Toddler Tuesdays - Week 3 of the 12 Weeks of Winter

Welcome to week 3 of ‘Toddler Tuesdays’.  You can find more of our ‘Toddler Tuesdays’ activities here, we hope you are enjoying them and would love to receive your feedback.  This week’s activity is ‘Mummy Says’.

You will need -

1. Some common unbreakable household items from around the house that your child can easily recognise eg : spoon, doll, plastic container, cup, blanket, cushion, ball

Instructions -

Set out the items on the floor in an area of your home, family room, bedroom, lounge, where ever suits you.  This game is similar to ‘Simon Says’ but a slightly extended version.  You might start your toddler with simple instructions like, ‘Mummy says clap your hands’, and progress through to more complex instructions with the items you have gathered eg ‘Mummy says cuddle teddy.’  ‘Mummy says put the doll under the blanket.’  How complex you get with your instructions will depend on the age and ability of your child.  There are an almost limitless number of instructions that you can come up with for the particular items that you have gathered.  If your child is not yet at the stage of interacting appropriately with the gathered objects stick with the simple body instructions like, clap your hands, pat your head, tickle your toes, cuddle your Mummy etc.  This game should be fun and interactive.  Assist your child if they are struggling with the instruction given and be sure to offer lots of praise, clapping hands, smiles etc along the way.  Again depending on the age and ability of your child they may be able to offer you instructions to follow also.

Focus -

This activity is awesome for developing good listening skills and attention.  As you are able to revisit this game you can make it more complex as the weeks and months pass and also extend the time that you engage with your child.  If they are able to offer you instructions to follow it also promotes good turn taking.  Depending on the items and instructions you give both fine and gross motor skills may be practiced.  Understanding positional words like on, under, next to etc are very important for language developmental.

If you try out one of our activities please let us know what your toddler (and you) thought.  Feel free to leave a comment here or post an image or comment to our Facebook page.  If you enjoy the activity we would encourage you to share this post with your friends.

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Top Tips for Photographing your Baby in NICU

For many the NICU is a completely surreal world.  You feel overwhelmed by all of the machines, wires, probes, noise and how big it is with SO many babies.  This however is YOUR baby's story and for many it will be important to try and capture all that is going on so that you can share it with others who are unable to visit and also so that you have a record to share with your child when they grow up.

The NICU is a tough environment to take nice pictures.  Hopefully we can share a few tips with you to make those memories a little more polished.

Know Your Camera

It doesn’t matter if it’s a point and shoot, your iPhone or a professional DSLR.  Know how to:

• Turn it on and off
• Focus it properly, for most cameras that is pushing the shutter button halfway, for your iPhone holding it still until the yellow square appears and locks
• Turn the flash off.  Keep your flash turned off whilst photographing in the NICU regardless of the type of camera you have.

If your not an experienced photographer keep your camera on automatic settings for both exposure and focusing.  If you have more experience you should know to set your white balance, turn your ISO up and how to meter and choose the right depth of field for the shot you are taking.

Remember to hold your camera still whilst focusing, as the image is taken and for a moment after.  Consider bracing yourself against a chair, wall or table if you are a bit shaky.

*Note - some NICU's will not allow mobile phone use, other's require airplane mode.

Video

Almost all cameras and phones now have video capabilities.  Along with still images you may like to capture short clips of your baby moving and the sounds of the NICU.  Similar principles apply to taking video, know how your device works, keep as still as possible, move slowly, zoom slowly.

Keep It Simple

When looking to take your photo consider if there are things in the image that could be removed to keep the image simple, or consider if you are able to move yourself to change the angle of the image to remove some of those things.  Sometimes getting up high, down low or simply moving left of right will dramatically change the outcome of your photo.  The plastic from the isolettes will create some glare, again moving and shifting your angle can help to minimise or eliminate that.

As baby gets bigger and you are able to freely pick them up and move about within the nursery consider some images by a nearby window which will create some beautiful soft light and provide a change of background scenery.

Capture the Environment

Your baby may be spending days, weeks or months in the NICU.  Make sure you step back and take an image of their bay from a couple of different angles which includes all of their machines and monitors.  If they move bays or nurseries be sure to do the same again.  One day your child might like to know which machine was which and what they all did.  Even if you don’t know the answers a photo can help them understand.

Milestones & Details

As your baby moves through the NICU and reaches milestones like 1kg, 2kg, moving from an isolette to an open cot, first cuddle, first breastfeed etc make sure you are taking photographs to mark the occasion, these moments will never be firsts again.  Treatments and monitors change all the time in the NICU, take images that capture the details eg : blood pressure being taken, sunglasses for phototherapy lights, when they are finally IV free, tiny fingers and toes etc, remember this is your baby's story.

A sense of scale

Babies in the NICU are all different shapes and sizes, many are very, very small  Use your partners hand, a wedding band, a coin or a toy as a size comparison for your baby.  As they get bigger take further images so you can see just how far they have come.  As your baby will no doubt have restricted visitation no one will truly understand just how small your baby is unless you can provide that sense of scale.

Routine

Participating in baby's cares is one of the few things that parents can do for their baby whilst in NICU.  Changing that first nappy, massaging their head when their CPAP hat is off, giving them a bath when they are bigger.  These things are generally part of baby's overall daily routine.  Time your visits with your partner so that you can take turns in the cares whilst the other one captures the moment.  Don’t forget the quiet moments too.  Sometimes you will just sit with your hand on bub, sit quietly and read to them, or might hold them skin to skin (kangaroo care) these moments are just as important to immortalise and can create really powerful images for you to look back on.  If your partner isn’t available to take an image for you don’t be shy about asking the nurses, they will be delighted.  It’s important for you to be in the photos too.

Home Time

Finally going home is almost an equally overwhelming feeling as finding yourself in the NICU in the beginning.  Don’t get caught up and forget to document this momentous occasion!  Collect up all of baby's NICU mementos, show them in their car seat, at the doors to the NICU, at the doors to the hospital, in the car, at home in their bed and being welcomed properly into your family.

Once you have all of your images you may consider putting together an album or scrapbook which tells baby's story.  There are many ‘drag and drop’ sties which make this very easy to do.  For our readers we have managed to secure a discount from Blurb valid until 23 June.  When checking out enter 15%OFF (save 15% off on orders $50+*), 25%OFF (save 25% off on orders $100+**) or 35%OFF (save 35% off on orders $250+***).  Please see conditions at the end of this post.

A couple of things to note.  Many hospitals don’t like for their staff to be photographed so always check with baby's nurse that they are ok with being in your image.  Also always check with the nursing staff before moving baby or anything in or around baby.

All images appearing in this article were taken with a consumer point and shoot camera on automatic.

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*Offer valid through June 23, 2014 (11:59 p.m. local time). Valid for printed books only. A 15% discount is applied to your print book product total with a minimum purchase of USD $50, CAD $50, AUD $50, EUR €40 or GBP £35. Maximum discount is USD $150, CAD $150, AUD $150, EUR €120 or GBP £100 off product total. This offer is good for one-time use, and cannot be combined with volume discounts, other promotional codes, gift cards, or used for adjustments on previous orders.

**Offer valid through June 23, 2014 (11:59 p.m. local time). Valid for printed books only. A 25% discount is applied to your product total with a minimum purchase of USD $100, CAD $100, AUD $100, EUR €75 or GBP £55. Maximum discount is USD $150, CAD $150, AUD $150, EUR €120 or GBP £100 off product total. This offer is good for one-time use, and cannot be combined with volume discounts, other promotional codes, gift cards, or used for adjustments on previous orders.

***Offer valid through June 23, 2014 (11:59 p.m. local time). Valid for printed books only. A 35% discount is applied to your product total with a minimum purchase of USD $250, CAD $250, AUD $250, EUR €200 or GBP £150. Maximum discount is USD $150, CAD $150, AUD $150, EUR €120 or GBP £100 off product total. This offer is good for one-time use, and cannot be combined with volume discounts, other promotional codes, gift cards, or used for adjustments on previous orders.

WORKSHOP ~ Issues facing 0-5 year olds born with respiratory distress

We are excited to be launching our workshop series for 2014.  Workshops will be held monthly on various topics that we think will interest our community.  As always we are open to suggestions so if you think of something you would like to find out more about please let us know.

Our first workshop is entitled 'Issues facing 0-5 year olds born with respiratory distress' and the speaker is Dr Veena Judge a very experienced and well respected paediatric respiratory and sleep physician.

The workshop will be held in Subiaco on Wednesday July 30 at 7pm.  To register for this workshop please visit the registration page.  Registration is strictly limited to 20 participants to ensure an intimate atmosphere.

For all future workshops members and volunteers will receive a 2 day booking priority window.  You may wish to apply for membership here, or volunteering here.  A second priority booking window of 5 days will then be given to pre-registered applicants.  You can pre-register here.  After those periods have elapsed registration will be open to the general public.

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World Blood Donor Day

Today is World Blood Donor Day and we'd like to take the opportunity to thank each and every person who has ever made a blood donation.  Did you know that 1 in 3 Australians will need blood or blood products in their lifetime?  We like to offer a huge round of applause to the Red Cross and the wonderful way that they run their blood donor and bank service.

Each year more than 3,000 babies are admitted to NICU/SCN in Western Australia.  Many of these babies go on to require blood transfusions whilst they are in hospital.  Premature babies have a low blood volume, some are born with less than 80ml of their own blood.  Each day blood is taken from them to test them for illness and to ensure that their blood gas levels are appropriate.  Unfortunately taking their blood for testing and their inability to make their own blood means that there is a deficit which makes them sick.  There comes a critical time when a blood transfusion may be necessary.  Many of these babies receive more than one transfusion during their NICU/SCN stay.

Some sick full term babies are also recipients of blood or blood products.  The reason for this varies from conditions such as rhesus disease, where a baby's entire blood volume may need to be replaced, to surgical procedures where babies need their blood volume topped up.

Obviously there is also a wider community need for blood and blood products.  People who are undergoing cancer treatment often need blood, those involved in accidents where there is significant blood loss also require blood.  Surgical patients of all ages may require blood.  There are many, many more reasons why people may require blood or blood products.

If you have never previously donated blood, or maybe it's been a while since your last donation, we would encourage you to phone the Red Cross on 13 14 95 and book a time to make a difference.  One blood donation can save up to three lives!

If you or your child has received blood or blood products we would love to hear from you.  Please leave us a comment.

Many thanks to Claire D for allowing us to share images of her daughter receiving a transfusion in NICU.

Pregnancy, Babies & Children's Expo 2014

The annual Pregnancy, Babies & Children's Expo is on at the Claremont Showgrounds from August 8 to 10.  The expo is a fun day out for the entire family with plenty of free entertainment and loads of interesting vendors.

We will be having a stall at the expo and are looking for volunteers who may be able to assist in the running of the stall.

To register your interest as a volunteer please visit our volunteer page.  Under 'Describe why you wish to volunteer for Tiny Sparks' please put PBC expo and indicate your preference of day and shift time.  If you are able to volunteer for more than one shift please put that information in, similarly if you can only help for a couple of hours please let us know and we will do our very best to accommodate.

Readers of our blog can register for free tickets by following the link below.

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