An Outward Bound Baby?

Easter was a good week.

Christine was getting back to normal slowly, still in a bit of pain from her section, and her muscles from compensating, but doing quite well. Recovery doesn't come easier when it's coinciding with a lack of sleep. Marnie had a chance to cast her spell over a few visitors; Aileen and Nikki were down for the week, and were a great help around the house; and a couple of folks from Christine's work dropped in on Thursday while I headed out for the virtual head wetting / cigars.

But we also had our first family outing - to Cardiff Bay on Easter Monday. Despite a severe wind, from which Marnie hid in the buggysnuggle, she seemed to enjoy the trip (a relative term at the moment - she wasn't crying and slept for most of it). Didn't even complain when she disappeared completely on rumbling over some cobbles - the snuggle's a little big at the moment.

She does seem to be an outdoor child - she likes to be outside (in the protection of the cot out the wind and rain) - stops crying on going out, and starts again on coming in to the house, to shops (there's a problem...). When she's a little older we'll introduce her to the hills around Cardiff and see how that suits her.

Marnie's started sucking her thumb, something I'm not sure is a totally great thing, but a great relief for pinkies across our household (believe me, trying to sleep hanging over the side of a bed with your pinkie in a very small mouth to keep it occupied so you can try to get some sleep isn't the most comfortable position in life), and apparently another sign that she's surprisingly advanced for her age. (Another one was almost turning herself over a couple of weeks ago - which is fine, except she was on top of a chest of drawers at the time, getting changed...)

Night routine has gone out the window, changing between one and four hours, maybe a bit of gripe, and definately sucking of pinkies - as I write I'm on the edge of the bed keeping her calm enough to sleep. But, being a wee Scots lass, she can scream blue murder when she wants. We're talking "Murder polis Mr Taggart!" (BTW, did you know about the Taggart convention?)

Other than that I'm now back at work, heading towards the end of my short contract at the School of Engineering setting up knowledge transfer workshops and meetings between the School and Welsh industry.

I missed the end of my evening class on Writing Mass Market Fiction, but I'm still developing a couple of stories with David (Melkevik - a friend down here who's also an award winning aspiring scriptwriter) which I hope Richard Asplin (the class tutor) will still review and advise me on. We'll see. Perhaps it's a little ambitious to be thinking of writing a novel while looking after a small baby, but hey, if you don't push things along you wait forever for anything to happen.

I'm not so sure Christine's so enamoured of the change in her activities and the new look to the garden...

And finally. Marnie's PC skills are starting early - she was keen to help write the last entry...

An Interesting Few Days

We spent Thursday night back in the Heath hospital with Marnie. As you can see though, she's fine - pretty laid back about everything, even at the hospital.

A week or so ago, we found a few dark spots on her back which we had checked out. The doctors told us it probably wasn't serious but to keep an eye on them. On Thursday afternoon, we noticed that in about 24 hours they'd become a single large bruise. So we headed back into the Paediatrics unit where they kept us in overnight for tests and observation.

Now I'm not a big fan of needles, but having watched them taking blood from both hands (Marnie has her Mother's Fort Knox-like veins), I'm not going to complain about needles again. After some blood tests, an ultrasound, and a few examinations, they think she has a hemangioma, an odd collection of blood vessels, in her case close to the skin but not near anything dangerous.

It looks like a sort of birthmark, but it shouldn't cause her any problems as she grows up given where it is, and it may fade over time. Other than that, she has the all clear, except that we have to go back in a few weeks for final check up.

Christine's doing well, still recovering and in a bit of pain in her side, but she's moving around much better now. The combination of not sleeping much and pain seem to be slowing her recovery, but as several people have said, the magnitude of a C section is often overlooked.

Other than that, it's been a busy few days, getting used to having a baby around the place, trying to figure out what happens when and how to fit all the other stuff of life around it. We'll let you know when we work it out.

I thought I'd mention in passing one of the most unusual gifts Marnie's received: a baby blooms bouquet. Looks just like a bunch of flowers, but each of those curled white flowers is a piece of clothing, the small ones are the arms and legs of a body sut. Not particualrly easy to get into, but a very practical / attractive gift.

My sister-in-law Aileen and her daughter Nikki are currently visiting, which is great as Aileen's a nursery nurse and a reassuring presence to have around. They've been very busy around the house while we sort out Marnie, although she's been having a good few snoozes on their laps as well as ours.

As my contract at Cardiff University comes to an end in April, I've applied for new position at the School of Engineering with the Knowledge Engineering Group under Dr Rossi Setchi. The group is looking at semantic systems, computer imagination, document interpretation and creation and e-Learning, and the role I'm applying for is to help them engage with business as well as looking at future technologies and how they might be used to improve the sharing and storage of knowledge.

For those of you worried about Glaikit, she still hasn't settled too well, last seen haunting the living room window sill. Doesn't have the view of our bedroom window, but a cat has to find what she can. She is at least indoors most of the time.

BTW, I've now unlocked Comments to guests, i.e. anyone should be able to post comments, not just people with Blogger accounts.

And for those of you wanting more pics of our DLP, I've set up a new set, Marnie, on our Flickr account.

Cheers,

Smurf

Now We Are Six

(days). Feels like months at least.

It's weird - not because Marnie's keeping us up all night - she's not - but more like she's been part of the family for ages. We both seem unnaturally unfazed by anything Marnie's pulled out of her short sleeves so far. Perhaps we have adjusted really fast; perhaps the delayed shock's waiting to pounce; perhaps we've had it easy so far. Whatever the reason, we're all pretty happy.

Glaikit's definately not in the same place; she's getting no peace from either us fetching and carrying, or Marnie gurning and yelling. She took up residence at the far end of the garden yesterday morning...in the rain.

On the whole, things seem reasonably OK. Marnie's being a little angel, and doing what babies do - sleep, feed and fill nappies. She can be a little madam - the first night home she cried for six hours straight - but since then as long as we pre-empt her on the feeding, she's pretty quiet. Although there's a definate feeling of a lot of calculating and figuring going on behind the silence, broken every now and then by an ripping eruption.

I've been trying to think who she reminds me of, and so far I've come up with:
for the weird rolling eyes / wavy hands schtick

certainly for a facial similarity, but also from a tactical point of view - when she doesn't want to be fed she dodges and uses her fists like a pro.

Folks, you've been very kind in welcoming Marnie, and your messages have been greatly appreciated. Amongst a range of comments from "she's lovely" to "she'll do" (no it wasn't me), several have noted cow-girl Marnie's apparent inheritance of Christine's fetish, and Christine had an expression of sympathy on the installation of her emergency catflap... And we've had our (admittedly biased) opinion that she's a beautifully baby-shaped-baby confirmed officially "Marnie is adorable! (I'm a neonatologist, so I should know.......)."

There've been one or two comments about what she's inherited from whom. Answers on a comment, please. Personally we're a bit confused about the ginger / auburn hair.

I'll finish with a parting question - Marnie usually starts hiccuping after she's fed, but just how does a baby drink out the other side of a nipple?

Welcome to Stewarts in Cardiff

Life's rich tapestry just took on a third dimension for us. A daughter shaped dimension. Marnie Catherine Isabel Stewart joined us on Saturday 8th March.

Marnie apparently means "causing joy", but we chose it for a more mundane reason (but personal) reason. It's from a Hitchcock film Christine's Dad liked - although obviously we're hoping our daughter doesn't have the same kind of troubles as the heroine. The fact that the film starred Sean Connery didn't hurt much, as any of you who've worked with Christine will know well. (Although not even we would choose to call a wee boy Zardoz.)

And that changing tapestry is really why we're starting this blog. Many kind people have been asking how things are going, so we thought this might be an good way to let anyone who's interested know what's happening in our corner of Wales in a when-you-want-to kind of a way.

Don't get us wrong, this is no substitute for emails or phone calls, and definately not for visiting. But we're guessing that over the next few months we won't be going much of anywhere far, and Wales isn't the easiest place to get to. (Nice when you get here though.) And from all the advice we've been given, we'll probably be homebods for the next few weeks. On the other hand that does mean you know where to find us...

So as a small, small, partial replacement for seeing everyone on our semi-regular travels, we're setting this up. We'll try and update it frequently if not regularly, but don't use that as an excuse to let us off being in touch. Phone us up and shout at us if we haven't spoken for a while.

So, be glad if you want to drop by every now and then and catch up on what the four of us have been up to. Feel free to leave a comment to let us know if you do.

Cheers,

Smurf, Christine, Marnie and Glaikit