Couldn't resist...

posting another picture of baby Sophie. Here she is asleep in her cocoon.

And one of Keira the cat just 'cause...

Grandma and Grandpa Kay come to visit

Stephen's parents arrived yesterday evening to meet their first grandchild. Sophie is very lucky to have so many doting grandparents!

Here are some pictures of Sophie with Peter and Patricia...

The midwife came to visit today as well and when weighed found that Sophie has put on 13 oz in one week! She now weighs 10lb, 1oz. She also measured Sophie at 53 1/2 cm which means that she has also grown 2cm in 2 weeks. Our little girl is getting so big!

Here is a picture of Sophie looking cute in her swing...

And one last one of Stephen carrying Sophie in the sling...

Christmas Eve

So both Stephen and I have now been told off by several friends and members of our families for not having posted on here for a while... Life has just been so hectic!

My parents have now gone home; it was lovely to have them here. They just about got caught in the fog that descended upon us trapping many would-be voyagers in England, but decided at the last moment that the flights looked less crowded Tuesday... what fortune as they might not have got out if they had waited another day! Sophie really enjoyed having her grandparents here and bestowed many smiles and coos upon them. They also brought many gifts with them from family and friends in Canada; Sophie was spoiled rotten and will be the best-dressed baby around!

The health visitor came Thursday to weigh Sophie... She was 9lb 4oz! She had put on 11oz since last Friday (she then weighed 8lb 9oz - an improvement of 8oz over the week before, and measured 52 1/2 cm - having grown 1 1/2 cm from the week before!). The health visitor is obviously pleased with her growth as babies typically put on between 4-7 oz a week... I think our Sophie takes after her mother in her love of eating!

Here are some pictures of Sophie taken in the last week... We will take more tomorrow and attempt to get them posted much faster this time!

Grandma and Grandpa Riordon come to visit

My parents arrived yesterday morning for a week's visit. It was wonderful to see them at the airport and they have promptly fallen in love with their first grandchild. Sophie has suitably returned the affection and displayed it by creating lots of nappies for them to change, spitting up on their clothes and falling asleep when they are busy trying to entertain her. She has, however, delivered the most beautiful smiles in the world (and to anyone who claims that 'they are just gas' I challenge you to come and see for yourself!) so that her Grandma and Grandpa will forgive just about anything.

We went out to a pub for lunch today in Guildford. It was nice to be eating out and Sophie was fast asleep for our entire time in the pub which was fantastic, but after ordering and paying for our food one of the people who work at the pub came over and said that we were not supposed to have a baby on the premesis! He let us stay as we had already ordered but I felt so out of place after that. I wonder if there will be a lot of places where we won't be welcome?!

Anyway, here are some new pictures of Sophie and her grandparents... Enjoy.

All in pink

Here is a photo taken by Stephen this evening of Sophie and I.

We were out all day today in Guildford with some of the other mums from our antenatal class. Sophie has been a complete angel all day long and Stephen is just putting her to bed now.

But so much for our bedtime routine! We have fed her, bathed her and changed her, but when we went to take her out for her walk it was raining! So it is the rocking chair for our Sophie this evening... at least she got lots of fresh air this afternoon.

Two weeks old!!

Yesterday our Sophie was two weeks old! She changes every day a little bit which is both wonderful and heart-wrenching to watch. Yesterday we put her through her first night of bedtime routines... It actually worked very well and Stephen and I were encouraged by the peacefulness of our evening and by how well she took to it. Up until now the hours of 9-12 were our most difficult as Sophie was quite grumbly then and that is when Stephen and I really want to be in bed. But we started her on a bath last night at around 7, changed her, fed her, took her for a walk all bundled up from the cold, fed her a top up and then into the basket she went (without crying!) and stayed for the whole night! I just hope it works tonight as well!

Here are a couple more pictures for all of those of you who can't get enough...

This is Sophie in her first 'real' clothes before we went to the Christingle service at church on Sunday afternoon.

This is Sophie when we went out for coffee with the girls yesterday.

Out for a walk

Sophie is beginning to get a bit fractious in the mornings, waking up every half hour to feed for five minutes to get back to sleep, so she and I have been going out for walks as the movement seems to get her to sleep much more effectively. The walks will most likely do me and my figure much good in the future but just now they are killing my coccyx and stitches!

Here is a picture of Sophie in one of her snow suits... She looks just like a little snowball!

And one of the two of us just heading out this morning.

And finally here is one last picture of Sophie (sleeping yet again!) in her first pink outfit... She has already outgrown some of the smaller newborn sized clothes and is fitting into the first of her 0-3month clothes!!!! How is it possible that I am already saying 'where has the time gone?'

For all you picture-mad people out there

here is another picture of Sophie sleeping in her basket...

Tomorrow we are going to the Chrisdingle service at church so I will get someone to take another family photo of us to post.

A few days on...

Here are some pictures of Sophie playing in her play gym this morning.

She is so cute that even the cat had to come take a peek :)

She enjoyed it for the first few minutes and then got over-stimulated and was a bit of a grumbler for the rest of the morning. Right now she is wide awake and chattering lying on Stephen's chest. I just hope she will settle down enough to sleep tonight!

Here is a picture of Stephen and Sophie earlier on today just before a visit from the health visitor.

Sophie was weighed and measured at the visit and she is now back up to birth weight at 8 lbs 1 oz. She measured 52 cm and her head has grown 3 cm since birth (!!) and is now 36cm.

A week and counting...

We have now been parents for a whole week. Our little Sophie is so cute and we feel that she is the most beautiful and best baby in the world. We went out today to lunch with some people from our ante-natal class. It was our first lunch out and it was very funny to see all of us with our babies in car seats all sitting around a table at the restaurant. Stephen said we made quite the sight.

Here are some more pictures of Sophie just to prove that she is the most beautiful baby in the world...

Sophie's first swimming lesson.....

Starting small, but just in case the 100m hurdles doesn't work out we have started Sophie's swim training. Her personal best for one lap of the baby bath is currently slightly under 1min! We hope to move from "froggie style" to some more usual swimming styles soon!

Sophie's first bath:

And a bonus "mummy" pic!

Stephen

A quiet evening in

What a good baby our Sophie is! Here are some new pictures of her curled up sleeping in her daddy's arms...

In the interests of Science

I've started to compile a list of findings - aimed mostly at discovering a new baby "theorem" with which I can give my name and therefore live forever in the dusty halls of scientific endeavour.

In starting my quest I have discovered a nice easy law, which I shall tentatively call "The Kay Feed/Time Realationship" A more complicated mathematical derivation of the law shall follow shortly, after it has been ratified by the British College of Sciences.

The Kay Feed Relationship is as follows:

"If Baby is prepared to suck on Daddy's nose for a period of 10 seconds or more, then the necessity for feeding is imminent."

I will soon expand this "special feed relationship" to a more general form, by including a statement about the "suck pressure" that the baby exerts!

Here is pictorial evidence of my new law:

Stephen

Something Missing...

Reading through the posts that Stephen has uploaded in the last few days I have realised that he has sneakily managed to avoid putting up any pictures of himself with Sophie so here they are!

Proud new father with baby Sophie Tuesday morning.



Getting Sophie ready for our first outing as a family.

Let Sleeping Babes Lie

So, we have now been in sole charge of Sophie for two days! Time for a little update on our progress....



The midwife visited us yesterday morning and found both Tara and Sophie's progress to be excellent - so gave us a day off today without a check-up. Tomorrow the midwife will visit again ad carry out what are called "Guthrie Tests" looking for phenylketonuria (I see a prize in the offing for the first person to let me know how to spell this phonetically!), congenital hypothyroidism and sickle cell disorders. So it's a quick heel prick blood test for Sophie, and she will also be weighed to make sure that she is doing well.



We had our first "excursion" yesterday. We decided to test our buggy driving skills and took Sophie to the shopping mall to get her a passport photo taken - as usual the photo doesn't really do her justice, but on the grand scale of my NZ passport photo and the slightly worring picture of tara looking like a vampire for one of her ID cards I think that we have got off lightly!



On the trip we also visited the registry office so that Sophie could become a real person! Tara sprung a little suprise on me and added an extra name when the registrar asked us what she was called. So she is now Sophie Ellen Trixibell-Lulu Kay.



Just kidding! She is now Sophie Ellen Patricia (for my mum and Grandma) Kay.



After yesterday's exersions we have had a nice relaxing day today. Sophie let us get to sleep at about midnight and only wanted feeding at 4am and 8am so we got a reasonable amount of sleep each. I spent a good proportion of the day trying to get the passport form filled in correctly. I think I've now got it right - and it only took 3 goes!



Travelling Sophie:

Stephen