The midwife came yesterday and today we had our first meeting with the health visitor.

 

It all seemed to go well enough. Katie had lost weight after birth, which is normal, but is now putting it back on - not quite back up to birth weight but well on the way. She seems to be too big for some of her newborn clothing already.

 

Tomorrow we're off to register the birth.

One thing you realise is how much longer it now takes to do anything. A neighbour kindly lent us their car so we could drive to see Ursula's mum. Normally we'd just get in and drive off but now we have to get Katie sorted too. Plan the feed and nappy change, get her in warm clothing, sort out the car seat, get the buggy in the boot and prepare all the paraphernalia (changing bag etc). Only then do we have a chance of setting off.

 

Even eating dinner together is a challenge when you have a baby who is fine during the day but more challening once the sun goes down. You think you know when she'll calm down and get some sleep so you can prepare the meal to be ready by a certain time. Along comes yet another severe bout of wind (Katie, not me) and sure enough you eat separately again. A small price to pay in the long run, of course; it's just different from what you're used to, although a bit of quality time with your partner would be nice. The curry was excellent, in case you're wondering.

Sunday night was a toughie. I eventually got Katie to sleep at 2am while sitting in front of the TV.

 

It was a nice moment to have her fall asleep in my arms but I can appreciate that one and a half hours of rolling TV news (at a time when nothing is happening - just the same Oscars build-up over and over) is enough to send anyone off to sleep.

 

If we subscribed to Sky Movies I could have watched the ceremony live, of course, but we don't and our old sofa is so uncomfortable that I had to stand up - cue Katie waking up again.

 

Monday night was much better. Perhaps she knew the midwife was coming today.

Katie had such bad wind that we just couldn't get her to settle last night.

 

I was up til 3.30am with her while mum got some sleep. She took over and after a feed things calmed down a bit.

 

She had been so good until then, meeting her other granny and her uncle Rob.

 

Ah well, can't expect it to be plain sailing every minute of every day.

 

Must be time to go shopping, I haven't bought anything for almost 24 hours...

You think you're a savvy consumer.

 

You think you've got everything you need.

 

You think these surveys that say that raising a child will cost you £300,000 or whatever it is these days don't apply to you; you're simply too smart to spend so much money.

 

And then it turns out there's always something else you need.

 

And off you trudge, back to a well-known dispensing chemist (check its share price to see if I'm having an impact).

 

Nobody seemed to remember me as 'the syringe guy' so at least that's something.

It had all been going so well.

 

Katie decided she didn't want to feed properly and so we finished at about 2.30am dropping little amounts in her mouth with a syringe (guess they did come in handy after all).

 

She fed a lot better at 6am though.

Some lovely flowers arrived courtesy of my work today.

 

There was also a box of Belgian chocolates and a bottle of Champagne.

 

This is the latest in a line of gifts, cards and e-mails that have been arriving in a steady stream over the course of the week.

 

I've added a pic of the flowers and another of the cards to the photo gallery.

 

Whatever else happens, I know that Katie has the best wishes and goodwill of so many people who matter to us. Very touching.

My parents visited the other day.

 

They're very experienced in the world of grand parenting - Katie is number six.

 

We were having some problems getting Katie to settle into her basket/cot thing (what is the right word for that?). We thought perhaps she had taken a dislike to it.

 

Granny suggested warming it up with a hot water bottle as the baby was being moved from a parent's cuddle to a much cooler basket/cot thing. And what do you know? She goes to sleep straight away (Katie, not granny). NB: remove the hot water bottle before putting baby down.

Regular readers will recall yesterday's post where the great British public caught me wildly celebrating the fact that my local supermarket was selling mega ten-packs of Murphy's.

 

Well, after that I went to a well-known pharmacy and asked: "Do you have any syringes?"

 

The assistant looked me straight in the eye for an uncomfortably long time. Cue silence in the queue of shoppers behind me.

 

I added: "You know, syringes so that a mum can drop milk into a baby's mouth."

 

"Oh," replied the assistant. "I thought you meant syringes with needles."

 

 

Do I look like a drug addict?

 

Let's see: bags under eyes, unshaven, hair all over the place, grumpily shuffling round the shops with a mangled plastic carrier bag under my arm. Hmm...

 

 

 

(Turns out that we haven't needed the syringes yet anyway)

The midwife who visited yesterday said that Ursula wasn't getting enough calories so I was duly dispatched to the supermarket to find stodgy foods for mum.

 

A weird experience: I don't usually go along the aisles checking for calorific values and rejecting the items because they have TOO FEW calories in them.

 

The midwife also suggested Ursula drinks a can of Murphy's a day. How brilliant is that? I wasn't sure that our supermarket sold Murphy's so I let out a yelp of delight: "Oh, result!" as I spotted a ten-pack on special offer. Cue disapproving looks from other shoppers who presumably thought I had an alcohol problem. I decided to avoid saying: "It's not for me, honest."

...is to be recommended at all times, no doubt. On this occasion it involved me and Katie - part of the midwife's suggested bonding tactics. Not sure how successful it was but I suppose we're both a bit cleaner now.

We had a plan this time.

 

It seemed to involve me doing a lot of sleeping and mum looking after Katie.

 

I got the 6am shift which went fine.

Phew! Tough going.

 

Can we fast forward a couple of years? :-)

Hurrah!

 

Weighing in at 7lbs 10 Katie is our first child.

 

I could go into detail about the labour and all that but I won't.

 

She and mum have been in hospital for a few nights but should be coming home today.