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…

Well – not much to say today as we all were a bit tired yesterday & fell asleep putting Jack to bed. He’d spent most of the day round at Hamish’s house. Louise’s mum had come over, but I’m really sure he will have seen her much. She does lavish a lot of attention on Eve anyway, so I’m not sure that the day would have been that different. Apparently Andy (Hamish’s dad) came round early (well – before Jack was dressed) & asked if he wanted to go into town with them. Eve was kinda keen as well, but she did not go, much to her disappointment. She was apparently brought round with well-buttered toast. She likes butter. When she has been sitting on the work surfaces in the kitchen & the butter or marge is in site, she has been known to dip her hand in for a lump. She tried similar with the Marmite jar & managed to stuff a good lump in her mouth once. She did to spit it out (as we would normally expect) but did say to Louise, “Hot…”.

Noted an interesting development from apple – picked up from a newsgroup – a rumour of a successor to the Newton. I use an eMate – newton – an apple made pda – to type this lot. The eMate is the sort of sub-noteboook-pda thing they made – interesting hybrid… Anyway – It seems that a mac ‘rumours’ site has posted up pictures & little quicktime movies of an apple pda prototype called iWalk on their site.
Dunno if it will ever see the light of day as a production model, & I certainly won’t be able to afford such a toy, but, ah, it created a little bit of a techno flutter in me. That said – it also could all be fake – elaborate fake, but fake…

Another false alarm last night – this time at 1:40. Louise was woken by strong Braxton Hicks contractions & was worried for a bit. Not the panic of last time. She left me dozing in bed wondering what was going on & went to get a hot water bottle for her back (I did offer to go & get it.. I did!). She says the baby started wriggling about & the contractions abated & she fell asleep again.

Train home

Brain was not working this morning. Dull head, not from having been awake in the night, I’m sure, (I was not awake that long) but probably just a general thing. Curiously, with Louise ranging about in the night, the kids slept through again.
When I got home Hamish & Amber were playing as well. Then Hamish wanted to go home (I think he perceived a slight when we asked him not to do something). He suggested that Jack come over to his house, as Jack did not want to go, so I went to check this was OK (it was) & then Eve wanted to follow Amber as well. So Louise & I had the house to herself for a little while… weird. Queue mad bout of tidying up after finishing of a crossword.
Further weird was that Jack decided he wanted to come home, but Eve wanted to stay there a little longer. Jack & I hoovered the stairs & then hoovered the stairs to the attic with the Lazarus dyson, & then washed the filters for it when I realised that they were so clogged that the suction it was giving was minimal. I went to get Eve when tea was ready. Was initially greeted with a couple of defiant “No!”s, but she trotted back to ours without any further encouragement. She really does like plying with Amber. Before they went off to her house Amber & Eve were pushing dollies in pushchairs, (actually amber’s pushchair was the baby walker with the dolly asleep in a toy shopping basket, but hey). “Bye-bye!… Catch a bus.” they say & stroll off to the back room” No doubt similar play at Amber’s house. It’s all quite encouraging if they need to spend some time there while Louise & I dash off to the hospital in the next few days due to new baby arrival. Called Louise from work & she does not think the baby will be long waiting now.
Jack was ‘naughty’ last night before bed. He’d had a good day in general & we were playing with building bricks in their room before we got round to running the bath. I popped downstairs for something or other & Jack was rolling about on his bed. Louise took his shoes off because he was in danger of knocking the wall & marking the wallpaper. He was resistant to the idea & Louise explained that it was to stop the wallpaper being damaged. He immediately decided to pay too much attention to the wallpaper. Louise warned him against messing about with things & came downstairs to get the milk for their bath time drink… That might have been what I went down for, as the bath must have been running. Anyway on returning upstairs we found him picking a little hole in the wallpaper! Louise was upset with him, I remained calm (no point in both of us raging). He was in tears quickly as he really dislikes being told off by Louise. They were only tiny bit of paper he took off, but it looked bad. Eve starts to get upset that Louise is upset, (“Mummy fed up!”) Jack is crying & I walk off downstairs… Time to get some glue. Stick on the bits taken off with PVA glue – which I think will be sufficient. I’ll need to paint over it again to ‘hide’ it better though. Louise is immediately regretful that she lost her temper… she almost never does with them even under extreme provocation. I think she was so shocked that he would do such a thing after he has been so responsible & generally good of late. Jack has a cuddle a calm down with me & a few words as to why it was such a silly thing to do – for which he makes no attempt to try to make excuses for, & conceded that it was wrong (which I take as encouraging).

Happy New Year…
It’s so cold out his morning it’s taking an age for my thought processes to kick off…
No, Paul – it’s because you’re tired…
Oh, right…

Our town goes firework crazy in the first minutes of a New Year. Even if you wanted to sleep the New Year in, you could well have difficulty. It didn’t wake Jack, but Eve stirred.
I’m not really sure why, but we don’t celebrate New Year that much… I guess I have an aversion to hangovers. We never celebrated as a family when I was a kid maybe mum & dad needed to convince us that it was ‘just another day’ so that they could run the pub with ease. I don’t ever recall being woke up by the pub’s New Year ‘bong!’ but that may be wishful thinking.
So, I had the day off work yesterday – which was nice. I did daddy practical things – like putting up a shelf (ooh – drilling) & getting the old dyson to work (actually – I’d rewired it earlier & was stumped why it did not start working again… but I just had to change the fuse – duuuh). Jack enjoys this sort of activity, so it kept him occupied for a while, on an otherwise potentially tedious day. He watched an animated film all the way through in the morning. Sat on my knee most of the way through it. It was called “The Lion of OZ” & I had seen it before, & it is …OK as these things go, but I was mildly surprised that he managed to keep his attention on it for what must have been at least near an hour. Eve was good as well – she played around us for the most part. She is good like that though. She’s quite capable of occupying herself with some form of play, be it with dollies, snipping cards, Jack’s cars or trains, or her little playmobil house.
Brain shutting down – train snooze beckons…

Last day (of the year)
Reluctantly heading to work once more. I really would prefer to stay at home with Louise & the kids, as it’s been a very pleasant low key weekend. Still – I don’t have to go tomorrow.
Heh – quiet train this morning – just the mugs like me.
Having a full moon to watch as the train speeds by is odd as well – give a certain feeling of unreality.
Snowed over the weekend, which excited Jack no end. He was up & dressed & outside as soon as he could be. I got a garden spade out & he had a good old time pushing that about like a snowplough. He had nearly cleared all the back street on Saturday pushing it back & forth. The snow was no good for actually doing anything with though, as it was too icy. There was barely an inch, but at least half of it seemed to have melted slightly & nearly frozen again. It snowed again in the night & Jack was off again in the morning. This time it had left a renewed inch of snow (by the end of Saturday it was starting to be a bit of a dismal layer) but again it was not right for snowmen: too cold & powdery. We scooped up some snow with the spade & made a pile or 2, from which we made a star & a ‘J’. We also made a couple of little snowball sized snowmen, but trying to roll a bigger ball just did not work. Curiously, those piles of snow disappeared off the back street & a squat snow woman appeared in Hamish’s back yard – heh.
When we got back from the afternoon’s supermarket jaunt Jack was straight out into the snow again. It being later in the day, the snow had warmed up a bit, so it stuck a little. Still a bit too cold for rolling, so we compacted it with the spade in his toy wheelbarrow & built a little one. Had stones for eyes & bits of ice for arms sticking out at the side. Louise thinks it looks cuddly.
There seems a lot I want to write of, but I cannot get my brain to properly kick start this morning.

Train home

Neil (my brother) & Jess were going to come over on Saturday, but they didn’t make it. They set off, but they met a pile up on the M6 around stoke on trent (j18?). They did not crash, but someone else crashed into them. They are OK & everything, aside from the loss of the car & everything like that… which I imagine is going to take a while to sort out… what a drag. They’ll hopefully make it up sometime when the new baby is due. Neil called on his mobile sounding really put out by the whole thing.
I called mum in the evening & had a good chat (I don’t actually talk to my folks that much. They are busy enough. They’ve just moved into a new place, so mum had been painting & regrouting the bathroom & dad had been knocking a wall through from the utility room to the pantry (making it bigger for some other use) & filling in another door in the kitchen that is not needed with the leftover bricks. This is a day off; hols from running the restaurant. I wish I could be that industrious & practical sometimes. Mum said that she does not want to travel on the motorways in the daytime again. When they come to visit they will set off at some unearthly hour (as they currently do) & go back at night as well. This is good! We should have a whole day next time we visit.
Mum was a little disappointed that I’d called as she was going to call me in the morning so that she could speak to Jack… so I called her in the morning as well & passed the phone to Jack. They had a nice little chat & then Jack hung up… I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye there <pout>.
Louise & I were chatting last night about how he kids are gearing up to the arrival of the new babe. Louise does not think that Eve is fully aware of what is about to happen yet. She gets told about the fact that there’s a ‘baby in mummy’s tummy’ & she seems just happy that mummy has a tummy… if you know what I mean… no… ah, whatever. She loves her dollies & all that – dolly mad she is sometimes, but a new baby… no she’s not twigged that yet. Jack had when Eve was born. Granted he was fractionally older, but you could converse with him more – he did understand that there was a baby due. He told Louise that he remembered going to hospital with us & Louise having an antenatal scan. In a way you could believe him, as it’s a funny thing to happen – darkened room – mummy on a table, odd telly screen with a baby (?) on it… but it’s difficult to say that he does – he may be confusing it with something else. Still, I would not put it past him – he seems a clued up kid. He remembers stuff better than I do. OK – well try this bit of the telletubies site (for Eve)… “no paul – it doesn’t work”. hmmm how does he know – I think it should work – besides its been well over a year since we were last year…
DOH! Computer crash!