Lesson 1: Sleep when baby sleeps

Hello, this is Ursula. I have not written for a while since have been somewhat preoccupied! Noah is doing very well in our world and in particular loves eating. He still does not really like his bed and we have to get him to sleep in ours first or in our arms and then sneak him into the cot without him noticing. What would Gina Ford say! Noah makes lots of noise even when sleeping and it can sound like there is a New York city traffic jam in his cot. Daddy has been back at work this week but has Fridays off at the moment which is lovely. Daddy is really getting the hang of the 'sleep when the baby sleeps' thing. I am not sure who looks cosier! Bye for now! Ursula x

Registered

Noah Kai Kelland has now been registered. We had an appointment this morning and Noah's behviour was impeccable. Slept throughout. Managed to get a bit of shopping done in Guildford before Noah got hungry.

Yesterday we took Noah out to the shops in Godalming for the first time in his carry cot. He seems very happy in the cot which is good news. It was also Daddy and Mummy's 9 year anniversary since we started going out so Mummy made a cake.

It's Daddy's last day on paternity leave today and will be back at work tomorrow.

Top Tips for Babies

Hi Guys! It's Noah here. Mummy and Daddy are sleeping so I've crept onto the computer and hijacked their blog. I've only been alive now 10 days but I'm already picking up a trick or two.

No.1 Make Daddy work. At night time it's fair game to play up a little and this is what I do. What Daddy tries to do is hold me in his arms until I go into a deep sleep. When I'm in this supposed deep sleep he slowly walks me to my cot. He gently lays me down and then he works as quiet as a mouse to tuck me in. Just when he thinks I'm almost there..........I open up one eye slowly and then the other. He then realises I'm never going to go down and then starts all over again.

No.2 Don't take anything less than getting the best nights sleep possible. Sometimes, Daddy does manage to get me down on my cot for a few minutes before I realise that I'm in my cot and not in the best possible place to get my beauty sleep. Now the key to getting to this place is Mummy. To get to Mummy, what I do is start squeaking a little in my cot and kicking my legs to get Daddy's attention. Then he comes over and picks me up and I begin to try sucking on his arm as if I to want to feed. Of course I don't want to take anything that Daddy's offering me but it makes him think I'm hungry. I then get passed to Mummy and take up my position in the middle of the lovely double bed. Mummy and Daddy have just enough room either side of me to place one buttock on the bed with the other hangin off the edge. At this point I may take a suck or two or even just smile. It doesn't matter because I look sooooo cute they daren't move me.

No.3 Play time during nappy change. Yeah I did this a lot last night. The timing is crucial on this one. Simple really, I wait for Daddy to remove the dirty nappy and then a shoot my fountain straight into the air making everything wet. I'm actually aiming for Daddy's face and one day I know I'm going to get it. I did this the other day too when Aunty Lara was over. More recently, just after Daddy has taken off my dirty nappy and cleaned my bottom, I've pooped again!

There's lots and lots of fun to have with my parents and I'll keep you all posted.

Gagagugu for now.

Noah and the Big Wide World

We took Noah out to see the big wide World this afternoon. Well, maybe it was just our garden but it was a big step for the little man. I probably built this up to be bigger than it actually was and in fact Noah probably didn't even realise he was outside (slept through the whole thing) but it felt good to fill the little mans lungs with fresh air nonetheless.

He seems to be sleeping for longer periods during the day today and is a joy to look after.

Daddy's Back in Play

Feeling a lot better after the tummy upset. Great to be able to hold and look after my son again. Night time feeds are going really well with feed times every threes hours.

We have received some great gifts from friends and family which we really appreciate. We now have a guard dog. Meet Gerrard below.

2 Tanks of Milk + A good sucker =

a weight gain of an ounce a day.

The midwife has been around this afternoon to weigh Noah and to undertake the heel prick test. The results from the weighing scales showed that Noah had gained 6oz in weight taking him to 8lb 4. Midwife was impressed so he's doing just fine.

Daddy's got a tummy upset which came on last night so he hasn't had any contact with the little fella today. Needless to say he's extremely sad. Feeling better though this afternoon so will make up for lost time tomorrow. Fortunately Grandy has been able to stay over and lend a hand.

4 Day Update

Well things have just been getting better and better.

The first night at home was hard work, particularly for Ursula as Noah was loving the hugs far too much compared to his Moses basket or cot. This therefore meant very little sleep was had. However during the second night he went down in his cot having been swaddled. Each night we seem to be gaining a further understanding of our little son and his ways and we are very grateful to Grandy, Grandma and Auntie Lara for their support and endless help during the day and night.

Below is a present received from Bev and Paul Waterman. You need to look closely as hidden amongst the bouquet are clothes for Noah. Very much appreciated.

Stats

Name: Noah Kai Kelland

Weight: 7lb 14oz

Born: 13th October 2009

Time: 10:30am

Noah Kelland

Nusstorte anyone?

It has been like Christmas today without the presents. The baby hasn't arrived yet and we have been waiting all day. Whilst waiting this delicious cake was made. Yes the icing was a little runny and yes the decorations ended up sliding off the cake onto the plate but it was yummy. The icing on yesterday's cake was actually perfect but we didn't take a photo of that one.

On the xylophone I have now added Hickory Dickory Dock to my repertoire of pieces I can now play. The list also includes Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Doe a Deer a Female Deer.

NCT Sale

We have just returned from our first and possibly our last NCT sale. It caught us a bit off guard as we pulled into Waitrose car park to see a queue of pregnant ladies as far as the eye could see along Godalming high street. Still, we managed to get in and bought a couple of items. One bouncer by Chicco and a front baby carrier from Tomy, both at very reasonable prices. However now we are thinking that we don't want them. We think a simple bouncer for the baby would be better and we also like the look of the Baby Bjorn front carriers.

I had a little scare yesterday....when asked by Ursula if I could pop into Guildford with her and just wait in the car for a couple of minutes whilst she changed an item in Mothercare, I wasn't expecting her to be gone half an hour. I had tried her mobile phone at least 5 times during this period. So what would any normal person think......maybe she's having the baby in Mothercare! I quickly bought a car parking ticket and hurried off to look for her. As I was entering the shop, out pops Ursula casually smiling with about three bags. Minor panic over. (It's never a couple of minutes).

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go...

Our bags have been packed and are waiting for the green light to be lifted off the treasure chest and into the car. Our journey has been planned. We've taken the option of driving the slightly longer route to hospital but less bendy and bumpy! However on our trip we may have to pop into Sainsburys to buy some chocolate bars as the multi packs we have bought to date haven't even made it into the bags as someone keeps eating them.

We've stocked up on all sorts of different varieties of nappy. It's good to have choices in life and our little ones first choice will be on nappies. The small person will have to decide which one fits and looks best and leaks the least...we will await feedback.

This is in the diary as THE BIG WEEKEND but we'll see. I hope baby doesn't keep us waiting too long.

Doe a deer

So I've now learnt to play an instrument. The instrument is a xylophone. If you would like a demonstration you will have to 'skype' me in a few days time. The piece I will play you will be 'doe a deer a female deer' by Maria Von Trapp.

Still waiting!

Swaddling

Hi, Ursula here. We are 39 weeks out of 40 now. No sign of baby yet.

In the meantime, Scott has been brushing up on his parentcraft skills by practising how to swaddle...on himself with the sofa blanket. I have tried to get the camera to take a photo of this but I am too slow.

We have decided that Monkey Island is staying; however for the moment Monkey will have his batteries removed.

Video calling

Hello it's Ursula here. Yesterday Scott and I decided that we were going to try out the benefits of video calling via Skype. We have ordered our webcam and are waiting for it to arrive. We very much hope that it will work since it will be a great way to keep in touch and actually see you and you see us and the little one when it comes.

It seems easy to download (go to www.skype.com) and all you need to get started is a webcam. You can get them as cheap as £15-£20. We did a bit of research and have ordered Logitech 9000 from Amazon for about £50ish.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000T5GMJE/sh-ne-903-21

We'll let you know how we get on with it. Or even better you can get a webcam and let us know how ours is working. Obviously a lot will depend on your computer's processor and broadband speed etc.

Hope to see you on Skype soon!

Raspberry leaf tea

Ursula is now drinking raspberry leaf tea. With only a little over 1 week to go until due date, the midwife has advised that she starts drinking this. The report back from the midwife yesterday was that the baby was 38cm which corresponds to 38 weeks into the pregnancy which is good. With regards to being 'engaged' I think the baby is 2/5ths in 3/5ths out. This has something to do with the head position but I'm not all that sure. Still the news was good.