Name that Bean

Understandably, it's been an odd couple of days here. We had the grannies up yesterday and Anne's mum's still here. She's cleaning the house and won't stop no matter how much I tell her to relax!




ThingOne wouldn't settle without Anne or me holding her the first night, but last night she settled well and Anne and I both managed to get a reasonable amount of kip.

It's been an amazing time. Of course there are important issues to consider - the main one being how to spell ThingOne's name. When the midwife asked us we were a bit dazed and said double-L. After some debate, Googling and writing it down and looking at it we've decided to stay with the double-L. I think it may be the American spelling, but it's the one we prefer the look of. You'd have thought we'd have thought about the spelling before this time. You'd be wrong.

ThingOne is still spelt with one L though - it's the law. I'm sure I've confused people by spelling it both ways on emails, but you'll just have to put it down to exhaustion.

ThingOne's great-granmother also had January 11th as her birthday, which is a fab coincidence.

Introducing ThingOne

(May is the middle name BTW.)

Born today at 10.41am in Addenbrooks Hospital. 7lbs 7oz (bang on average I gather). She's just fab. Mother and baby well. Dad not too bad either.

We arrived at the hospital at about 4.30am, and were home by 7pm. Not too shabby really. I'll leave it to Anne to post the birth tale at a later date. We have a little baby to play with now.

No Bean as yet...

Well, The Bean still hasn't arrived. Bum.

It's now eight days overdue. Apparently the average first birth goes eight days overdue, so I've told The Bean that after today it is officially below average. (No harm in grading them early, I say.)

Anne tells me that this delay has been designed to test me. Presumably designed by some superior force. So God is punishing me for being an impatient fool. Apparently.

However, whilst I am getting very very impatient, it's Anne who's having a worse time of it. Her hips and knees are aching, and she's getting quite upset. I wouldn't be so churlish as to bat back her God comment and suggest that He has something to do with it. It's physics darling. The almighty has nowt to do with it. (Discuss.)

It's Anne's and my tenth anniversary on Tuesday (ten years since we first got together at uni). With a bit luck (and a few more curries) The Bean will have arrived by then and we'll have a double celebration.

Also Chimp Week starts on the BBC today. I think it would be very fitting if our child arrived in Chimp Week.

Coming soon...

According to one of Anne's books, by the time Anne was 35 weeks pregnant I should have learnt how to make my own breakfast. I like to think I am that prepared.

I'd say we're pretty much ready for The Bean's arrival now (he/she is due on Saturday!) We've had a relaxing Christmas, seeing King Kong at the pictures on the 23rd, entertaining my mum, sister and brother-in-law on Christmas Eve, and spending much of Christmas Day itself doing Saturday's Guardian cryptic crossword (we have Anne's dad to thank for that - he gave us some tantilising hints on Christmas morning).

We spent much of yesterday afternoon in the hospital, with Anne's blood pressure being monitored. It's been a bit high occasionally, which could be a sign of problems, but she has no other symptoms so this was just a precaution. Anne wants a home birth, so we have all our fingers crossed in the hope that that will be possible.

I returned to work today, and when I got home (after I was handed a G&T by Anne, and had eaten my dinner) we put the birthing pool together. The instuctions say it should take 15 minutes, but we'd heard people talk of it taking a couple of hours so were a bit wary.


It turned out to be straight-forward, and 20 minutes later we had a swimming pool under the Christmas tree, in place of our dining room table (now relegated to the kitchen).

You need a licence for a dog

Anne's becoming increasingly inept in her ninth month of pregnancy. This morning she accidentally kicked our PC at home and switched it off.

I am making sure I get as much mileage as I can out of this sort of clumsiness, and yet in some ways I can't really push it too far. At the weekend I managed to spill half a cup of coffee over our living room by kicking it out of my own hand with my foot.

Don't ask.