December 2008

‘Twas the week before Christmas

Sunday 21st December 2008Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

Apologies to those regular readers for not updating the website for a couple of weeks, but as I am sure you can all appreciate that working, looking after the little one and Christmas all at the same time means that priorities change.

I trust that you have all done your shopping, hung your decorations and bought the turkey. If you have, then you have done a little better than the Bagnalls. The Credit Crunch does not seem to have affected Shoppers around Staines. The shelves are empty and the cupboards are bare, especially concerning Christmas trees. We usually buy a real Christmas tree and so do not have an artifical one, however there has seemingly been a run on the Christmas tree shops around here and there are none of either variety available. So for Éowyn’s first Christmas there will be no tree in our house. Does this constitute child cruelty? I think that at 10 weeks old that she will not even realise that it is Christmas and as long as she gets fed, changed and entertained that the occasion will just pass her by.

Christmas day should be a fun day for the family as we have been invited around Lucinda’s parents for the day, along with both of Lucinda’s brothers and their families. Therefore, all five grandchildren will be celebrating Christmas together, which will be fantastic, if a little noisyl. I will have to ensure that my camera and camcorder batteries are fully charged! It would be perfect if there was a dusting of snow to wake up to. Perhaps enough to make a snowman and have a snowball fight. Although, the weather report isn’t promising.

Éowyn is due to have her 8 week injections on Tuesday. She was due to have them last week, but the surgery phoned to cancel and offered another day next year. The date offered was nearly after the date she is due for her second round of injections, and Lucinda had to argue to have them this side of Christmas. If it has been the other way around, with us cancelling we would be labelled bad parents and lectured on how we were jeopardising the health of our child. I will stop before this becomes a rant.

Our friend Alistair popped round on Saturday to meet Éowyn for the first time, and became the first man to buy her dinner. Christmas dinner in a jar and a pudding (in a jar) to go with it. She is a little young (both to eat solids and to accept dinner from older men) at the moment but we will save it up and she will probably have it around Easter.

Sunday marked a momentous occasion, it was the first time since Éowyn was born that West Bromwich Albion have secured all 3 points in a game. A 2-1 win over the richest team in the world (Manchester City) at the Hawthorns meant although we are bottom for Christmas we are not out of touch, and the Great Escape part two is still a possibility.

Tune in next week for news of Éowyn’s (many) other Christmas gifts, but in the meantime here are a few more photos…

Merry Christmas to you all

Love from Baggie, Lucinda and Éowyn

Back to work again

Sunday 7th December 2008Friday 11th May 2012Baggie

As my three weeks holiday comes to an end. It has flown by, but at the same time it seems an age since I was at work and Éowyn has grown so much and developed so much over the time. Her exact weight is, yet again, a bit of a mystery as we have not been able to get her weighed for the last two weeks, but if my arms are any kind of testimony then she is definitely continuing the weight gain that we saw previously.

Lucinda has started post-natal classes, which will last until Christmas and resume in the new year. Topics included first aid, such as dealing with a baby that is choking and CPR. It amazes me that such first aid skills aren’t taught as part of the school curriculum, imagine how many lives would be saved each year. Put away the soapbox Baggie!

This is another item on Lucinda’s weekly schedule, her standard week is rapidly filling up with Coffee mornings, Post-natal classes, Bumps and Babies, not to mention meeting up with friends. It is good to see, however I don’t think that she is going to have enough time to go back to work when that day comes. She has become a ‘Lady that Lunches’.

This week has been another busy one. We took a trip to Swindon, to get my car serviced, visit my good friend Andy and indulge in a little Christmas shopping at the retail centre there. Good shopping was had (by Lucinda) but we were mostly impressed with the baby changing and feeding stations. They included a little room with an easy chair and curtain for privacy, a changing table and a microwave for warming bottles. Top marks.

This was followed by another trip to see Nanny Fran and Auntie Liz. It also gave the opportunity for us to introduce Éowyn to her Great Uncle David (one of my Dad’s brothers). Unfortunately her Great Auntie Anne was unable to visit as she was working so we will have to make a trip in the new year to visit them. It is amazing how much stuff you need to pack to take such a little one away for a couple of days. It is not an easy task fitting it all in the car, I dread to think what it will be like to go away on holiday for any length of time.

While in West Bromwich, we opened a building society account for Éowyn so she can start saving towards her university bills, and she popped in to see Nanny Fran’s work colleagues. I think that she made an impression, as we have had a number of offers of baby sitters. You may regret that offer one day!

We also drove past the Hawthorns, home to West Bromwich Albion, to see if her baby voodoo would kick in. However she was not impressed and stayed asleep in her car seat. In fact she stayed pretty much in the land of nod for her entire trip into Birmingham to see the German Christmas market. It was just as well, as the weather was not kind and we pretty much got soaked walking round. However, we did manage to meet up with my friend Bobby and he had bought a couple of pressies for her, one of which you can see in the photos below.

We returned home on Saturday afternoon, all pretty shattered, but Éowyn was not going to let us rest. She had a very fitful night and we didn’t get more than an hour’s continuous sleep all night. After ten days or so of ideal sleep behaviour it was a bit of a shock. I hope tonight is a return to calmer nights.

So we have taken today at a much more relaxed pace. Éowyn wore her Baggies strip (and still we could not win – although she did feed at the start of the second half and then fall asleep, I reckon that interfers with her baby voodoo) and listened to the match. We also had a visit from Nan and Grandad, who battled the bitter cold to come round for a munch.

I have posted some more photos, but again it may be a couple of weeks before this blog gets added to, as I return to work.

Peace and love

Baggie!

Sleeping through the night

Monday 1st December 2008Friday 27th May 2011Baggie

The second week of my holiday coincides with Éowyn’s 6^th week of life. It has been a week spent mainly at home, enjoying being a family. It has been good for Lucinda and me to have some time enjoying our daughter, selfishly to ourselves. She has seemingly grown so much this week. Apart from the night that we returned from West Bromwich, she has been sleeping well at night, including one night that she slept through! She has begun to smile regularly and occasionally giggle, she also has begun to try and roll over, managing it a couple of times. Her latest trick is putting her fist in her mouth to indicate that she is hungry – that’s my girl! How quickly they grow up.

Monday evening our friends Neil and Emma paid us a visit. It was the first time that they had met Éowyn; unfortunately, she did herself a bit of a disservice by crying for much of the evening. It was also the first time that we had had friends round for a meal (OK a takeaway curry) and a crying baby is something that we (and our guests) will have to get used to when entertaining.

Lucinda has been fighting a cold since Tuesday (her cough is getting worse and the list of medicine that you can take while breastfeeding is extremely low) and so we did not have to think twice (in fact we never think twice) to accept a dinner invite from Lucinda’s parents. As I have mentioned before it is very comforting to know that we have family that live so close.

It was Lucinda’s turn to host the weekly NCT coffee morning, Wednesday; the first time it has been at home. It is good to see that the girls have forged such friendships and are giving each other support. I have meant to organize a pub evening with the boys but as yet that has not happened, will probably wait until we meet up at the official NCT group meet up and try to organize one then, after Christmas.

Thursday, we took Éowyn to visit my work mates. It can feel very much like a family at mediahouse and so it was important to introduce Éowyn to her many surrogate aunties. I think it will the first visit of many, I hope she likes being the centre of attention; she seems to at the moment.

A visit to the doctors for her six week check ended the week. The doctor seemed very pleased with her and Lucinda. Both are doing well and Éowyn was exceptionally well behaved, she did not cry once during the examination. We were very proud of her. The doctor did not seem concerned with her development and has given us some antibiotic drops to help finally clear up Éowyn’s conjunctivitis.

It has been fantastic spending so much time as a family but that is rapidly coming to an end as I only have a week left of my annual leave, so I fully intend to enjoy this coming week.

Peace and Love

Baggie!