Jus' me an' my baby

Boxing Day.

Sunshine.

My two beautiful girls.

What better way to spend the day than a walk in the woods, a cheeky beer in the pub where we had our wedding reception and an afternoon back at home in front of the fire.

Ideal.

yule grinner

It's been ages since I've posted and as you can imagine we've been all hands on deck at home.

F is doing well and is putting on weight and growing at a healthy rate.

Her eye sight is improving so much so that she really recognises K and I now and follows us round the room with her eyes.

The best bit though is the cracking little smile that she melts her Daddy with...

body clock

One month on and F is putting on weight really well, already she's over 9lb.

After the difficulty she had in getting the hang of breast feeding at the beginning this is great news and puts her right on track.

As she feeds every 2 to 3 hours K is feeling a little like a dairy cow right now. If she doesn't have F clamped to her boob then she is trying to grab some sleep while F sleeps as well.

During the daylight hours F can quite happily snooze for over 3 hours, particularly if she's just had a really good feed and/or she's been out for a walk or a trip in the car.

If only she could get the hang of this during the night.

Both K and my body clocks have adjusted to sleeping more lightly and to being awoken every 2 hours or so throughout the night. This isn't too bad for me, it's K I feel for who whilst breast feeding has to get up for over an hour to feed, wind and settle F.

I seem to be awake now every day at 0500, just before it all kicks off for the first feed of the day and we've settled into a little routine of me getting K her first hot coffee of the day to slurp on whilst F slurps on her mummy.

So all things considered we reckon we're doing OK. SO far so good and all that.

poster girl

I went into the office for the first time in ages earlier this week and was delighted to find that the note to announce F's birth was still on the white board in the kitchen.

I was v pleased about this as it meant that I could get a photo for the records.

The team of ladies (and the only other bloke JdW too of course) at the office are all very excited and have been very generous with their gifts for F.

She's definitely got a set of surrogate grannies there - or should I say aunts? Don't wish to offend any of you - particularly you JT ;-)

size matters not. judge me by my size do you?

Our very own junior Jedi Knight...

poopers

It seems that I'm on a bit of a creative role at the moment.

I woke this morning with words and rhymes running through my mind and so jotted down the first few verses of what I am sure will be one of many poems (I'm a bit of a poet on the QT you see) to sing to F when she gets restless.

I then came up with another vest design and so got busy on Photoshop.

Don't think I'll be using this one somehow though...

best vest

When K and I tied the knot back in 2007, I made up a simple iron-on design that I then put onto a hoodie to display the change to her new married family name.

Having been up 3 times in the night I was struggling to get back to sleep at 6 o'clock this morning and so thought I'd make this a new family tradition and knocked up the little vest top below for F.

Haven't put it on her yet, think we'll save that for the weekend when she will meet her Aunty V and soon to be Uncle R for the first time.

could you be...

...the most beautiful girl in the world?

some more photos of our delicious daughter in the link above.

getting to know you

well here we are at day 5 and thanks to the expert help of Grandma and Granny C our little family unit of three is starting to find its way.

Here's a quick overview of the first few minutes, hours and days of TFR...

A mahoosive thanks also goes out to all of our friends, relatives and neighbours for their lovely cards, best wishes and most generous gifts.

hello world

Thanks to all of our lovely pals that left messages at home, on our phones and on the blog earlier this week.

For those of you that don't know Florence Dorrie made it into the big wide world after around 36 hours of blood sweat and tears from her mummy and weighed in at 3.14Kg (6lb 14.5oz).

We all came home for the first time yesterday and are now adjusting to our new way of life.


I still don't really know what day it is and things are still a bit of a blur.

One thing is crystal clear however I am now the proud husband and father of two beautiful girls.

water works

At 2am this morning K woke me to tell me that her waters had just broken. Fortunately not quite the torrent that she felt that she might get but over a period of time there was certainly "enough to fill your slippers" as the midwife had warned at the last growth scan.

After calling the delivery suite at the hospital we went in to get K checked out.

Everything was fine and dandy and we're now back at home with the contractions rowing in intensity if not frequency or length.

How long we've got until the main show who knows...

T minus 12 and counting...

That's it. We're inside the final 2 weeks and both Mum and baby are doing well.

We had another growth scan last week and although the bean is still growing s/he is still within the standard boundaries - just a little on the chunky side is all.

I appreciate that that's easy for me to say as from attending the last month's worth of ante natal and breastfeeding classes its been eye watering to say the least to see just what the female form goes through in order to deliver the little bundle of joy into the outside world.

K has also been struggling to get comfortable at night (and during the day) so sleep has been limited to bouts of no more than 2 - 3 hours at a time. What with the ever expanding bump and the intermittent aggravation that her back has been giving her its not been an easy ride.

The plan is for her to get all over her work handover notes done and dusted by Wednesday at the very latest and then she can concentrate on getting some well earned rest in before D-Day.

Watch this space...

truffle shuffle

We went for another scan earlier this week to make sure that baby's placenta had moved safely away from K's cervix. Fortunately it was well clear but we then had some slightly more disturbing news.

Our offspring has been fed so well (not on ice cream and biscuits) on wholesome organic veg and meat that we have somehow spawned a bit of a chunky little bugger.

S/he (we still haven't given in and found out which card we've been dealt) is at the top of the average measurements and mass scale, has a bonce as wide as it's waist and is weighing in at a healthy 6lb 3oz (roughly 2.8kg).

All very well and good you might think until you look at the reference books and read the general growth figures for this stage of pregnancy. They all say that on average from now on the baby gains 1 lb/week.

We could either find ourselves in the Guinness Book of World Records or have Bernard Matthews knocking on our door asking what our secret diet for such weight gain is.

On top of all this one has to remember that my poor wife (measuring only 5'2") will have to somehow deliver this not so little bundle of joy.

I foresee much swearing and perhaps a few painkilling drugs on the big day.

class act

We went along to our first ante natal class last night, as usual getting to where we were supposed to be just in time.

The reason for the delay was that K had got tied up at work and ended up catching the train 1/2 an hour after the one that she meant to - resulting in us wolfing down our dinner and hot footing it over to the hospital all in about 20 minutes.

The class was bigger than we expected and contained quite an age range of expectant parents. It seems we've not been as slow as we thought in getting our act together and going along to the class as there were a few others with due dates before the end of September.

The midwife was nice, if a little bit Marjorie Dawes (dust, yeah, dust, yeah, dust), but didn't really tell us anything we hadn't already read. That all comes next week when we move onto the gruesome task of the actual labour.

nappy days

We went to the supermarket yesterday for one of those big monthly shops. All very well and good you might think but as baby's arrival is now less than 2 months away (gulp) we've started stocking up on the essentials.

We've already got things like baby lotion, talc, wipes etc (all things that adults can use too) but seeing a couple of packs of new born nappies nestling atop the tins of chopped tomatoes and pasta was somehow a bit strange.

Us? Parents?

And don't get me started on the choice - even for new-borns. All the new arrival to our family is going to do is crap in it but there were at least 4 variations to choose from - some even within the same brand.

After much debate we opted for the...honestly, do you really think I'm going to bore you with details of which nappy type, cut and eco-credentials we finally agreed on?

I think you can manage without somehow.

Aaahh Yessshhhh - Quinny issshh ordered

We finally got round to ordering the Quinny Buzz travel system this weekend - so big thanks to Grandpa for this.

They are designed and manufactured in the Netherlands (hence the Goldmemberesque title) and we've opted for the red colour option the people at Quinny call strawberry (or sshhhtraaawberry). The car seat is going to look fab in the back of our car, it's the same colour and everything so we'll have a little mini Ricaro stylee seat in the back of the Golf for our little sporty bean. Oh, and of course its über safe as well and looking great :0)

Before we went to the shop to place the order we did a final spot of web based research and found this on YouTube. All very well and good you might think but stick with it until she gets to the part about us Europeans.

Quote "...apparently those Europeans don't drink on the go so there's no cup holder..."

Sat in bed watching this I jolly well very nearly choked on my tea (with milk of course) and toast and Marmite...

light fantastic

Forgot to mention, we found these great lampshades for the hall, stairs and landings.

I think they're a bit Marmite: you'll either love them or hate them.

humbug

Well, well, well.

Nearly a month since my last entry and lots of change in our little house.

As you can see the carpet is finally down in the stairs, hall and landing - something akin to those old humbug sweeties that Grandma used to suck is the general consensus.

We've also started getting things together for the nursery. The cot and changing unit thingamajig are both assembled and in-situ and the room is really rather nice and tranquil - for the time being at least.

K is getting bigger by the day and is now finding it rather difficult to actually get comfortable both sitting down on the sofa of an evening and even laying down in bed. Not best for my girl :(

home front

The decorating at home is finally nearing completion.

  

Gone are the lilac walls with lurid lime green woodwork in the back bedroom.

Gone is the bland cornflower blue Anaglypta in the hall, stairs and landing.

Gone is the offensive burnt orange from the front bedroom.     

All woodwork is now a spanking and glorious brilliant white and all walls a fresh chalk white.  

It has transformed our house and its hard to believe now just how we put up with the psychedelic maelstrom for so long.

Carpet is booked to be laid in early August, at which point I'll be getting busy with the screw driver and Allen keys to assemble the baby changing unit and cot which arrived last week.

Pictures to follow soon.

on track

K had her periodic midwife appointment earlier in the week and all is well. Her blood pressure etc is all fine and dandy and baby is doing well.

She's had one or two incidents where she's nearly fainted and felt v light headed this week too. Apparently this is all down to baby sucking on her resources.

More entries to keep you all up to date soon I promise.

give me fever

My poor darling wife is suffering. Having hay fever whilst pregnant is a nightmare.

As K is unable to take any of the usual hay fever medication (cos she's preggers of course) she has been suffering from flu-like symptoms for the last 2 weeks.

This also means that she has been snoring like an outboard motor, waking up to cough and sneeze throughout the night and now junior has taken to kicking her awake at 5 AM every day - far from ideal for K.

This waking up early lark (no pun intended) also indicates that the little bugger has taken on some of my early bird genes.

I see trouble ahead...

can i kick it?

It would seem that the answer is a resounding YES!

Last night I could actually feel the bean kicking/punching from within K simply by laying my hand on her tummy and waiting patiently.

Although you can't see anything from the outside it is surprising just how much force is behind the movement.

exponential growth

It's all change once more in our house dear readers.

We have been busily stripping all of the walls in the two middle floor bedrooms in readiness for the plasterer coming to skim them all today. The front room looks like a cross between a building site and a New York loft apartment. Baby should have a nice newly decorated room by the time s/he arrives and we'll finally be rid of the shocking psychedelic decor that we've somehow been living with for the last few years.

The other news is that K's bump is growing at an alarming rate. Almost overnight she has developed a very well defined baby-bump and has had to fully transition into her new maternity jeans, trousers and tops.

robo-mum

Listening to the radio this morning I heard an interesting discussion on baby minders. But it wasn't about the usual audio baby monitors that allow you hear your child when you are in another room.

No, no, they were discussing the existence of robot baby minders.

It seems these have been been around now for some time in Japan and the development has been lead by NEC and Sony.

Professor Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield has been speaking at Cheltenham Science Festival and says that electronics multinationals were developing domestic robots that are already being heavily tested in 'childcare activities.'

He added: 'These robots are great for monitoring children. Adults can log into the robot from the Internet or from their mobile phones. They can direct the robot and see through its cameras, they can even speak to the children through the robot's voice.'

He went on to say that not only could robots do useful things like play games, they could also monitor children that had been electronically tagged using RFID technology.

Current UK legislation prevents robots from being left in charge of children in a nursery without adult supervision but there is nothing in law to stop parents from leaving robots in control at home it seems...

shift happens

It's official.

K's bump is now sufficiently large that she can no longer wear her ordinary clothes.

Jeans won't do up, tops are getting tight and she is on the brink of entering the world of maternity wear.

The bean is also starting to move around a lot more and although we can't see it from the outside yet s/he is certainly working rather well as an alarm clock (be that for coming home from work or getting up in the morning).

Something that can get K out of bed in the morning without too much of a struggle clearly has powers beyond my reach...

water baby

We went along to the hospital today so that K could have her ever expanding (almost daily) bump scanned to make sure that junior is doing OK.

Mums-to-be are supposed to drink plenty of water before the scan so that the ultrasound can do its thing most effectively.

It seemed that on this occasion K had gone a bit overboard and her bladder was so full that it meant that baby's movement were a little constricted and so the view from the ultrasound wasn't great.

After a welcome pee break (K that is, not me) the nurse/scan operator tried again and what we could see was amazing.

Everything is where it should be, of the right dimensions and looks to be in full working order.

To me it looked like baby had extremely long legs. God knows what I'll do in 18 years time if we have a girl with my height and K's hair, knock-'em-dead smile and curves (OK boobs)...

all change

Forgot to mention that I had some more good news last week.

After a rather drawn out process I have landed a great new job with a London based design communications agency. It's a fantastic opportunity for me and a real change of direction (having worked in the public sector for the last 10 or so years).

With a bit of luck and a following wind this should be the beginning of a long and rewarding career.

Am due to start at the beginning of July - can't wait!

seal of approval

K and I had a few days away at the beginning of this week to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

We had a thoroughly relaxing time and had some fantastic meals to boot.

On the way home we passed Nippers and therefore popped in to check out the Quinny (see 23 April nippers entry).

Again the ladies in the shop were fab and they even did a fitting to ensure the car seat etc fitted our car.

Good news is that it has won the seal of approval from K so all we need to do now is justify the price tag...

Oh, it comes in red and back too so will compliment the car perfectly :)

good news

Got the results of the blood test back today and I'm very pleased to say that baby bean is low risk for any abnormalities...I guess s/he will be leaving that to his/her father... :)

baby got rhythm

K had her second appointment with the midwife today, which included some pretty standard health checks like blood pressure etc.

I am pleased to say that all is good and the best bit was that K heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time via some sort of midwifery gadget (perhaps a Doppler Fetal Monitor.)

Shame I wasn't there to share this first hand but with the 20 week scan only a few weeks away I won't have to wait long to see how things are getting along.

pro rad mini me

OK, OK so Offspring V1.0 has not yet arrived but I see no reason why I can't start planning for the future - particularly when it comes to cycling.

So imagine my surprise when I "accidentally" stumbled across a fantastic selection of bike trailers.

The Burley Bee particularly caught my eye...

Oh, and by the way K is now getting the beginnings of a bump and bought her first pair of stretchy waistband jeans at the weekend.

According to the reference books the bean V1.0 should already be around 10 cm long and weighing in at approx 80g (2.5 ounces).

nippers

Driving back along a familiar road today I finally had time to stop and have a cheeky browse in a shop that has been tempting me for some weeks now.

The shop is called nippers and is dedicated to all things little people. The ladies running the place were really nice and helpful and I left a whole lot wiser and with a bag full of catalogues and brochures.

Have to say too that the hydraulics on the Quinny Speedi and Buzz Travel Systems are sweeeeeeeet, as the entire base assembly unfolds automatically at the flick of a switch (and with a satisfying shhhhhhht). Apparently a hit with all the blokes that go into the shop for some reason.

tight fit

Had one of those this is all a bit real moments yesterday. I ironed a shirt for K and went off to work.

When I got home the shirt was stil hanging where I had left it for her. Turns out that the bump has now grown sufficiently that fitted shirts are becoming a problem to actually do up.

Our little person is already having an impact and it's not even with us yet. All very exciting.

week 12 - beanie baby

We had our 12 week scan last week and I am delighted to say that we have a little person cooking in K's oven.

I always said that K was brilliant at baking and she is now truly cooking on gas, which is great.

The scanner lady (no throbbing veins in her temples I am pleased to say) checked out our bean from every which angle and it seems that baby has a good strong heart beat, is growing well and has everything where it should be.

Weird thing was that when we first saw baby it was kicking back relaxing with legs crossed and arms behind the head.

Two minutes later it was busting some moves Night Fever style . Legs and arms everywhere - and K's not had a drop to drink in months...

Boy or girl it looks like we've passed on some bad-ass disco moves to our offspring.

Next step is strapping the i-Pod and headphones to K's bump and giving it big licks with the 80's cheesy disco classics me thinks...

And so the journey begins...

I returned from a Stag weekend in Edinburgh back at the beginning February this year, and slumped into bed ready for a good 12 hour sleep to recover from the excesses of the weekend.

At this point K, my wife, slipped beneath the sheets and into bed.

Having abstained for 2 days and seeing the vision before me, the clichéd "Well hellooo Mrs R" (think retro-űber-oily-Leslie-Phillips) phrase left my lips.

At this point she looked deeply into my eyes and said "Well, we can, but there is no biological need right now.......because you're going to be a daddy!"

Delighted as I was (and still am) I apparently froze and the blood drained from my face.

Not long after that, in true me-style, the emotions took over and one or two tiny weeny tears leaked from my eyes...