Claire the Midwife came to visit today, just after we'd got back from a stroll out to the garden centre with everyone. Claire was very impressed, Beth's gone from a birth weight of 3.34kg to 3.54kg. That's an impressive 200g of weight gain. So Beth's feeding really well, go Sarah! Claire gave her a high 5 too, nice work. The initial issues and problems with feeding Beth all seem to have sorted themselves out since we got home, the environment is a lot more relaxed than a hospital, that defiantly helps.

It was Holly's 30th Surprise Birthday party last night, at the Clive Hotel. It was a Mexican Themed surprise party, so we all had to dress up of course. I went as a bottle of Tabasco sauce, which I know isn't that Mexican but hey, it's hot sauce. Sarah went as a Mexican artist lady who's name...

Happy Birthday for yesterday, Holly!
Phew was a bit of a rough night last night. Beth was fine until she woke up about 1am, past that she just wouldn't get to sleep again. Sarah would feed her until she was so full she'd fall asleep. But she'd only sort of half settle for half and hour, just enough for the both of us to drift back to sleep, then she'd wake screaming again and wanting to be fed.

So we had a rough night, eventually after about 4 feeds over the course of 5 hours, we got back to sleep at 6am, then fed her again at 10am back to sleep until 1pm. I feel alive again!

She's doing great though, she seems to be putting on weight nicely. She's got blocked tear ducts, but we're just following the fairly standard treatment for that, cleaning and breast milk.

During the...

It's the morning of Day 5 of owning a new small child. Today it seems like it's going really well, when Beth wasn't feeding last night she was sleeping. Hardly any tears or screaming. There's two parents that feel at least a little bit alive this morning and that's a great thing for something so new.

Our Midwife Claire came to visit us yesterday, she said that overall we were doing pretty well for first timers. That was also reassuring. Yesterday afternoon we hit a small rough patch, Beth become rather fussy about what she would feed from and what she wouldn't. That was a little bit stressful for everyone, but she appears to be over that hump now and back to normal feeding. After the rough afternoon though we kept her up and about for a little while so that she'd cluster feed in the evening rather than the...

We brought Baby Beth home from the hospital today. I'd hoped it'd be a beautiful sunny afternoon, birds singing etc. Instead it was dark and rainy. So of course I was quite nervous driving, with Beth and Sarah in the back of the Tiida. But we arrived home to Peter and Mary's with no issues, with Peter Mary and Sallee waiting to greet us.

Glad to be home from the hospital. A midwife called Wendy certainly made our lives a lot easier, she was really good with Beth and spent a lot of time with us explaining things, how things are done these days, how the used to be done in the old days. She was the one who bathed and swaddled her a few times and every time she did, Beth would sleep for 4+ hours. Sarah started calling her the "Magic Lady" saying "I wish the magic lady...

It's the third day of being new parents. On Sarah and the midwife's advice I stayed at Peter and Mary's last night to catch up on some sleep. That means Sarah was here at the hospital all by herself. At least I got a good sleep catch up though (6 hours, seems like a miracle) and Sarah rang at about 4am to get me to come in and take over, which I've done. I took Beth for another few laps around the ward, that always seems to settle her down. Then I tried to get her to sleep in her cot but she wouldn't, so I walked her around a bit more then held her in my arms for 40 minutes or so. This always seems to help her go to sleep. Finally just now I managed to sneak her back into her cot, snorting and farting, but without waking...

Born 2/9/2013: Welcome to the world Bethany Matilda Harman
Weight 7 pounds 6 ounces.

We arrived at the hospital Sunday Night (Father's Day) after having watched Hawke's Bay take back the Ranfurly shield after something like 40 years. It was an exciting game and had helped a little bit to take the focus from the labour pains away from Sarah. We rung Claire (our midwife) and explained what was happening, she said she'd met us at the hospital at 8:30pm. Poor Sarah was in a lot of pain every time a contraction would gripe her, the drive to the hospital was a mixture of talking and ouch! sounds from Sarah.

We arrived at the hospital and were whisked into birthing room 3. An examination showed that it wasn't quite time for baby to arrive just yet. Sarah labored for another couple of hours, before it was decided that she would...

Lots of Birthdays this month!

On Friday night we all headed out to Pipi's for dinner. Pipi's was as awesome as it was last time, Mum and Sarah had gnocchi this time while I stuck to the tried and true Italian Spicy Meats pizza. I forget what it's called, but it's tasty as. I'm not sure what's nicer, the base, the tomato sauce that they use or the toppings. I guess it's the combination that makes it so tasty. It was a nice meal anyway, very noisy but that's part of the appeal of Pipi's I suppose!

Afterwards we headed back home and sat around chatting for a while, then took a few Happy Birthday photos.

Saturday morning we dropped Mum off at Design Spun for a mill tour, taken by Ian. While she was touring it up, Sarah and I went for "breakfast" at the Hot Chick, some...

My birthday came and went on Thursday without any of the expected excitement! I had a really good day, I scootered into work and bought everyone doughnuts. Everyone loves a doughnut. I love a doughnut, in fact I missed out because by the time I went to get one, there was only the girly pink ones left. You snooze, you loose.
Thursday night went I got home I was treated to a lovely Spaghetti Bolognese and then a superb Guinness Chocolate Mud Cake. Both were so tasty, it was fantastic! I got some lovely presents, a cover for the scooter and an Ergo Baby Carrier! It's really awesome, I can't wait to get to use it. Neither can poor Sarah!!

Mother arrived on Friday morning, so I whizzed out to Napier airport to collect her, then took her home to Peter and Mary's. No sooner was she in the door...

My Birthday, of course we're talking about. What did you think I was talking about?

Work's going well, Napier Life's going. No houses still, we went and looked at one on the weekend and it was nice, but too small.

That's all!

Tim