watch tHe skies

So yesterday saw us take baby Ben for his first swimming lesson. Actually it was Jen, I got to watch from the side as she, and five other mums, got to play with babies in the water, not a float or lifebelt in sight.

The course is designed to teach babies to enjoy the water, and also take advantage of the baby dive reflex, just like when an adult’s air passage blocks during swallowing, a baby can block their throat so they don’t swallow water. This is why you often see babies swimming with their mouths open.

And so only a few minutes after getting in the pool, Ben was dunked. He wasn’t too impressed the first time, but second and third goes he was fine. By the end of the course he should be able to swim from Jen to me underwater.

Some of the other babies didn’t fare quite so well, and there was a fair amount of screaming in the half hour lesson.

Unfortunately all of these kind of courses are run during working hours so I won’t be able to attend all of them. However Jen and I are going to take him ourselves soon to put what we’ve learnt in to practice…

Well this weekend we had our first trip to Olan Mills for Ben to look cute and for us to fork out a tonne of cash. I must say that despite sitting in a room filled with chav parents and annoying children for an hour, and then being fleeced sideways and paying £100 to get the images on CD (!), the end result is pretty cool, and one can see a preview here on this very site. Click on the thumbnail to have a butcher’s.

Well we got around to catching the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel at the weekend. Going to the cinema is a lot of a deal with a little baby, we used to go at a whim, but now everything must be planned like a military manoeuver. Take baby to Granny between feeds, express enough milk to cover estimated absence (3 hours), take all toys and prams and nappies and equipment. And then after all that, remember to actually go to the cinema to watch the film.

So we did in fact arrive in time to watch the film, and once I had persuaded Jenny that the phone would work in the cinema on silent, allaying fears that her Mum wouldn’t be able to contact us in the event of an emergency, we actually got a chance to enjoy the film.

And enjoy it we did, two and a half hours of pirate fun in the vein of the first movie. Sure, there is a lot of plot (after all this is part 1 of a 2 part movie, with the third installment, At World’s End, coming next summer), and it wouldn really help if you have recently watched the first movie before you go to see this one, but it is an absolute blast. (more…)

Baby won’t stop crying unless you rock him \ her? Some people drive baby around, but not us, we purchased an automated baby rocker that gently moves pram \ basket \ chair back and forth at around 60-70rpm, simulating movement and, for the most part, soothing the irate infant.

We’ve had ours for a few days and it certainly seems to quieten him, maybe for 30-60 minutes a day, but with him content to play, it gives us a little time to make a cup of tea or nip to the loo, both of which seem at a premium when little Ben is demaning attention.

You can find out more about the dream mover here.

I have always wondered why parents waffle on about their children, day in, day out. However now being a parent myself, I can understand the temptation. After all, it seems that every day, Ben is doing something new.

This week he has really started to interact with toys, reaching out, knocking them and watching how they fall etc. His best achievement however is that if you put the effort in to smile and talk baby for a good five minutes, you might be lucky enough to get a smile out of him.

Or maybe even a giggle.

Of course this is still a relatively rare occurrence. Mostly he sleeps, feeds, cries and plays, but yesterday he even stopped feeding from the bottle to give me a smile. Very cool indeed, just one smile seems to melt away all of the troubles and frustrations of a day in the office.

Here’s a better closeup of the new member of the family…

11.2am today saw the arrival of a new membe of our family. Weighing in at 8lbs 1oz, Ben William took the best part of 14 hours to arrive from the time that Jenny and I arrived at the hospital, but it was all worth it when he finally turned up. We hope that you like the photos. Click to enlarge.

Due date has come and gone…

No sign of baby yet. He \ she seems to be quite content to stay put for the meantime. Moving about a lot but nothing to see here yet. Bags are packed and waiting at the door, baby seat is installed and ready, even the kitchen is nearly done, we are just short of an actual baby!

Well today our baby is due, according to the hospital. Jenny calculated the 4th May (tomorrow). So far no signs of imminent arrival though.

Incidentally if it was born tomorrow at 2 minutes and 3 seconds past 1am, it would be born on 1:2:3 4/5/6. Cool eh?

Well I’m sat here in the nursery, happily checking my to do list for the weekend and congratulating myself on a bucketload of DIY jobs with little ticks next to them.

The house is nearly ready.

The nursery is now full of baby stuff; nappies, books, toys, all shrink wrapped and ready to go. The cot is fully decked out with blankets, bumper, cuddly toys and a little mobile.

We are nearly ready.

In fact it seems odd to be sat in a nursery without a baby to occupy it. We’re now in week 37 and I’ve just had a lesson from Jenny on how to put a nappy on (a baby) and it seems that the last week has taken for ever. If everything goes to schedule then in three weeks’ time we will be bringing a little person home to live with us, and I must say that I am excited. Jenny seems to have been pregnant for ever (a view which she most probably shares) and yet in these last couple of weeks when we have done little else but get the house ready, we probably haven’t appreciated the quiet that will probably never return to this house. Hopefully it will be replaced by giggling and laughter…