Photos of Phoebe!

It's amazing some of the photos I find on my phone sometimes!

'Nuff said!

Six Weeks on...

We're still enjoying all the lovely food kind people have been bringing us! Isn't this beautiful?

The children are having lots of cuddles with Caspar to make up for the time that he was in hospital.

We went swimming at Grandma's pool, which has much better toys and floats than our pool.

And we went to the fair!

We've had a glut of potatoes from the allotment,

And tomatoes from the greenhouse. Grandma made her own tomato ketchup this year. We were much more traditional and made pasta sauce!

But, really, at the moment, it's still all about this guy!   :-)

Caspar born, and the emotional rollercoaster!

So, a week ago today, I packed my bags and Ken and I left for the hospital for an elective Caesarean section. And at 9:35am; here he is: baby Caspar (this is possibly the worst photo of me ever!)

However, within a couple of hours it became obvious that his breathing was too rapid and his lungs were not working properly. So, over to the High Dependency Nursery in the Special Care Baby Unit for tests.

However, the little nasal prongs delivering oxygen up his nose kept having to be turned up, and on Saturday he was moved over to Intensive Care and put on a ventilator, and they ran a barrage of tests including a lumbar puncture.

I cannot describe how frightened we were. We had made up our minds to have him registered and baptised the next day. However, when we came back to NICU the next morning:

Baby Caspar back on his nasal prongs!

And on Monday, he was moved from Intensive Care back to High Dependency:

And yesterday he was moved from his incubator into a normal bassinet/crib:

 Look! No high flow oxygen!

 Right. Now I've calmed down a bit. Here are the bits that I'm grateful for:

Firstly, and most importantly, our wonderful, wonderful NHS. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Secondly, the hospital does have some nice vegetarian sandwiches:

 Thirdly, there's a strange sort of black humour that exists in hospitals and, in SCBU, is carried between the parents and the staff in the form of silly in-jokes and gentle teasing, which provides a release of tension. And, there's also the British notion that we can get through anything if there's enough tea!

So, that's all for now folks! I'm off to have a shower, and whizz back to the hospital! :-)

We're all together again!

The summer holidays are here, and Phoebe's off to church camp! We managed to get everything that was on the list packed up......eventually!

Here she is singing in the Talent Contest:

 And here she is after two weeks away really, really appreciating TV, baths, and a proper bed. Although she had a wonderful time, and can't wait to go again next year!

While Phoebe was away, Ken took Guy out in the inflatable kayak. It works very well, provided you can steer clear of locks and weirs!

And we spent a day at the zoo (Cotswold Wildlife Park)

Ken took Guy to Legoland for some father/son bonding. Where Guy got a golden dragon spray tattoo, and got VERY wet on some of the water rides.

It's lovely to have everybody back home again.

VERY late post!

At the beginning of the month, when it was still grey and cold, we went down to Brighton to visit Nanny and Grandad who took us to the beach. It was mild, but windy. Needless to say, the children had a great time climbing all over the rocks and falling in the rock pools, after which they got very cold and had to be taken home for hot chocolate and cake!

Guy's school play was The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde, which is a real tear-jerker at the best of times. "Nay, but these are the wounds of Love" is not made any better by being sung by a bunch of angelic-looking six year olds. I'm afraid I had to leave at one stage and go and cry in the pre-school garden. If you haven't read the book, I recommend it! But maybe not when you're eight months pregnant and very sleep deprived!

We went to a bowling birthday party which was great fun. Mainly because we haven't been for YEARS! Also, it was air-conditioned. And lastly, Guy won, so he was beside himself!
Here's a picture of Phoebe with her birthday cake, her pretty new dress, and her bowling shoes!

He also got to the top of the Marine Iguana board at Explore Learning and got a round of applause from everyone!

Then, the hot weather hit!

We've been making lots of lemonade and iced tea to try and stay cool!

This is Phoebe heading out to the school disco. Guy lasted about 15 minutes. He had a look around, then came back out and said "It's too hot and loud. Can I go home and have an ice-cream in the garden?" Which was fine with me!

Daddy dug out his inflatable canoe, and a fun time was had by all!

And, I couldn't resist this!

Irish Holiday!

So, last weekend we took the ferry to Ireland!

We stayed in the house of some relations who were away. Which meant we had the best bits of staying in someone's house, but at the same time we had it to ourselves! :-)

We went to the toy shop.

We went swimming every day and had picnics on the beach (which is just down through the back garden). However, this is the Atlantic Ocean we're talking about, so wetsuits are a necessity!

We ate fish and shellfish (well, some of us did!), and we played cricket outside after dinner.

We visited the Island of Garnish. Which has the most beautiful gardens, but strangely, no house. Lots of ornamental buildings, and lovely gardens, but no-one can stay there so the island is uninhabited by night.

We saw lots of fat, happy seals.

And we had lovely, lovely weather! :-)