put out one more set, and after 10 minutes, we brought in 1 kawhai, not a bad size though. Since it was getting late, we all went to the Lake Ferry Hotel for some fantastic fish and chips!

So, all in all, a good weekend, now I have to work out what to do with conger steaks!

Congor Eel

Just a quick post, here's an congor eel I dragged in on Sunday kite fishing

What a roller coaster of a weekend

Since I missed last weeks blog entry, I'll start there. Last weekend Steph and I drove to Hawkes bay to collect a few more angora goats, a pedigree buck (called 203), and three does ranging from 3 years old to 5 years old. All very cute etc. The buck was really gentle and really stood out from the rest whilst we were picking him because of his temperment. Anyway, we got them home and then put them in the quartine paddock out by the back of the house so we could keep an eye on them. On Thursday morning when we moved them to another paddock, he seemed a little quiet, so that evening I asked Julia to check in on him (as we were up in Hawkes Bay again, as it was horse of the year and field days). Oh, that's right, Thursday was spent at the field days, wasn't too bad, found out some information we needed on tagging, but probably won't go next year as it wasn't top much different to the last 2 years. Back to HOTY and Hawkes Bay, on Friday morning Steph went to leave around 9am, and the truck refused to start, flat battery, and low fluid levels in the battery, I topped up the levels and we managed to jump start her of Mum's car. Our options at that stage were to take it over to YPuk and get it fixed, or for me to drive Steph to HOTY and then go into Hastings and get it fixed, we did the latter. Thankfully on the way to HOTY we passed a battery centre, and after dropping Steph off, I trundled back and got them to check the batteries, low and behold both batteries were dead, one was so dead it couldn't even register on the battery check computer thing he had! Fixing it was a case of putting in two new batteries, unfortunatly not cheap!
Whilst walking around HOTY, I heard my cell phone, and it was Julia, unfortunatly she was ringing to tell use that the buck had died, what a day! Anyway as you can imagine, the rest of the day wasn't that great, but things did pick up. That evening I phoned the goat breeder and he has offered to replace him, phew!
Saturday, Steph went off to HOTY on her lonesome, and I dragged Mum and Dad out to Porongahau for an afternoon's kitefishing. First set didn't get anything, but the second set we brought in 3 dogfish, since there was nothing out for dinner, we kept them! I've heard reports on how yucky they taste, but they weren't that bad, I would rate them along with red cod.
Once Steph got home on Saturday night, we decided that we would drive back to Littlebush that evening, as we knew we had a few things to do back here and an early start would be good, so after tea, we hit the road.
Sunday morning (after the clocks had changed), I got up and started to dig the goat hole, and then by around 7am, the hole was all done, along with a nice blister for my efforts. The morning was spent doing the weekly shop and collecting the dogs from the kennels, and then having a coffee over at Julia's and Andy's. Since the wind was looking promising, Andy and I headed down to Lake Ferry with the kite, but due to the wind shifting a bit, and there was a lot of trees floating out there we didn't put a line out, it would have been like playing frogger (but with a fishing line and a flag instead of a frog) and having to miss the logs, not jump on them, oh, the other difference was we couldn't move side to side, and you can't always see the logs!
Once we got home, the horns were cut off the goat, and then he was cast into his hole and covered up. And another week starts (only 7 to go!)