Happy Hallow-Bean

Greetings from a very blustery Terrington, where it seems that the weather has turned just for Halloween. It's been a really wintry day today and you can almost imagine the witches flying around, cackling on their broomsticks. I have to admit I've been no where near as active and managed to walk up to the village shop, which had sold out of milk -- clearly villagers have been buying extra pints because they know something we don't or they think the local children view this as a 'treat'...mmm, unlikely given the prevalence of farms round here. Anyway, just to update you on developments with Miss Azara: she now weighs a stonking 8lb 13 oz, which may have had something to do with the fact that when the health visitor came around earlier to check up on her, she had gone a record number of hours without a dirty nappy. Well, we have now recovered from the nappy explosion that took place after that visit and she is sleeping quite contentedly, clearly not as traumatised as her Mummy by the sheer volume of piccalili-like present she gave us. Daddy on the otherhand was very proud. That's it for now...will update with more again soon. In the meantime, Happy Hallow-Bean.
xxxx

Bean pictures

I tried to attach these to the previous post, but the computer was being slow, so here is the latest picture of Azara, taken on her three week birthday on Thursday, one with FG2 (Fairy Godmother Kate) on her visit up her a couple of weeks ago and Bean and I on just before she was two weeks' old. You can see how much she's growing and how much of a cutie she is...okay, I know, we're biased!

Baby update

Azara is asleep on her Daddy's knee, continuing her habit of nodding off for a long time during the day and being fretful during the night. I got a little sleep last night -- actually more than I've had since she was born in one straight -- as Jon tried her with a bottle, which she hated. She continues to be absolutely wonderful though and is growing very quickly. As of Tuesday, she was 8lb 4.5 oz and the health visitor seemed very happy with her; even if I have been having some trouble feeding, it doesn't therefore seem to be affecting her weight gain. We aren't in a routine yet, but hopefully we will be getting there soon. We've had a couple of visitors this week, which has been lovely. Sarah and Steve came over the weekend and met their little niece. It was lovely to have them to stay and to have other people to keep an eye on her. We went for a fairly hefty walk to the local village, Hovingham, which Uncle Steve had said was 3.5 miles, but turned out to be a mile longer. I wouldn't have worried normally, but it was quite an effort for me and we had been meaning to get to the pub for lunch but didn't make it in time and then Azara started crying for food, but we were saved by a lovely lady in the pub, who let us feed her and take the dog in, who we were pet-sitting for the day. My fairy godmother came to visit and she has spent the day with us today, which was absolutely wonderful. We saw her at Nanna and Papa's yesterday and then she came around to the cottage today and we had a lovely relaxed day...hopefully it wasn't too boring for you FG!?
Anyway, I am sure there are many other things to report, but am suffering from no-brain syndrome, so apologies.
More soon
H
xxx

Azara Storm Chittock

She has a name...it only took us two weeks, but Little Miss Bean is now the proud owner of a birth certificate and a bank account. The name Azara is one we kind of made up. It's a plant indigenous to Chile, where she was conceived. As I said to Papa (my Dad) better than calling her Missiones de Rengo, the wine we were drinking that night! Azara is not a name as such, but the word means 'scarlet' in Persian and that's a name we quite like, but getting rather too popular because of a certain actress. Also, rather cleverly our beanie baby was born on the day the official Peter Pan sequel, 'Peter Pan in Scarlet' came out. It would be stretching it a bit to say that was a sign, but the name made us both smile and that was very important to us. Hopefully it will make her smile too when she is older and understands that it was more than just a name picked out of a hat. We're looking forward to the genuine smiles replacing the wind-induced ones, which are cute, even if they are the precursor to something which is far from cute. Bowing to the hippy in Daddy, we chose Storm because it's a name Jon really liked and we figured if she didn't like either Azara or Chittock (the much more likely option) then at least she would have a cool alternative.
More soon...except to say our Beanie is two weeks' old today.

The first eleven days

I'm coming up for air after the last few days which have been a whirlwind of feeds, hospital visits, nappy changes and sleep snatched at opportune moments. Bean continues to amaze us and I never realised it was possible to feel love like this. Yes, I'm sure she'll try us and test us to our wits' end, but she is perfect in every way and even the labour and the sleepless nights pale into insignificance when we stare into her sweet face. There are inevitably ups and downs and one of the most difficult things has been the feeding. We had a very tough first few days and now she seems to be making up for it by feeding every couple of hours. It's hard work and absolutely exhausting, but it is so good for her and apparently for me too that I am keeping at it. She has changed so much since birth, her face has filled out and she is quite alert when she is awake. Another of the things that has made feeding a little bit tough is the harness she has too wear. When she was a couple of days old, the midwife discovered that she has a dislocatable hip and so we have been back and forth to Scarborough a couple of times for a scan and for a harness to be fitted, which will hopefully mean that the ligaments and muscles strengthen so that her hip stays in place. This will mean a check up at around six weeks, but most of the time it corrects itself in this time.
Otherwise, our daughter is a very content little baby. She loves bath time and she is very much her Daddy's little girl already. Yesterday we took her to the pub, because it wad the first anniversary of the pub being a Thai restaurant and the landlord, Stewart's, birthday, and she slept the whole time we were there. Everyone was remarking on how good she was. Long may that continue. I'll leave it for now as I would like to have a little nap before she wakes again.
In the meantime, thanks to everyone for all the love and wishes. I'll try and post again soon and I promise we are well on the way to naming our baby....so, we'll let you know as soon as we have decided. And, yes, we know you're all anxious to know, but just as she is perfect in our eyes, we want her name to be perfect.
Lots of love

Bean's here, done that

Just wanted to let you know, Jon and I are the proud parents of a baby girl. She was born at 2.23 pm yesterday (Thursday), in a birthing pool weighing 71b 80z. Since the German doctor in Peru told us we were having a boy, because the foetus (not the doctor)had a very large scrotal sac, we are somewhat short of names of the pink variety. But needless to say, we're very happy...if a little tired after a long pre-labour and very painful and intense period in the hospital. So, here for now is the Bean, aged 2 hours.
Lots of love
Han

D-day plus one week

I must have looked like I was doing a Mr Bean walk....it's certainly not much fun trying to walk around the supermarket when your leg goes into spasm because there is a reluctant foetus pressing on your nerve. Oh well, at least I managed to lean on the trolley and didn't collapse on the floor like I did in the kitchen the other day.
Before I forget....instructions for Big Cuz for Amazon. You don't need a log in. Just go to amazon.co.uk and in the top right hand corner it should say wish list and then you click on that and then a new screen should come up saying 'Find wish list' and then you type in Bean Chittock and hopefully it will work.
Jon is going down to London for an interview tomorrow, so perhaps this will mean that Bean decides that it's the perfect time to come out and play. I hope not. Jon's off this evening after dinner and then should be back tomorrow evening in time for either the pub quiz or a baby. Mum and Dad are staying in the barn next door in case I need some help in the middle of the night.
If nothing has happened by Wednesday, we have to go to Scarborough to see the consultant. Now I really don't want to be induced, so hopefully they will agree to hold off until next Monday and give the Bean a bit more time to decide to make a move.
In the meantime, the thumb twiddling continues.....