Well the local newspaper.
We had photos taken for the local paper as you would have read just below and they ended up using one of the pictures from that shoot for the news of my “Local Hero” award. I just LOVE the photo they chose and he looks gorgeous, well of course i think so because i am his mum! 
Ronan is going for his pre op appointment next Monday for his operation coming up. There is no date booked yet but it is all happening. He will be having his tonsils and adnoids removed and to be honest i can’t wait! He is not sleeping the best of late and you can tell that he really struggles at times to breathe whilst asleep. He will be a totally different child once they have been removed. I won’t be able to recognise him without the big black bags under his eyes which he has had for SO long i cannot remember seeing a photo of him without them. He will have bundles of energy which he already has now so look out mum and dad!
I will let you know how his pre op appointment goes and whether we are told when his operation will be. It is a little nerve wracking but i actually feel a lot better about this operation compared to when he had his hernia operation before he left NICU.
Everything is full steam ahead for us and i cannot wait!
Well Ronan and i were photographed yesterday for an article that is coming out most likely next week in the local 
paper on behalf of Bonnie Babes and their “Pride of the Nation” project. The photographer was here for about 30 minutes and we took many different angles of poses. Ronan had a blast and we even got him to manage a smile in quite a few of the photos!
I had a phone interview with the editor asking questions like; What was your experience of having a premature baby, what delays do premature babies have, what do they do to help the delays, did having a premature baby change your life etc..
Pride of the Nation
Pride of the Nation needs kids from Newborn to 15 years old to be Professionally Photographed and appear in the
Bonnie Babes Foundation Annual Book. This exceptional quality coffee table book will be something that each participant
will cherish in the years to come. Call 1300 693 686
The book is just beautiful and it is a credit not only to Bonnie Babes but also to the photographers that took the photos.
For more information visit www.bbf.org.au
Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i cannot believe they have started already!!
I was always under the impression that tantrums didn’t start until toddlers turned 2 years old, how wrong was i?
About a month ago Mr Ronan started throwing himself on the floor with his bum in the air crying because i wouldn’t let him go out the front when i went to check the mail. This was the moment that i realised my little man was changed forever. 
He has good days and very annoying days. He can throw a tanty out of nowhere for no reason but i do believe that teething might have some reason for the angry man of late. His fingers are always in his mouth, he is drooling A LOT (i have a fear of baby drool!) and he is always biting the lounge or anything that he can get a hold of.
We went to a party today and he kept annoying these poor people in the corner who were trying to push their baby on a swing. He kept getting in their way so i went and picked him up. He arched backwards to the point where i almost dropped him (he is 12kgs and has the strength of an ox), was crying his eyes out and was squirming to get away. I always seethed children that threw tantrums whilst out in public and i always felt SO sorry for the parents, now i am beginning to be one of them.
At home we just walk away from him when he is on the ground and he does not like it one bit but i want him to know that i will not stand for it and within 5 mins he is trying to crawl all over me as if to say “do you still love me”. It is very very cute but i do not give in to him.
The joys! This is only the beginning of the tantrum journey for me and i know it will probably get worse but at the end of the day he is only a toddler and doesn’t know how to handle anger just yet, but we are on the path to teaching him how too.
Thankgod he still sleeps 13 hour nights!
Ronan LOVES his new pool!
We got him his own pool for Christmas and he never wants to get out.
He could be shivering and have blue lips but wants to stay in there. When we think he has had enough he makes us chase him around the pool to try and grab him. Once we do finally get a hold of him and put the towel around him he throws a tanty!
It seems like we have a real water baby on our hands.
I am about to book Ronan in for swimming lessons as i believe it will help him with his muscle tone. Most early born premature babies have low muscle tone which is why many have to attend physio to help reach their milestones and Ronan is certainly one of those babies/toddlers.
A friend who’s little girl didn’t walk until she was 2 years old started swimming lessons and within 3 months started walking. I do not know if swimming honestly contributed to her walking but many physio’s recommend swimming as a form of strenghting your muscles so i really want to give it a go!
Well we went and got the results from Ronan’s sleep study today!! He is on the border of mild to severe sleep problems.. He pauses in breathing quite a lot at night, desats with his oxygen levels at a low level - around 71% (should be over 90%).. His condition isn’t at the stage of life threatening BUT it’s the level lower.. 
He is seeing a specialist when i get the chance to make an appointment as he will be having his tonsils and adnoids out.. Apparently his tonsils are the size of golf balls (specialists words) which means when he is asleep and relaxed the tonsils close in together which in turn makes his air flow cease and he is constantly waking at night to make himself breath again..
It is amazing to think that we didn’t even know he had a problem until the paed just out of interest asked me how his sleeping was going so you just never know, but i guess that is why they are the experts!When the doctor said to me that the results were not good as soon as we walked in the door i had a sigh of relief. I actually said to him that i was relieved to know something was wrong because i thought he had a perfect nights sleep when we were there. If these are the results on a good night i would hate to see what they would be on a bad night!
This is a pic of him on a bad day with his eyes.. I still can’t believe we never picked up that anything was wrong.. We just thought he naturally had bags under his eyes just like under my eyes are always dark looking now matter how much sleep i get..
We went on Monday to have Ronan’s photo taken with Santa. There were about 4 other kids before him and every single one was crying and didn’t want a bar to do with Santa. Just before our turn i whispered in his ear that Santa is a nice person and all you have to do is sit on his lap and have a photo taken so no need to cry.
My whispering must have helped because as soon as i placed him on Santa’s knee he just sat there. No crying, whimpering or any looking like he was being tortured to death! He was such a GOOD boy and even the ladies taking the photos couldn’t believe how well behaved he was for his age.
The reason for the title “Typical Ronan” is because he barely ever smiles at camera’s or just when we take a picture he looks away so of course he is going to follow his trend and not look at the camera. They took quite a few pictures and this was the best out of the lot! Next year my aim is to make sure he looks at the camera all the whilst hoping he doesn’t cry!
We went to the “Picnic In The Park” today for Lifes Little Treasures annual christmas get together. It was a great day but damn hot! We spoke to a few of the mum and dads there and it is amazing some of the stories you hear about their premature babies.
Ronan had a blast as “Mr Hoover” was going around to everyones rugs and sat patiently waiting for food. I nick named him hoover a few months ago because whenever we are at prem playgroup he is always looking around for food! I have to say that is it quite embarrassing seeing him do it because it looks like i never feed him (although his weight doesn’t make him look underfed) yet whenever we go somewhere he always has a feed before we go.
The most embarrassing part about today was that he went up to a little girl who was eating a chip and he took it off her, i couldn’t believe it. She of course screamed, he got into trouble from mum (me) so he started crying and i made sure he gave the chip back before he was able to put it into his mouth. I was not his most favourite person in the world when i told him that it was bad manners to take food from other people.
One exciting development today was this afternoon i grabbed his hands to make him stand up. He stood up so i let go (first time i have done that) and he stood standing on his own with NO support for 8 seconds! I have never seen him balance like that before which was just fantastic. I still believe he is months off from walking but to me that was another milestone reached.
Well the study went really well! Too well!! Ronan did not snore, move in his cot or breath through his mouth!! He showed NO signs of having sleep issues i couldn’t believe it!! 
He was really good though.. He had HEAPS of little monitors on him and they glued around 5 to his head.. Normally he HATES anything being on his head or face but he never tried to pull them off, not even once so i was really proud of him.. 
We won’t get the results for another 2 weeks but from last nights good performance i am sure he will be fine and they will think i am nuts! I did ask the nurse if it was a common problem amongst premature babies and she said they do see quite a few of them but there is nothing to link that it’s a “premmie problem”.
This is a pic of him after he just woke up the next morning, poor thing.
I created this movie slide about 6 months ago. It is a journey of when Ronan was born to now (which was 6 months ago). I sometimes like to look back at it and it reminds me how he was back then and shows me how he is such a real little boy now.
I hope you enjoy!
I can’t believe in 4 months Ronan will be 2 years old! To remember that he was my lil premature baby and now he is my big baby is hard to believe at times. He is going very well in all aspects although he isn’t walking yet. We are doing quite a few exercises to help him progress with his walking but he has only just started to walk forward. Something that he thinks is hilarious is to walk on his knee’s. We are trying to discourage him from doing so but i can see that he won’t be walking for quite a while yet.
He was weighed and measured the other day and he is now 11.4kgs, 84cms in length and his head is 49cms. He amazes many professionals with just how big he really is. He is an awesome eater! pretty much eats everything that i give him. If we let him eat every hour he would, he loves his food that much. Apparently we are very lucky because alot of premature babies are actually quite fussy with their foods.
He now brings me books to read to him, climbs on and off the couch including our bed which is actually quite high. Walks around the furniture like it is going out of style, waves hello and goodbye and many other things. He is very good with his words and says hello dad, bye, hello, hi, mum, dad, i got, i know, bot bot, cat and does alot of babbling to himself.
Ronan and i will be going to the hospital on Tuesday the 20th for a sleep study. Ronan always tends to have bags under his eyes and snores quite alot whilst asleep so we believe that he is not getting enough sleep at night (disturbed sleep). We saw the specialist and they want him to have it done. If there is an issue there it is very likely that the problem is his adnoids which will need to be removed. It will be amazing having a baby/toddler that doesn’t have bags under his eyes. We are so used to them that we don’t even notice his eyes until someone comments “did he just wake up” even if he has been awake for a few hours.
I will keep you updated with how his sleep study goes. Considering he seems to have broken sleep he is always on the go and has bundles of energy!
