Our weeks motion frozen

A busy busy week just about managed to get some snaps from the week. We made a den, played Andrex puppy, had pizza hut pizza, fed the fish had a paddy and carved some pumpkins.

All in a weeks work.

Charlie & Harry Up to date

Charlie is now 2 years and 10 months old, Harry is 17 months old. I think it is time to stop and take stock and see where the boys are.

Beginning with Charlie because he is the oldest. 

One of the most notable things in development terms for Charlie is his determination to do things himself. With his speech rapidly progressing nearly everything he is involved with we get 'i do that' or 'me do it'. The other day when he got into the car he had a break down because I left the door open on his side whilst I strapped Harry in. This was because he wanted to have the door closed whilst he tried to strap himself in (even though he is unable to do it) he wanted to feel the complete 'doing it all by myself' feeling with the door shut. I hear you ask why didn't he just shut it himself ? I asked myself the same question.

I mentioned earlier his speech progressing rapidly, this has to be the cutest thing I have watched development wise. He is beginning to quote his favorite cartoon programs, but not just one word, whole statements. For example in Fireman Sam, his all time favorite, the main characters catch phrases is 'great fires of London'. He loves saying this catch phrase around the house all day long, it has to be the most cutest thing in the world. Its made cute because when he says it its not because its in context he says it out of excitement and emphasises parts of the statement.

Physically he is growing fast, he is big for his age and strong for his age. He tries to climb everything, often with success unless we intervene. But this physical strength has led him into trouble. What I mean is, he can do what a lot of the older kids can do in the parks and other places, but he isn't old enough to understand the game. He just watches the other children charging around and thinks, that's fun I want to do the same. Yet this gets in the older kids way and obviously they don't understand why he is getting in the way so he is flattened.

Harry

This little boy doesn't know how to stop smiling. After along time of no big growth spurts, this last month has seen him go from 18-24mth too 2-3yr in clothing. With this spurt has come four big molar teeth, the poor boy has had nappy rash and a runny tummy, they have not been coming quietly.

 Everyday recently he has been getting mega excited that I have come home from work, 

I'm not sure why he is particularly excited at the moment. In the morning he sweeps the house for me and has a mini break down that I'm not home. Its really nice that he is so into me, it makes my day when I see his little face light up. 

Maybe its just coincident or maybe Charlies recent steps forward in speech has spurred Harry to develop. Either way Harry is showing great speech development, hes better at this stage than Charlies was at this point. His recent word is 'dinosaur' he says it really well its not full pronunciation but the sounds and structure of the work are all in place.

So that brings you up to date. The newest edition is cooking away nicely, I'm going to establish a regular memoir to our new baby . So keep your eye peeled .

Baby Boutique

it's all about me      

     

Today was the opening day of Its all about me, an amazingly cute little children's boutique in Plymouth my home town. We went along to check it out and found some of the most cute clothes I had every seen. Some of the highlights I have collected from the website and want to share with you.

My personal favourite was the girls fleece duffle jacket the ones in the middle of the picture. Maybe it's a sign that our baby will be a pink bundle, and I should just go out and buy them. I also particularly liked the don't panic its only a baby mug, pom pom boots, funky giraffe dribble bib and sock cupcake.

I thought the shop was perfectly small and cute enough, yet adequately stocked with an interesting and lovely range of items. Sometimes boutiques can be over stocked and can even find themselves under stocked, I did not find either of these to be the case here. This is the shop front to the Plymouth store, its worth mentioning at this point if you have clicked on the links to the website of its all about me the Plymouth store is not yet featuring on the website.

You cant see it but there is a ramp for access and great space inside for pushchairs.

We were greeted by friendly and helpful staff, the whole experience inside the shop was very pleasant and a great place to shop. Whilst in the store Charlie made a mess whilst eating a cake from the open day buffet, we had no wet wipes to hand but the shop assistant was there with a pack kept behind the till. We found this to be a nice touch as people can expect children to be seen and not heard usually when in shops.


 We brought one of the funky giraffe bibs, a top and some cute socks these were for a gift for our neighbor who gave birth this week. We will be shopping there again and would suggest it to anyone as a great place to shop for babies and children's clothes,gifts and accessories.

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Fetal monitoring, a drip and two names

My wife has had to spend a night in Hospital on a drip because she was dehydrated. This has come about after she caught a nasty tummy bug .

It all started on the Wednesday lunchtime she began to feel unwell at about 2.30, she was vomiting very regularly. When I got home from work, she basically couldn't move from the sofa she was in a lot of pain from stomach cramps. I was beginning to get excited at this point and thought that all the vomiting had brought labour on, but this was just me dreaming.

This was the picture pretty much throughout the night, just generally in pain and being sick. I had to take a day off on the Thursday to look after the kids. Although my wife had stopped vomiting  she was so weak from everything that happened the night before. During the course of the day she did begin to feel a bit better, however she had only counted 8 movements. Normally you should count 10 as a minimum, we know our baby and he is a wriggle bum. So we decided to call up the day assessment ward to see what they wanted to do, they said to come up for monitoring.

Obviously, because we went for monitoring, the moment we stepped inside the hospital baby started to have a party. Needless to say the trace was perfect and our baby was totally happy in  the oven. It was when we were just about to be sent home by the midwife the trouble began.

 "All we need now is a wee sample, then we can send you home" she said ! There were high levels of ketones in my wife's wee sample. This indicated that she was dehydrated and the registrar said it wouldn't be safe to send us home. We were carted off to the ward to be settled in and get her the treatment she needed. It was discussed that it would be best to get her re hydrated the fastest way possible which was by using a drip.

She was discharged on Friday morning, she needed two full drips and a half drip to bring her levels back to acceptable. Being pregnant she was sent to the maternity ward which was noisy all night. Luckily in a way, because of her bug she was in isolation with her own room and en suite shower which muted the newborn screams. On the other hand it was frustrating for her to be in the ward so close to due date without our baby.

Not long now, and we have decided on two names Olivia for a pink bundle or Oliver for a blue bundle I really can not wait to find out.

.

This is me and my blog

Now I have a few followers, by the way thank you so much for following, I want to give you a better picture of who I am. 

My names James I'm 25 years old and I work as an engineer at A C Haines engineering ltd. I'm obviously a daddy to Charlie and Harry and husband to Katy who i love very much she is my soul mate here we all are.

I'm not your typical 25 year old bloke, I enjoy gardening, cycling, blogging and jewellery making. My jewellery making days are only early but I'm excited to share some of my projects with you all when I'm good enough.

 Do you see now, not your normal lads lads down the pub sort of guy.

To be honest I have never been someone who is social, I like my family's company and our good close friends and that's enough for me.

I live in Plymouth, UK we love this part of the world ! 

It has so much to offer and I love being able to raise my family here. The beach is 5 minutes away the, Moors are 5 minutes away and the city center is 5 minutes away. We have everything at our doorstep.

What do I want to get from blogging? (Apart from followers). I have started this blog with the new baby in mind and i wanted to have somewhere where my thoughts could be written down. I hope, one day that my babies can read my blog posts and understand how I felt whilst they were to young to understand.

When you comment on my posts it makes me feel hyper excited, that whats in my head has made you laugh or has hit a cord with you.

I Can't wait to bring you post's about our new baby. I was so excited watching Charlie and Harry grow up and develop everyday, the thought now of being able to update here makes me smile :-).

Plans for my Blog, I loved doing the top ten tips last Sunday. I want to do more of that type of post maybe one every two weeks we will see how its goes. 

I want to make a better header photo, I'm just getting in to using Pic Monkey and love it.  I have got a great location in mind on Plymouth Hoe for a picture, Ill see about getting there at the weekend with the family to get it.

For now I'm going to keep on blog hopping, building my blog following and producing great posts (hopefully)

Baby movements 36 weeks

Top Ten Daddy tips for Adventure Parks

Going to Adventure parks can be expensive, you can end up feeling like money is slowly dripping out of your account in to the fat cats pockets. This is often the case, but its doesn't have to be like that if you spend a little time thinking and planning your trip. I have comprised some tips to help avoid having to spend a fortune.

1. Buy tickets online doing it this way can often save you a few quid off of admission.

2. Consider Annual passes, if you take your children to places like Jump then you will spend over £10 a time just on admission. Annual passes can often end up costing a lot less than the combined cost of visiting Jump. The adventure parks usually have a much larger soft play areas as well.

3. Bring lunch, these places make up for cheap admissions by stinging us for the convenience of them cooking for us. It can be very very poor quality food and rarely healthy.

4. Avoid coin operated rides, Identify them early on the maps and plan your day around them. Avoid temptation simply, walking a different way can stop you little darlings being disappointed.

5. Do not buy theme park ride photo prints, the cost of a 6" x 4" print for the log flumes at Crealy was £5  this is pure profiteering. The fact the photo is taken where you can't get to with your camera is not reason enough in my eyes to charge the earth. Its often the case that the photo and cardboard frame it come in gets discarded after a few months.

6. Bring your own drinks, soft drinks can be half the price from your supermarket. Getting them from the parks vending machines is just expensive 4 drinks can cost up to £8 in some places. 

7. Invest in a picnic cool bag and coffee flask, this applies as a money saving tip for many of life's situations. Our picnic cool bag and flask have to be one of our best money saving purchases.

8. Avoid the arcade rooms, you usually find arcade machines all over the place, this is because they make the vendor money. Your there to go on rides not be taken for a ride.

9. Make use of the deals. Check the parks websites for deals, one such deal we made good use of on our holiday was 'pay once and return free for 6 days'. All we had to do was go to the reception with our receipt to claim our free return ticket. We ended up visiting three times.

10. Avoid the gift shops where possible, this can be a hard task as they like to make you exit the park through them. However if you want to get something, set the kids money limits and make it a game to get something for the agreed price. 

This post was inspired by our recent visit to Crealy adventure park in Devon. Me and my wife loved our visits so much we plan to invest in an annual membership, we will do this next year when our new arrival is about 6 months. 

Devon Cliffs review

We are now back from our short break we had such a lovely time. The weather was mainly fine during the day, we had a lot of rain at night but we didn't mind that.  Here are a few of the highlights from our stay. 

This is our second time at the park and we couldn't fault them except for one thing. In The Mash and barrel lounge bar we found the breakfast service here odd, Ill explain. When we ordered food the man behind the bar was slow, uninterested and frankly rude. The que was getting bigger and other members of staff were simply looking and walking past. We could expect this sort of grumpy approach from staff if we were in a supermarket cafe. However, on holiday you expect the staff to be friendly, welcoming, upbeat, bright and breezy. 

 The food, once ordered, came out from the kitchen fast maybe even too fast and the quality was good. If i had to rate the park id still give it a 10 out of 10. Every other member of staff we came across gave us a smile, were friendly and couldn't do enough to help us. Even the cleaners gave us a wave and were friendly.

We would and possibly might go back next year.

Great expectations

In less than 2 months, I will be a daddy all over again for the third time. Is it supposed to be a little bit easier? I suppose it isn't going to be any easier, a new born will always be demanding 24 hours a day. But the way I will deal with things will be tried and tested and I'll be much more confident in the way I'll approach things. I guess this in turn will relax the baby and essentially make it easier.

One of my biggest fears is that the bump will end up being a windy baby, Charlie our first suffered terribly. He suffered to the point where after his bottle we would spend two sometimes three hours winding him. Obviously by the time he had settled down he was awake again for another feed. This had massive effects on our ability to function in daylight hours. We gave him all the over the counter remedies saw the doctor and brought the anti-colic bottle systems. These things helped but never truly got rid of his suffering. Time was the only thing that worked. Needless to say we did not waste anytime weaning him off the bottles. In fact I think we had him on solids well before six months.

 Putting him on solids (well mashed up) was a decision taken because he was suffering but also he was a well-built baby, not fat just big. Even now he is mistaken for a 4 year old, people look at him like he is stupid because he looks older than he is but acts like a two year old which he is. I often see snooty people get annoyed because he is being a two year old, I'd like to give them a few choice words but then I'd be as bad as the people that annoy me. 

 Harry on the other hand was a dream he has his feed often burped before we started to wind him and the whole night time feed scenario was totally different.

Sorry, I have somewhat digressed. They say every baby is different I'm just hoping that bump doesn't suffer like Charlie did as much for the babies sake as my own.

Here they are when they were new born's.

Charlie James Gibson

Harry Micheal Gibson

Christmas round-up

71 Days to Christmas

OK the countdown is on, I'm a firm believer that Christmas is not a time to (panic panic spend spend!). However there is no getting away from the fact Christmas is an expensive for everyone. Every year we say it I'll spread the cost but, I know I never stick to it. This year thus far me and my wife have stuck to getting the odd bit here and the odd bit there. We have mainly got Christmas presents for the boys but everything we have got has been on half price or buy 2 for £20. I feel like I have saved a fortune just by being organised and getting these bits early. 

Here is what we have so far.

We still have a number of main presents we want to get but I feel we have a good start. I feel a list coming on, lists have to be the single most popular things in blog land. I'm putting the places that we have found to be cheapest if you know otherwise please let me know. This is just a start we will end up with a lot more than is on the list this is just the stuff we want to get the boys.

Mini quiz guess what our boys are into the most ?? 

Charlie

Fireman Sam themed Bike Cheapest place Wilkinson £80 

Fire fighters backpack ELC £14

Fire fighters outfit ELC £12

Fireman Sam Helmet Argos £18.99

Harry

Little tykes Spray and rescue fire truck Wilkinsons £60

Fireman Sam Vehicles  Argos 2 for £15

New Baby

Practical things we need 

This just a start, and by no means will we be buying double for charlie and leaving Harry with half. When Christmas comes we will have an equal amount. 

Very very quick update

A very very quick blog to say all was totally ok with the growth scan. For more information on the ins and outs of what happened my wife has posted an good blog about the scan please check it out

 

 

 

Cars packed, bin's are empty, fridge is empty Kid are hyper HOLIDAY TIME !!!!

Winter Break

We will be off on our holidays tomorrow, we are going to a Haven holiday camp called Devon Cliffs which is in Exmouth. We visited this park earlier in the year and loved it so much we had to go back. Fortunately we could afford it in the same year, as going again with a very young child next year would have been a challenge. 

Those of you with an eagle's eye, will have noticed that in my big baby update blog I neglected to actually inform you when the growth scan was arranged for. Well, let me update you now Monday 15th October at 9.15 am. This could have been a major problem for going away should it have been an afternoon appointment as we intend to leave at 1 pm. 

I'm so excited to be able to attend, I had visions of it being arranged for when I was back at work. I'm a little bit worried that now the bump is so big that its sex will be obvious when the sonographer does the scan. I hope that he or she will ask if we know the sex and then not linger over any obvious bits!

Now that we are at the end of the week Ill update you on my progress of my to do list. I had four things I wanted to get done before the holiday. I have done three of them, the task I did not do was begin sorting the family photos. I did fear that this wouldn't get done as this week has been very busy and it fell low on the list of priority's.

We did wash and vacuum the car out.

Take stock of Christmas.

We have also successfully packed. 

Here is my resident fire fighter helping out.

Big baby update

I thought I would do a quick update post about our oversize bump! The midwife did not call back, in fact I had to call her on Thursday morning and leave a message. When she called back she had totally forgotten about arranging a growth scan on the Wednesday but gave some cock and bull about not getting through. When we got off the phone to the midwife she called back within a minute with a date and time for a growth scan. Amazing how things get done when some feel bad about forgetting.

 

All this waiting for the midwife to call being forgotten and so on got me to thinking that it’s a shame midwives can’t be midwives. Now before I give me thoughts I don’t blame the midwife personally I believe that they are massively over stretched and I think this is sad.

 

When we first found out we were going to have a baby in 2010 (our first Charlie). I had this romantic vision that our midwife was our midwife, and that she would be a point of reference right throughout the pregnancy. I even imagined that we would be able to build a relationship/friendship with her.

 

However this just is not the case, maybe it's never been like that but this is the image I had in my head. To find out that the experience was not going to be as personal as I thought did upset me a little. At times especially in the first pregnancy we felt alone, and we as a new perspective parents felt well out of our depth. We missed out on ante natal classes first time around because we left it too late to book. We just assumed our midwife would prompt us when the time came to book them. Another thing that we really didn’t like was we never saw the same person during the first pregnancy this just made us feel even more isolated in the big bad world of parenthood.

 

When Charlie finally made his grand entrance I'm glad to report that the romantic image of midwifery came true for me. When we got home the very next morning we had our first visit from the community midwife. Maybe it is because we were home and luckily we had the same midwife for the second home visit. But I finally got that feeling we had a point of reference for all our queries and that we had a relationship built with the midwife.

I really hope that the midwifery profession doesn’t get stretched to the point where the midwives cant care. I really have so much respect for the profession and think they are among the hardest working Britons out there.

 

Here is a little photo of our bumpy at 34 weeks 4 days (pending a growth scan inquiry)

 

 

 

 

Coconut bird feeder

I have been planning to make one for a long time now and thought that it would be a really nice thing for the boys to "help" with. So I thought i would leave a little guide how i went about making it.

Firstly, if you have little ones with nut allergies then do not do this. Secondly, if you’re after a nice and tidy non messy activity to do with little ones again do not do this.

What you will need.

Bag of bird seed

Peanuts

Lard

Coconut shell

Mixing bowl

String

Oats (I used porridge oats)

Breaking a coconut shell, I ended up using the bashing in outside against concrete method. However I Goggled it and found there are a number of methods to breaking it open here is one of them.

We mixed an amount of bird seed, peanuts and oats in to the bowl. The amount you use is up to you there is no precise recipe to follow. You can add more as you go.

 

 

Then we added the lard to the mixture, this is where you can add more mixture as you get a feel for the ratio. We began using a fork to do this but it was too much hard work so we ended up mixing using our hands. I did say this wasn’t one for clean freaks :-)
 

Obviously you need to pause for the obligatory posing photo CHEESE !

 

You can tie the string in the coconut whenever, just make sure that you do it before you cram the shell with the mixture

Ta Da, the boys had loads of fun making this it’s simple cheap and lots of fun. It also looks more natural than using a yoghurt pot or a plastic bottle. The mixture inside will be great for wild birds visiting the garden as it’s a high energy feed, just what they need now the days are getting shorter and colder.

 

And Daddy loved tidying up............! But I'd do it all again just to see the boys getting so much out of helping to make it.

It now has pride of place on the bird feeder and the boys keep looking to see if birds are on it.

 



Midwife and the oversize baby

Today my wife Katy went to see the midwife for a check-up, unfortunately I was unable to attend. It was my last day at work and I just couldn’t swing a few hours in the morning, this did upset me. I really wanted to go to this one due to the fact I have not been able to make any of the check-up appointments.

When I got the call after her appointment I was excited to hear about how it went. Seems a bit silly but I feel so left out having to be at work, so waiting for the call is one of the highlights of the day.

The outcome from the appointment was, Katy should be measuring 34 weeks +3 however the midwife measured her as 39 weeks +3. This was a shock to hear, and I assumed that it meant they got the dates wrong and she was now ready to give birth. (ALARM BELLS) However this is more than likely just the baby measuring big not the latter.

We will now be required to attend a growth scan which the ultra-efficient midwife has arranged today (NOT). Much to the annoyance of Katy the midwife should have called to give details of the growth scan before she went home but this didn’t happen.

When I heard that she was measuring big, especially by how much, I got very excited and started to think early induction, meet the baby earlier than I thought and so on. This didn’t last long because in the next breath I suddenly thought less time at work before baby is here less money ahhhhhhh ! This had me rather worried for the majority of the day and I didn’t think about much else. The main worry for me was that we had budgeted for the pram from money I will be earning right up until the due date.

It had never occurred to me until now that the baby could be early, but after all the worrying I came to an epiphany. What will be will be and we will cope because we will have to and in the end whatever happens we will do our very best for our baby.

So, we will wait with baited breath for a phone call tomorrow and hopefully the growth scan date will be when I’m off on holiday.



The newborn list

You join me nearing the end of our pregnancy, my wife has 6 weeks until D-day and we are so mega excited (I might have mentioned this before :-P)

 

As the months left to go, turns into weeks left to go we will soon be saying how many days are remaining. I think now is a great time to stand back and take stock and see what we have ready and what we still need.

 

Items GOT

 

 

- Cot bed & mattress

- Neutral baby grows and vests

- Tomme tippe bottles & teats

- Moses basket including stand & mattress

- Baby bath & toiletries

- Bouncer

- Play mat & arch

- Baby toys

- Car seat

 

 

To GET

 

- New double push chair

- Neutral snowsuit

- Change bag

 

The change bag is definitely my wifes choice, but everything else we have mutually agreed about.

 



Weekly Daddy list

I need a place to create a weekly to do list and here is the perfect place. I always have lists to work through but hardly ever finish everything, so the idea is publishing my intentions will make me more likely to complete them.

Well here is this week’s list, it’s a little distorted as at the end of the week we are off on our summer holidays yes its autumn now but hey ho.

08-oct-2012 ~ 14-oct-2012

To do list

- Take stock of the Christmas presents already brought and have a rough idea of what’s left to get.

- Start sorting the family photos ( I have taken it upon myself to scan all family photos in to the computer)

- Clean the car inside and out ready for the holiday

- Pack for the holiday

As I said the list is somewhat distorted as our week will be dedicated to packing and sorting thing for the holiday. Oooo..... Maybe I’ll do a getting ready for the holiday to do list blog to get my bottom in gear. Watch this space.

Angel Delight

We had 15 minutes to burn and I was determined to do something with Charlie. We made angel delight together very simple, yet to Charlie it's something he totally loves doing. He has such good fun whisking the mixture and when it's done he has achieved something.

 

 

Before pouring in the contents of the sachet, we poured 300ml of semi-skimmed milk in to the mixing bowl.

 

We added the mixture, and began whisking.

 

And whisking..... This takes longer than normal with a two year old.



 

Once its was thick enough we poured in to bowls and let it set for five minutes. Then the task of bowl licking fell to Charlie, this did make me laugh.

This is Number 3

This is Number 3

 



 

 

This is the 12 week scan image from our third. The scan was in May 2012, it only seems like five minutes ago. This pregnancy has gone so mega fast, I have at times felt its going too fast and have totally freaked out. Now though, I’m prepared and just can’t wait to hold my beautiful new-born.

 

Sex unknown?

 

We decided not to find out the babies sex this time, the main reason is because we found out with both of the boys. But, also we wanted to enhance the birth experience by having an extra amazing surprise.

 

Here is the 20 week scan picture

 

 

Baby is due 18/11/2012

 

I cannot wait, and my wife really can’t wait to get her body back. Although she would happily have every single pregnancy ailment if it meant she could have our babies.