And now for something completely different: Seven reasons babies cry and how to soothe them.

Here's my favourite photo so far. Dad and son sharing a moment just before leaving hospital to go home.

The more I use Flickr, the more I like it. Check out the Baby collection here

It's a boy!! Last night Camille gave birth to a little boy, perfectly healthy. Both mum and babe doing fine.

If you want the fine detail, the baby was born at 7:48, weighing 7 pounds 12 ounces (around 3.5kg). We've been toying with a couple of names, but haven't settled on one yet; more details when we get there.

It was a pretty guelling experience; Camille had a full 5 days of contractions before having her labour pushed forward on Wednesday. All was fine in the end; the pain was all worth it. I'll be posting up more photos onto Flickr soon; so have a look there.

And that's the end of 2005! It's been quite an eventful year; we've got pregnant, closed down our shop in Staines, moved to the Isle of Man and had a host of changes in our lives. We haven't quite won the lottery yet, but Hope's impending arrival is just as thrilling!

2006 opens up with our child due to the born any day now! As parenthood beckons, I'm sure this year will be more eventful and exciting than the last. Hope you guys have a great 2006 also!

Well, after a year of commuting to the Isle of Man, we have finally moved over and are having the baby here in January. This means I can now walk to work, instead of having to fly over and also means I should be able to get some more family time in. Here's some photos of our new abode:

 

Yesterday was quite an eventful day, which was unexpected as Sundays are usually quite quiet at Casa Cutajar. The first big thing was that we have stopped taking orders from The Joke Shop. We've been running the site for a number of years now; and it had grown from a germ of an idea to a full-fledged multi-channel retail project with an outlet in Staines and sales online through it's website and eBay. But since we've had Hope on the way and the pending move to the Isle of Man, we needed to focus on our home-life once again and closing down The Joke Shop was part of that. We're hoping to sell the website and corresponding stock if we can; so if you know anyone who fancies running an online business, just give me a shout.

Yesterday I also had an amazing experience. Camille's been telling me that she's been feeling the baby move for quite a few weeks now, but as the baby's getting older, it's movements have been more and more pronounced. Yesterday I actually felt the baby kick which is astonishing as Camille is still in her 2nd trimester. It was only one of the many movements and kicks she felt while we were feeling for the baby, but it was very significant to me. After all the difficulty in getting pregnant, the pregnancy has been great so far, let's hope it stays that way!

This is just a short note to let Owen know that Hope and I both Love him very dearly and simply could not be without him. We miss you when you are in the Isle of Man. We will be with you there very shortly. Promise.

 
“ Daddy,

We Love You 5!

X X X X X ”

Today we had our first Midwife appointment. Her name is Pam and she seems really nice. Most of this appointment was filling in paper work and giving blood samples! I had to give some blood to test my Thyroid just before the appointment with the midwife; needless to say this went far from smoothly. One arm refused to give any blood and the other thankfully did. I did ask the nurse if the midwife would need any further blood tests but she did not know and did not seem inclined to even ask the midwife! This meant that when Pam needed to take some blood, she had to go to the same vein again. This left my arm rather bruised and damaged! Never mind, been through worse with IVF. It is all worth it. Obviously this was not the only incident that happened, after all I was involved! I had to produce a urine specimen in a really narrow container, not sure why they cannot use a container that is short and fat rather than thin and tall, which is obviously not the easiest thing to do. Needless to say, I kept missing and as I tried to adjust the container I dropped it into the water closet. I did not have much choice but to dry and try to reuse the container. Let’s hope that nothing nasty results in the tests, or I may have to embarrass myself with the true explanation of what happened!

We were able to hear the baby using the midwife’s Doppler. It was a change to our looking for the baby. Apparently, when we lose the baby’s sound, it is because the baby keeps moving. We do have a very energetic little one who seems to always be moving. She said that I would be feeling the baby shortly, and when I told her that I thought that I have been feeling the baby move for a while and described the feeling, she agreed with me that it was the baby. I have a feeling I am going to have a very naughty hyper little baby, Bless the Baby’s Little Heart!

Pam explained that my uterus is currently about an inch under my belly button. I cannot believe how big the baby already is. Mind you, I should have realised as none of my clothes fit, not even the clothes I used to wear before I lost weight! I am rapidly becoming more dependant on maternity clothes and seem to show more each day. This must be the first time that I am glad to look BIG! Having said that, I was also assured that my weight gain so far is good. So over all, I think we are doing well.