Monthly Archives: January 2002

Early evening: One handed typing holding Jude. The kids are round at Andy /Hamish/Amber’s; they came round to ask if they wanted to come round… Eve was keen – Jack reluctant at 1st but won round. Jude with Louise now as he wanted a feed.
How have the kids adapted to the ‘new family dynamic’… Hmmm. Well, I’ve been at home this week in an attempt to ease the transition, so the picture gets a little blurred.
The kids came back as I wrote the last sentence. It’s now 9:30 & Jack went to bed at least an hour ago & he’s still not settled down to sleep. It’s usually my task to do this, but every time he thought I might be dropping off, (something I often do) he would make to get up. After messing about with this for sometime, I confronted him asking why he was doing this? He said that he wanted to go to our room as the bed was more comfortable, so I disagreed, but let him slink off anyway. He didn’t go to our room as I suspected he might but nipped off downstairs to see Louise. Fortunately Jude is snoozing (& parping) in his perambulator. Louise has just taken Jack upstairs for a wee (which is probably the reason he could not settle – but that would not be admitted/understood). I sit at the table typing (there’s a thing, these words you read have to come from somewhere, do they not?)
Hey ho – I guess this is an example of Jack’s reaction to Jude’s arrival. He is unsettled. He is also unsettled as his pal William is leaving school next week for Spain. William’s mum said that when they asked him what he would miss about Todmoden, he said, “Jack Schroeder”. They seem very good friends. William has been invited to tea next Thursday – we will have a ‘party’ tea. Pizza, jelly, ice cream & all that malarkey. I feel for Jack a bit as I moved schools every so often when I was a kid & I remember crying in bed for what seemed like hours at the realisation I would never see my friends again. I find it hard to put together my school years sometimes & the others that populated it, I put this down to such things.
Eve seems a little unsettled these last couple of nights. Before Jude arrived she was sleeping very well, & through the night quite often. For 2 night running she has awoken inconsolable & needing Louise badly – so I have had to take her to our bedroom. She has also coincidentally managed to increase the volume of her crying to quite an ear piercing scream… yes, I guess she has learnt to ‘scream’ properly. She has always been loud. Jack’s behaviour is the most erratic. He does not cope with change that well, & although he has been very loving & careful with Jude he has had frustration that he has had to get out of his system somehow. There are other examples, but yesterday was the one that made me mad. He started throwing everything from the back room into the front room, creating an almighty mess. I cannot recall what started it all, (most likely being told that he could not do something) but he became very angry & we were unable to reason with him. Louise advised me not to react, but i should have started to tidy up or something, as his continuing belligerent behaviour (starting to tidy up, but putting Eve’s toys into a bin bag) wound me up until I lost my temper with him – which served no purpose other than making everyone in the house unhappy.

So – there we were with the newborn… He opens his eyes & looks around a bit, wrapped in his towel, fresh to the world.
Sigh.
It was only when he born that we knew he was a boy by the way. When Louise went to the midwife a week before she said that girls usually have faster heartbeats & that her baby had a good fast heartbeat… but that was proved wrong. Louise was more inclined to think a boy while he was being born.
I nipped off to try Louise’s mum again, but still no answer. I decided to do more phone call stuff later on (it was too early in the morning). We just settled into things. The midwives did the checking up of things, & Louise got herself sorted. You get toast & tea laid on. The toast is nice, but I’m not sure it’s real butter. The tea is in plastic cup that has a space between the internal & external cup – so you don’t get an idea of how hot or tepid it is. We were moved off to another room – the delivery suite would need to be occupied again. Darn – just as we decided to turn on the radio – radio 4 starting with Sailing By. They were expecting us to let them know when we were moving room, but we just moved ourselves. I think that they were thinking Louise would want a wheelchair or something.. No, not really required. Into a room with no radio. We had not much to occupy ourselves. The paediatrician was supposed to be coming round about 10:00 – & after that we could go home – wheee! Never ones for hanging around! We have to be back for the kids as well. I eventually got through to Louise’s mum who sounded thrilled & said she’d set off for our house to take over looking after the kids. Called Andy to let him know what was going on, my parents (my mum admitted that she had been reluctant to call in case she thought we might feel pestered! – noooo – I cannot think we would!). Work – to let them know I won’t be there for a bit. Duties done. Time to sit back.
Louise, Jude & I in a room with a cot, bed, chair, table, lamp, sink, 2 soap dispensers (red alcohol gel – blue foaming soap), orange wallpaper with subtle orange stripes, window, with curtains (orange) & a door to where the shared toilet (shared with another similar room) was. Jude fed on demand & slept a good while. We stared at the soap dispensers a lot. 10:00 took a while to come & went, as did 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, sometime around 14:00 we saw the paediatrician. Jude got a clean bill of health. We waited a good while longer for paperwork, ordered a taxi which arrived about 15:15, & we got home before 16:00. Within 12 hours isn’t so bad. The taxi driver drove noticeably safely – which was much appreciated in our heightened tired state.
Kids & grandma agog & all over the place… The kids seem huge after being in the presence of one so small.

Sunday night 9:00ish. So much for me keeping a diary. With out that little time to myself to & from work on the train I have difficulty finding the time.
Still – I do have a jolly good excuse for not finding the time, having Jude arrive the other day. How did it all go? It seems such a blur now. Receding into memory fog already. Bah.
We went to bed about 11:00 that night. I said to Louise, something like, “I know – orange for the stairs to the attic… same depth as the plasterwork so it can blend in well…”. A decision resolved in my mind, I could go to sleep again. Louise did not (really) get to sleep. Things started to happen… Stronger contractions & back pains. Louise labours in the back. She woke me at some point to express her concerns, but we were still at ‘wait & see’… so I managed to get some more kip. This is naturally a vague bit for me, as I’m more than half-asleep.
OK – it was definitely time to be waking up at 1:30. Let’s get things together. The hot water bottle on the lower back became essential. We phoned the maternity unit & Louise explained how she labours in the back & how quick Eve was last time. They actually did not dally & sent out an ambulance for us. That was very good, as it was not really something we were expecting – hoping, perhaps, but not expecting. We needed to call a neighbour & Louise’s mum as well. We could not really take the kids with us – they were asleep -sound asleep (what with us faffing about)… Andy got the call. He did last time with Eve, & was a star – rushing us off to hospital. He stayed at our house for the kids – so that they had someone they know when they woke up. Couldn’t get an answer from Louise’s mum.
We got to hospital a bit past 03:00, & Louise was put on the monitor. Contractions blahblah. We had a very good midwife, nice & calm & confident. Her parting remark as she left us was to alert her if Louise felt like pushing. After about 10 – 15 minutes she did. She came back & checked things over Then we were rolling! Hard to believe that Jude was born in under an hour from when we arrived at hospital!
hmm – it’s now 22:00 as I write this – I said to myself I would stop when it got here…

Jude was born 04:04, 9 i 02
3500g/7lb,12oz 54cm

Woke at 1:30, arrived at the hospital at 3:00 & Jude born at 4:04. Mother & baby fine.
More later.. no time atm.

Still watching & waiting…
Louise says that she’s less worried about waiting for the baby now. She also feels that Eve is finally acknowledging that there’s a baby on the way. Jack is not going to want to go back to school today.

Y’know I’d rather be at home. I mutter such all too often, but especially so at the moment. Louise has never really had the burden of this stage of pregnancy before & she is not really finding things as easy as she would like. I would rather be helping out.
Still work is work… gnnn….
When I got home on Saturday I was tired. The kids were still up & it was late, so we were going to just put them to bed, but Jack started running a bath. I knew I was tired, but we got them off to bed. I amazingly did not fall asleep getting Jack off to bed, but once he was asleep I staggered around the house a bit & realised I was too dog-tired (& feeling awful for it) to do anything, so I crawled off to bed as well. Did me good as I felt a lot better yesterday.
A low-key day. I dragged Louise off to the supermarket to do shopping, & she made it. She says that she feels like she’s going to be permanently bow-legged now, but she still did it. We did catch the local bus back from the town centre though. Louise’s legs keep going ‘funny’ on her – I think it must be the nerves, as she loses feeling in the top of her legs. She bought some raspberry leaf tea, as this is supposed to, “open things up”. Uh.. ok… …eep. Louise is starting to get fed up of carrying it around on the inside.
Eve might have twigged what’s going on. She exclaimed “Baby pushchair” at the appropriate collapsible perambulator yesterday. Or is it perhaps she realises it’s not for her? She rarely uses the pushchair nowadays. She is walking most everywhere at the moment & we have not been out so far as to feel we need to take something in case she is tired. Her buggy has remained folded up since before Xmas. She does walk very well. In some instances better than Jack, who, if the opportunity presents itself, still likes to sit on my shoulders rather than walk.
Did Jack have a good day yesterday? On the whole yes. I disappointed him once by not doing much work in the attic, but I cannot really involve him in the next job I want to get done there. (I simply am not going to use paint stripping chemicals when the kids are in the same room!) He noted that his snowman outside the window is fading, eroding as they do by rain & warm – that made him sad a couple of times, but on the whole I think it was an OK day for him. Louise & I were talking about him last night before sleep. He had said to Louise that he was worried about going to school. I think he’s OK with it really, but he did say that he didn’t really want to. It’s odd because he does like the social aspect of school. I think he’s been enjoying it being at home.
It’s odd Louise’s mum doesn’t seem to want to relate to him that much at the moment. She’s just mad keen on Eve. She was saying to Louise that all she seems to do is ‘play with the kids’… but she has conspicuously centred her attention on Eve at the expense of Jack. It’s a shame & I think Jack is taking it better than she realises. He does not complain. Funny thing is Eve is quite capable of playing on her own. Jack is often the one that demands input into what he is doing. When she was round the other day, when Louise went out Jack wanted to go with Louise rather than stay at home. He generally stayed by Louise’s side – joining in doing the washing up & stuff like that. We think he’s got to the age where she’s having trouble ‘relating’ to him. He does not just accept things & has ideas & does not just have ‘unconditional love’ for everyone. Oh, I’m not really sure what is going on there, but it doesn’t quite seem right. Jack is so loving & giving. I’m not really sure she realises she’s doing this to him. Jack spent a good 2 hrs watching Time Team & some other stuff with me yesterday. Most of the time I was slumped slouching on the sofa & Jack was lying on top of me – quite contented. Then some stories & bed. (Eve had fallen asleep earlier in the evening – so no baths.)

Travelling home from work.
Today the baby is officially due.
Oh boy.
I’ve been at work though – such is the way things go…