Babies

For some reason this has some resonance...

Autorotation

I got up this morning to find <3 acting all excited and telling me to watch the youngling, who was wriggling happily on the floor. Right on cue she rolled over onto her tummy (the youngling, that is, not <3, who has been able to do this for some time) and proceeded to lie there looking pleased with herself. So, another little milestone: 20 weeks and 3 days, rolls onto tummy. This is both very exciting and a worrying step towards mobility...

Better Than The Usual Medicine

Over the weekend I gave the Youngling a bath and, inevitably, we soon had the situation where her butt slipped and I frantically lunged to get a better grip before her head got a lot wetter than intended. What was her reaction? She laughed.

I'd heard her laugh a few times before, but that was just a bit of a chuckle, a smile with emphasis. This was a genuine peel of delighted laughter. What could I do but laugh back? This made her laugh all the more, and soon enough we were both in hysterical giggles, splashing each other with bath water. It was a tough weekend in some ways, but that bathtime erased all other concerns. The laughter of a 12 week old baby is just magical.

Small, Cute and Smiling

I guess it's about time to post a couple of pictures. These were taken a month ago, when the Youngling was 7 weeks old...

But the other one is much more shiny, Sir

Last week we regististered the birth of the Youngling, something which must be done within six weeks of the birth. There were a whole load of questions, <3 signed the register, and we were given the birth certificate. We were then told that this was a short certificate and that if we wanted a full certificate (which would be required by the Passport Office and for some other purposes for which the short certificate would just not do) it would cost us £3.50.

Does this strike anyone else as bonkers? The two certificates both consist of a single sheet of A4 paper, printed out from a computer record, with a manual signature by the registrar. They take exactly the same amount of effort to produce and, though the full certificate is on (possibly) slightly better paper, basically the same demand on consumables. Why, in the name of all that's fluffy, can't they just give us a proper certificate right away and not have this knobbing about with some certificates being more valid than others? If they really have to charge us for something, how about a nice commemorative thingy that looks nice but is useless?

We paid the money — it's not much, after all — but I'm still wondering what planet some people live on and why things are done in the way that they are.

A Late Arrival

Well, happy (belated) new year!

After a long wait and a Christmas more full of waiting than anything else, baby B., a beautiful little girl, was born on new year's eve, weighing close to the average for a 2-week-late baby. Mother and baby are, as is traditional to say, both doing well, though this is very tiring for all involved.

So, what have we learnt? Well, some of the points...

• The delivery suite team at the John Radcliffe are superb people, though occasionally run ragged with stuff to do. They looked after us well and helped <3 through a difficult labour to produce a perfect baby.
• Similarly the maternity team at Wantage Community Hospital are fantastic. We didn't get to see how they handle a delivery, but the postnatal care was great and the environment was so much more relaxed and comfortable than the JR.
• <3 is my new number 1 hero after seeing the feat of strength and endurance required to deliver a baby. She was magnificent.
• When it came to cutting the cord, I was handed what seemed like a pair of round-ended kiddie scissors (I guess they don't trust new fathers with sharp objects) which required me to hack a few times before getting through (an umbilical cord is thicker than I imagined though on reflection, given it's function, this is not surprising).
• Sometimes the father's mind goes blank when shown the baby's "bits" and is expected to tell the mother that she has a baby girl. "A boy without a winkie... Wait, I know this one..."
• After recuperation they let you out of the hospital with your baby without having to prove that you will be a fit parent. We felt that it would only be a moment before someone stopped us and demanded to see authorisation.
• Babies take a lot of love and attention. They have simple needs, but do not have the gift of patience.
• Nappies are not that bad really (so far — we are bracing ourselves for that doozy that involves the contents escaping and finding its way to all corners of the babygrow).
• Sleep is something that can only be got in small snatches, particularly for <3, who so far has all the feeding duties.
• You don't need to be quiet when the baby is asleep — in fact, quite the opposite seems to be true.
• After feeding, a young baby has a really goofy, almost drunk expression on her face.
• It can be an amazingly complex exercise in logistics to even leave the house with a baby — can't wait until we don't expect her to sleep through the entire trip (which she did this time).
• Babies are cute, but there is nothing cuter than our own baby when she smiles. (OK, I know that technically it isn't really a smile, but I don't care.)

I could go on. Maybe I'll add more later. What am I talking about, maybe? Of course I will — the youngling is likely to be my number one obsession for some time to come.

So 2006 ended on a massive high note. 2007 is set to be great — though tiring — as we learn how to live as a proper family.

Poster Child

So I finally submitted my final submission for this year's OU course — a project poster and post mortem discussion on the project as a whole. This year was the toughest yet and I genuinely have no idea if I have passed; it'll be about 3 months until I know, by which time I will be well into the next course, which starts at the beginning of February. If (fingers crossed) I didn't stuff this year's project up too terminally, then next year will be the last course I need to finally earn my degree. If I did fail, then I'll have to do another project the year after, making for 8 years of study in total. It's a long road...

In other news, still no news on the baby. <3 is now at home on maternity leave and finding it quite hard work to do anything at all at the moment. It is a little over a week until the official due date (for what that is worth), so it won't be much longer one way or another, but I'm really hoping it comes sooner so <3 can be able to walk again.

Project X Unveiled

I doubt there are many/any people who read this page that haven't heard the news by other means, but here goes anyway... If all goes well and there are no major problems, by the end of the year I should become a father. It still feels weird and distant, but it is rather less so for <3, who has spent quite a lot of time feeling ill over the last couple of months. She has, however, scanned our 11 week ultrasound and added a couple of annotations so you can tell which blob is which. So, without further ado, let me introduce little Asbo...