Alexander Mitchell Jones was born at 7:40am on Monday 6th Feb 2012, at 22 weeks.
He weighed 580 grams & was 30cm long.
He stayed with us for 2.5 hrs and then peacefully left this world.
Labour stopped once Alex was born, and his twin brother Zac is still alive in Mummy's tummy.
We will miss you forever Alex.
We love you so much and we'll never forget you.
Love always Mummy & Daddy xxxxxxxxxxxx
Last night was one of the most horrible experience in quite a long time. It began when, in the afternoon, my wife was struggling with Mr 2 in the garage as he was riding his bike around. While negotiating with the little guy, she placed her iPad in a black leather case on top of the roof of our dark blue wagon. She admittedly forgot all about it and end up helping Mr 2 ride around the driveway. About an hour later, my wife asked me to pop over to the shops and pick up a few groceries while she feed and bathed our son. I jumped in the car, turned on the radio and then drove 3 km to the grocery store. While pulling up in our driveway I saw my wife outside with the torch looking around the road and gardens.
It took only a few seconds to explain what had happened. I had driven off in the car with her iPad on the roof and no doubt it was on the road between here and the grocery store. I threw the groceries on the kitchen bench and went back out in the car to retrace my steps. And after retracing the 6km round trip found no sign of the iPad. I went to the Find My IPad app which had been activated on the iPad but as it was a wifi iPad it would require it to not only still work, but to also connect to the Internet via a wifi network. Suffice to say that it never did show up. I then walked the first kilometer to look down drains, puddles and grader beds for the main corners and round-abouts for my trip. After an hour of looking, there was no sign of it. So, I returned home defeated. If the iPad still worked, hopefully someone will pick it up and connect it to wifi and it would eventually show up in Find my iPad. But honestly, I didn't think an iPad could possibly survive coming off the roof of a car, probably on a roundabout at close to 60km per hour. My wife was beating herself up, but we had been a little encouraged that she had backed tip the day before so here data would be recoverable. And we quickly agreed that going back to a life without an iPad wasn't something either of us wants to do. So. Began looking at eBay to see what a second hand one would cost. My guess would be around $500. Then, there was a knock at the door. A bloke called Gavin he lived 2 doors up the street was standing there with an iPad in hand. He was asking for my wife by name with an iPad in his hand. Not only had this guy found it 1km away on the road and saved it from being run over, but it was still working and was able to find our details in the address book. We went from despair to jubilation within moments. No only had the iPad survived the fall but the right person had picked it up and had delivered it back to us. Needless to say we are planning to show our appreciation to Gavin with a nice gift later today.Now I know this post may sound like a crybaby, but I'm feeling very uneasy about my mortality at the moment. And why you may ask? Simply put, I'm becoming very aware that I'm not six-foot tall bullet-proof.
My story begins when my father recently had a number of melanoma removed from his arms. Thankfully it would appear that all is well and that there is no current concern of a spread of cancer. But it did make me begin to wonder if I need to have a checkup as I've never been to a skin cancer clinic before.
And I grew on the beaches of the Gold Coast, Penrith on the Sea, where the six weeks of school holidays we would be out in the sun surfing, swimming, and generally goofing off until the streetlights came on which as we all know is the universal signal to return home. Slip slop slap was around in those days, but the risks of sun exposure was not nearly as prevalent as it is today.
So on Monday, I finally stopped procrastinating and went for a checkup. And although my consultation was a mere 15 minutes, I had no less than seven spots that were considered to be a concern. One of those spots found my belly was immediately given a local anaesthetic and with the use a laser given a quick touch up. However, six of the spots found mostly in my lower back will require me to return to the clinic twice more in the next three weeks from all invasive procedure. At each visit I will have three of the spots removed and my skin stitched back together.
Now this is where I start to sound like a sook. I know that Australia has some of the highest incidence of skin cancer in air of any country in the world, but I'm now shit scared about what this all means. It's not so much the needles or scalpels all the stitches that concern me, more that there are so many spots that caught the doctors eye.
And let's face it I don't even know if any of those spots are considered cancerous, for all I know they could be funny coloured little freckles. are what I'm finding most difficult is the wait. Its just far too long to sit and think about this stuff or worse still to Google all the information and horror stories that the Internet has to offer.
I mean I fully believe that 9/10 fears are never realised and assure that be the case here as well. I had mentioned on twitter this morning about how I was feeling and was really grateful for @Kirrily and @SomeoneLifestyl to offer up some encouragement and reassurance. Yes, I'm sure it'll be fine and once I get the results back from the biopsy build a great relief. But passing the days between now and then seem like a real challenge. At least next week I'll have other things to distract me, like the three holes in my back and their associated stitches.
So I'll take my two tablespoons of concrete tonight and should harden up by morning.
