Happy 6th Birthday to Toby!

Well, being on the road hasn’t made me any more organised – it is 10pm and I have just put Toby’s birthday cake in the oven.  Our gorgeous little ratbag middle child turns 6 tomorrow – hard to believe!  We have had a great day here in Katherine today, got some birthday shopping done at the ‘Katherine Terrace Emporium’ where we managed to buy Matt a new hat, Toby’s birthday present (biggest kids toy section we have seen yet!), googles for the kids and there was every other item imaginable – a huge range of things – I could have spent hours exploring in there!  We spent the afternoon swimming at Edith Falls which was just beautiful – a blog post to come on our time there.  Tomorrow we are moving into the Katherine Gorge National Park campground for a couple of nights and will meet up with Poppy & Rema again on their return from Darwin – looking forward to checking out the Gorge as it sounds beautiful!

To celebrate his birthday Toby has requested pancakes for breakfast, a chocolate birthday cake with some lollies and cheezels for afternoon tea and pizza for dinner.  He would also like to spend some time at the swimming pool so looks like we have our day tomorrow all planned!  As with Lexi’s Birthday I thought I would record here for posterity the email Matt sent out to our family and friends when Toby was born – feels like it was much less than 6 years ago – how time flies!

“Say hello to Toby Stewart Fealy! Born today 23 July 2007, 16:20, weighing inat 2.86kg (about 6pound 3oz I think??)
After a premature introduction yesterday and putting his mother through
contractions every 10mins for almost 24 hrs he decided at lunch time today
that it was time, and let me tell you he did not muck around once the
decision was made!

By the time we arrived at the hospital Jess was well and truly ready, in
fact while I drove around looking for a park Jess was pretty sure we were
having this baby in the carpark!!! (and could not understand why I didn’t
just ditch the car in the garden and leave it there!)

Anyway, we got up to the birth suites with only 1 contraction in the
elevator surrounded by about 12 other people (seriously, I don’t think I
have ever been in an elevator so full!) At the reception we waited around
while the work experience kid tried to find Jess’ file. I swear, had it
taken about 17seconds longer the work experience kid would have been scared
for life (mentally and physically!)

They tried to take Jess to an observation room but on the way we passed a
midwife who could see how far along Jess was and decided we would not pass
‘Go’ do not collect $200 and head straight to jail!

Once in the Birth Room things really heated up and it was not long before it
became obvious this was going to happen and it was going to happen NOW!

At this stage I might use my editorial privileges and “edit edit edit” for
the kiddies out there and move on to the summary!!

….. and so after about 1hr in the birth room and about 15mins of final
pushing Toby was born.

Mother and baby are doing extremely well, Jess has not felt this good for a
few weeks and we are just waiting on Toby’s blood tests for any infections
caused by the early breaking of the waters but if he passes that test with
flying colours (the first of many I would imagine) then it is probably a
good chance both mother and baby will be home on Wednesday.

Anyone in Brisbane are welcome to pop in and say Hi if you like, I know Jess
would love to see you all. They are in Ward 6B, room 34 and I am pretty sure
visiting hours are 1000-1300 and 1500-2000.

Well I’m off to have some of Melissa’s pork noodle left over she left in the
fridge (THANK YOU AGAIN MELISSA AND BELINDA FOR LOOKING AFTER JACK!!!) as I
don’t think I have eaten since about 7am this morning.

Love Matt, Jess, Jack, Jerry and TOBY!!!!”

Toby arrived nearly 4 weeks early!

Always so happy right from the start!

Our beautiful boy!

Happy 6th Birthday Tobes – it’s pretty special to be able to celebrate a birthday all together on the road!  You are the funny and sunny face in our family little mate – we all love you lots xoxoxoxox

Love Mum, Dad, Jack & Lexi