My First Blog Entry

Welcome all,

Don't expect too many posts from Emma, shes only 13 days old after all and can't reach the keyboard.

I've been prompted to start this blog by Craig and Sharon who are off around the world and have a blog of their own. Good luck to them for the next six months I say, see you in 2007. By setting up my own I can post insulting comments on theirs, and expect the same in response of course...

Having set up a blog, I can now show the world my daughter Emma who Helen and I are deeply smitten with. We've taken about a million photos - I expect to fully test the capacity of this website! I can also tell of the sleepless nights, hairbreadth from insanity moments and trials and tribulations of raising a little girl. And all the happy bits as well of course!

The first nearly two weeks of Emma's life have whizzed past for Helen and I since she was born on Saturday 3rd June at 1.50am weighing 7lb 8oz. We were so glad to be out of the hospital at 9pm on Sunday, only to be perturbed by how hungry and unsatisfied Emma was on Monday. Then the feeding really started properly on Tuesday - we had a wonderful day's rest as Emma fed then slept alternately throughout the day, only to be driven to our wit's end on Wednesday when she had wind, colic and seemed to cry and whinge most of the day. A good end to the week has since been driven deep into the memory as she's started wanting hourly feeds in the evenings and having a very short fuse when she's hungry.

It's a funny thing that when we are tired, she plays up and gets hysterical easily, whereas when we are rested she's often as good as gold. I think they are right when they say that babies pick up on the demeanor of those around them. Our learning point from the last few days is the benefit of a nap in the afternoon for everyone. It sets us all up for a much easier, and more patient night.

Yesterday the three of us went shopping in The Mall, Cribbs Causeway, Bristol. It's a massive arcade with loads of shops including the Department Store, John Lewis. We missed our nap and got exhausted by the shopping and regretted it enormously last night!. In John Lewis I picked up a brochure of a hand and foot impression service they do. They have a potter visit every 3rd Sunday to make an impression, then colour and varnish it. They charge £100 for a framed hand & foot. I frowned a bit, thinking - it can't cost that much! So went to Clevedon Craft Centre and found Somerset Levels Pottery. He quoted me £20 for an impression on a plate of a foot and a hand, we're going to take Emma on Monday and hope it goes well! I'll try to remember to report back here with the results.

Whilst i'm giving links, i must link you to body clock tens machines. We hired the Elle TENS to give Helen pain relief during labour and she found it excellent. The electric stimulation dulled her pain from 3pm when the contractions started coming regularly, through 7pm when I drove her to hospital, right up to 10pm when she got into the waterbath when the contractions intensified. TENS and water baths unfortunately don't go together! If you know anyone about to pop, be sure to recommend the machine.

I seem to have drifted from the point, did I have a point? Not sure, anyway, i'll try uploading some photos!

Dave