Kate has added another gallery of pics. Click pic below, or link to the left.
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Just like the buses ….
… you wait around for ages and then two galleries come along at once!! And there are still no christening photos amongst those galleries – they’re still to come. Anyway, if you would like to look at some more pics click the gallery page link on the left, or click either of the photos below to go to the gallery. Enjoy!
More photos
Kate forgot to mention in her post earlier that there’s another gallery of photos up, including the first photos of the girlies together. As always, click the gallery page link on the left, or click the photo below to go to the gallery. Enjoy!
My girls are home
I’m pleased to say that Kate and Molly came home from hospital today so we’re reunited as a family again. Isabel has been pretty indifferent to the new arrival – so far, at least! – being more interested in her Leap Pad system with Winnie the Pooh and Dora the Explorer books. Quite how (or if) that will change over the coming days and weeks, only time will tell.
We’ve got our first set of visitors tomorrow, with the Radcliffe clan coming to visit. Quite whether there will be room for everyone to sit down is something I’m sure no-one’s worrying about too much as they’re all very excited to be seeing their niece/grandaughter/greatgranddaughter for the first time. The Winchursts had been hoping to visit yesterday but unfortunately the very stormy weather meant the trip was postponed, but I’m sure it won’t be too long until they get to see Molly too.
Anyway, here are the few photos I took on Thursday at the hospital. I would have posted them last night, but the internet connection was playing up and I couldn’t. Click the photo below to go directly to the page with the photos on, or else just go to the album and move to page 2. Enjoy!
Sister meets sister
Kate and Molly are still in hospital today but were lucky enough to have a visit from Big Sister Isabel who very thoughtfully brought Auntie Catherine along with her! The initial reaction was very promising, with Isabel sitting happily on the bed giving Molly a cuddle and lots of kisses. However, the novelty soon wore off and Isabel contented herself running riot throughout the ward instead.
Anyway, Mummy and daughter are both making good progress, with Molly sleeping through from 3am until 11am this morning. We both hope that sleeping thing’s something she looks to continue over the next few months! See one of the (few) photos from the first Winchurst girls meeting below. I have added a few more photos to the album from yesterday. You can access the photos from the link on yesterday’s post, or from the gallery link on the left.
Our latest arrival
I am very pleased to post the first photos of our latest arrival – Molly Rebecca Winchurst. She arrived today (16th January 2007) at 11.42am local time. She weighed 8lbs 10oz (3.9kg in case you’re metric), was 52cm long and had a head circumference of 37cm.
Both Mummy and Molly are doing well, with Molly eating well and being generally quiet, and Mummy making a good recovery from the operation. Tomorrow will be Isabel’s and Molly’s first meeting, although I’ve shown Is the photos on the computer. She recognised Molly immediately as “a baby” and makes a pretty good stab at saying “Molly”.
I’ve posted a few more photos in a gallery, which you can access by clicking on the photo below. Enjoy!
More photos …
For those that haven’t already noticed, Kate has added some more pictures into a gallery. Click the photo below to go to there. Enjoy!
Isabel de Sade
There we were, sitting down watching a bit of television before we went to bed when we suddenly realised Isabel (who was in her high chair at the time) was chuckling to herself. After a few minutes it became almost hysterical laughter. We were initially a little baffled but suddenly realised we were watching a programme that included a number of video clips of people riding bikes (in fact they were unicycles) and falling off. Apparently Isabel found this to be rather amusing, as she did with the clips of gymnasts who didn’t quite manage to land correctly they showed later on in the programme. Oh dear – it looks like we have a little sadist on our hands!!
Date changes again …
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!!
Our hotel stay is finally over …
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!)