Well, the good news is that we’ve had our scan and can confirm that Bob does exist and has one head, two arms, two legs and a heart beat. The bad news is the due date has changed AGAIN to two days after our original due date. Apparently Bob didn’t measure up as a 20-week old and was nearer to 16-weeks. Hence the sonographer didn’t do any of the normal 20-week checks. The silver lining in that particular cloud, though. is that we get to have another scan in 4 weeks’ time.

So, that means a Christmas of lying on the sofa doing nothing, barely able to move, being waited on hand and foot … and Kate will be pretty tired by then as well. Still, at least it will give us something to look forward to at the end of January (23rd to be precise).

It has shown us the difference between the New Zealand and UK health care services though. In NZ Kate had a brilliant midwife (hope you’re reading this, Zoe!) whom she saw at least every four weeks initially. We really felt that Zoe was sharing the pregnancy with us and Kate looked forward to her visits. Apparently she would try to book Kate in last thing in the afternoon so she could stop for a cup of tea and a natter as well as doing the check-up and didn’t need to worry about getting to another appointment. Each visit was fun as, among other things, we would play the “guess what sex slug is by the heart rate” game.

Unfortunately over here things aren’t quite the same. We realise it’s different having a second baby rather than a first, but we get the impression over here that everyone is simply doing a job and we are just A N Other Couple. Don’t get me wrong – everyone has been pleasant to us, and we’re not saying anyone is doing a bad job. It’s just that (probably because of all the work to do and such limited resources available) it’s a question of do the checks you need and move on. This week, for example, when the SHO checked Bob’s heart rate, she didn’t even tell us what the rate was. So much for the guessing game we had last time.

We have contemplated contacting Zoe to see if she would be willing to relocate to the UK to be our midwife again but I still don’t think she’s forgiven us for having a baby over here in the first place, so I’m not sure that’s feasible. Kate has also been watching a series on TV about the Portland Hospital in London but I (and our Bank Manager) have been explaining to her that that’s not feasible either (more’s the pity!). So it looks like we’re stuck with the good old NHS.

Having had a midwife visit this week (ie 16 weeks) we were initially told she wouldn’t plan to see us again until 28 weeks – another 12 weeks from now. Luckily she picked up on our “we’re not really happy about that” vibes and has arranged another appointment for a mere six weeks from now. We were told by a couple of the people we’ve seen that “we’ll see how the pregnancy progresses”, in terms of re-reviewing the due date, and they’ve also picked up on the brief blood pressure rise Kate experienced just before Isabel was born, and want to keep an eye on that. Quite how they expect to do so if no-one is going to see us, we’re not quite sure!!

As promised, if a little belatedly, is news on when “Bob the Bump” will make his or her entrance into the world……..

It would seem that my initial wonderings were in fact correct and I was further ahead than first suspected – that meant a revision in due dates and brought it forward to………. CHRISTMAS EVE!!!! Excellent timing on our part we feel, and it has been suggested to us that we could have considered this a little better in the planning stages but hey, who are we to mess with Mother Nature!!?? In truth, it won’t be Christmas Eve as I intend to have an elective C-Section this time round to avoid all the palava that we went through in order to get Isabel – my darling sister says that it’s not that I am too posh to push, I am just too lazy!!!

This coming Monday is turning into a veritable Baby-fest day – I have my long awaited 20 week scan at 10.30am (which means we have made it to half way!), an appointment with the Consultant (whose name I can’t pronounce!) at 10.45am and then a visit to the Midwife at 3pm………..it seems this baby lark is fast becoming like the proverbial buses!!

Not much to report other than that – we’d like to say a huge Congratulations to Uncle Paul and Aunty Rachel who got engaged last week at the bottom of the Grand Canyon…….it was lovely to see them at the weekend at Rachel’s birthday – Isabel was particularly pleased to be able to play with her Uncle Paul after so many weeks of being so cruelly separated from him!! I think she might already be saving her pocket money to pay for a possible trip to New Zealand for a wedding!!??

We are finally back online so, with a bit of luck, we should be able to put posts up more often! (We can but hope!?)

We are all moved into our new house – having said that, our stuff arrives from New Zealand next week and, according to the official documents, there are 72 items coming! Quite where we are going to put all this stuff has yet to be seen (and what we are going to do with Isabel whilst it all gets delivered is another bridge we have yet to cross!) but I’m sure we’ll get through it all eventually – if it all goes quiet for a while, you’ll know it’s because we are drowning amidst a sea of boxes and packing materials!

Isabel gets bigger by the minute and can now say “fish” and “cheese” – she does occasionally use them in context as well, although she did say “cheese” a lot this morning but seemed very pleased when I gave her a piece with her breakfast – perhaps it was a request after all??! She also had to have new shoes yesterday – Mummy felt very guilty to discover that she was wearing 3 and 1/2 G shoes when her feet were measuring 5 and 1/2 F!! In Mummy’s defence, her feet have grown 2 sizes in 2 weeks but that didn’t alleviate the guilt!

The other news, for those who don’t already know, is that the Winchurst clan is set to expand with the arrival of Baby Winch 2 around the end of the year/beginning of next – we apologise for the vagueness but we aren’t entirely sure of the due date and, as we discovered yesterday, this Health Authority doesn’t believe in offering dating scans so we have to wait until the 20 wk scan to find out for sure! With a bit of luck, the midwife will be able to have a squidge of my middle and give me a vague indication of what she thinks – but ti could be a while before we can confirm with any certainty!

Anyway, we will look to keep you posted (no pun intended) of the progress of the expansion of my waistline and the ever increasing size of Isabel!

Hurrah! Our house purchase went through (at last!) last Thursday and we were finally able to move out of the hotel we’d been staying in for the last six weeks or so. Not that the hotel was bad, it’s just with three of us living in a room the size of … well, the size of a small room, we became a little stir crazy.

We were also able to get all our stuff out of storage on the same day the house completed so were able to go to sleep in our lovely king-size bed with our familiar duvet that Kate could tuck right up to her ears and still keep her feet warm!!

We’ve still got the small matter of about four hundred thousand boxes to unpack (OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit!) but it’s great to have our own space again, and for Isabel to be in her own room. (Special thanks to Auntie Catherine for the pink angel lights she bought for Isabel’s room to add that extra je ne sais quoi!)

Many apologies to those who think we have fallen off the face of the earth – we are still here and yes, we are still living in a hotel which isn’t anywhere near as glamorous as it sounds!

Sadly there isn’t a lot to report – just doing our best to adjust to being in Southampton and getting to grips with the fact that we live here now and that we aren’t just on our holidays!

Once we get settled in a place of own (soon hopefully!) we have plenty of pics to upload and so will bore you to death with those!

Unitl then, at least you know we are alive and well and always glad to hear from people!

We’re currently enjoying the last week of our time before I start work, and the build up to the Easter weekend. We’ve been staying at the Hotel Winchurst in Devon as the rates are very good, and there are no early morning wake up calls (except for those provided by our beautiful daughter who frequently sits in her cot in the morning chatting away merrily to herself, whilst Mummy and Daddy lie as still as possible in the vain hope she won’t realise we’re awake too, so we can squeeze out a few extra moments in bed!)

We’ve got a few photos that we’ll put up into a gallery when we get a chance (including lunch out with Uncle Clive and Auntie Avril, who have recently added to the number of Winchursts living in Holsworthy, and our trip to the Prickly Ball Farm (a hedgehog rescue centre) where Isabel was more interested in the other children, the toys and the poo than she was in animals that were there (still, Mummy enjoyed the animals enough for both of them!)). So for the time being you’ll have to make do with the photos below which, in case you haven’t looked at them yet, are of … yes, you’ve guessed it … Isabel.

This is a close up picture taken, presumably, by Grandma Pam (given it was on her camera!). It shows the beautiful Miss Winchurst posing for the camera!

You give her a KitKat, then turn your back for thirty seconds and look what happens! We’re guessing she liked it! It took us (or should I say it took Kate?!) the best part of half an hour to clean up the mess, and we were finding nearly eaten bits of KitKat wafer for days!!

Isabel is a very inquisitive child and loves the fact there are five animals in the Winchurst house (not including the goldfish … or Daddy). Unfortunately, not all these creatures are quite as taken with Isabel as she is with them. A certain bruiser by the name of Charles (ginger pussy cat) decided that he had had enough the other day and (just as Mummy had warned her he would) decided to indicate to Miss Winchurst that he wasn’t happy with her proximity. The result: a cut on the nose, a LOT of tears, and the first of what I’m sure will be many plasters over the years to come!

Just wanted to post a quick note to let you all know that, following my interview last Thursday afternoon, I had a phone call on Friday evening to tell me that I was successful and they will be offering me the job.

WOO HOO!!

Earning again. The bank manager will be pleased!

Everything is still to be finalised, and agreed in writing, but I have agreed everything verbally with them and I start on Monday 10th April. (It is just by coincidence that I have since realised that, thanks to Easter, my first two weeks back at work will be four day weeks!) They have kindly agreed to put us up (probably in a hotel initially) for the first month, which will give us a chance to find somewhere to move whilst our house in NZ sells, after which we’ll look for somewhere to buy.

…….an update on how things are going in not so sunny Britain!!

Having spent most of our 1st week in the “Frozen North” (which it quite literally was but that was fine with us….nice to get back to the cooler climate!) we headed south at the weekend to Dan’s parents’ house in Devon.

We arrived on the Saturday night (after a much shorter 6hr drive than the 8 1/2hr one at Xmas!) just in time for Mothering Sunday the following day – this was celebrated with a Winchurst family lunch (including Dan’s Uncle Clive and Aunty Avril) at the local pub.

On Monday we went to Liskeard (via Bodmin Moor) for a bit of nosey round and then on Tuesday we ventured to Port Isaac – for those of you who watched “Doc Martin” when it was on, Port Isaac is the real name for the fictional Portwenn and so we were able to see a lot of the places we were familiar with from the show.

Wednesday we packed up the car and headed towards Eastleigh in time for Dan’s interview on the Thursday – we stayed in the “New Forest Lodge Hotel” which was actually in Landford, 9 miles out of Salisbury on the A36 (in case you were wondering!).

Thursday was D-Day (or should that be I-Day?) and whilst Dan was busy, Isabel and I wandered round Eastleigh, looking in shop windows and investigating the house prices (just for future reference!). Dan thinks the interview went well, so it’s just a case of waiting to hear back from them.

We are now back in Devon for the next few days – we’ll have a better idea of where the wind will take us next week once we have a decision on the job front.

Isabel has continued to be snuffly and, therefore, pretty grumpy at times and she definitely seems to be going off being in the car-seat for any length of time – I’m doing my best to entertain her (and let’s face it, I am pretty funny!?) but sometimes it just isn’t enough and the only thing that will placate her is the chance to get out and run round like a loon until she gets grumpy again and falls asleep!