A Week Of Firsts

Since coming home from the hospital on Sunday we've had a very nice week with family popping in to say hi and lots of 'firsts' for Toby. My parents, who came on the day he was born, headed back home yesterday, but fortunately Auntie Jane arrived to help out.

On Tuesday evening we all participated in Toby's first bath. It certainly wasn't as bad as Beth's first bath but was rather slap-dash. Beth's first was like a farce and I'm sure social services would have paid us a visit if they had witnessed it! Toby's was in the kitchen sink and amazingly he didn't seem to mind it too much. It did seem to calm him down and sent him off to sleep once it was over.

One of the other firsts was going to play group in the village on Thursday. I decided that Beth needed a bit of interaction with other children her age as we hadn't been to playgroup for a while. We walked to the village hall where it is held and Auntie Jane came too - also her first experience of a play group. I'm not sure that Toby really gained anything from this first since he slept the entire time we were there.

The midwife has visited us a few times at the house to check on both the baby and me. When she weighed Toby on Tuesday he had lost a bit of weight and was down to 8lbs 2oz but when she checked today, he had packed on an amazing 9oz and was up to 8lbs 11oz!! If he carries on at that rate he'll be a rather a big lad.

Beth is fine but is testing us all. She has been quite naughty and doing everything she has been told not to. Not quite sure of the best way to deal with this (suggestions welcome) but for some of it I think we're best just ignoring it. Hopefully she'll calm down as she gets use to Toby being around.

Welcome Toby

Well, it seems that baby number two had no intention of missing the fun of Easter by waiting until the 25th to make an appearance. On Thursday morning (20th) at 3:45 my waters broke and we headed to the hospital later that morning. So much for getting our Costco shop done! Nothing much was happening so after talking to the consultant, we were scheduled for a c-section after lunch.

Everything went to plan and at exactly 2:30pm Toby Makepeace was born. He weighed in at a whopping 8lbs 7ozs and was 21.25 inches long. Probably a good job he didn't wait much longer, I don't think my belly could have coped with much bigger!

Later that afternoon Steve went and got Beth so she could meet her little brother. I'm not sure how impressed she was with him - he hasn't learned any tricks yet so isn't particularly interesting to her! She stayed long enough to poke and prod him out of his slumber before heading back home, probably hoping that he was not going to be a permanent fixture (sorry Beth . . . ).

Today we got discharged from the hospital and headed home just after lunch. Again Beth was curious but not overly impressed with Toby. I suppose she isn't sure quite what his role is and if he is staying. I can say with certainty the feelings of the cat - she is totally unimpressed and probably wondering how she found herself here with a toddler, a baby and cold weather rather than in sunny Long Beach.

At the moment we are trying to teach Toby the difference between night and day as he feels that hourly feedings between 9pm and 6am are called for with the day reserved for sleep. Hopefully that will change very soon as I'm not particularly pleasant without sleep and Steve appears to be even less! ;)

Fountains Abbey

Today we decided to have a day trip to Fountains Abbey, a National Trust property about 45 minutes from where we live. The weather was a bit dubious on the drive down but it cleared up when we got there (well, it stopped raining but was still pretty cold). We had never visited the Abbey before but Beth's cousin loves visiting so we decided to give it a whirl.

We met up with Beth's cousin (Adam), his cousin (Elise), and his parents at the Abbey and headed straight into the play area. It was a bit old for Beth and Adam but they got stuck in anyway and had a great time on the horse and cart, climbing on the rope bridges and bars and of course swinging in the massive basket swing.

After that excitement we walked down to the ruins of the Abbey. They were beautiful and it would be lovely to come for a proper look around and to learn a bit about the history. The only thing I picked up was that it was built in 1132. The cloisters were really interesting and Beth had a blast running up and down them screaming like a banshee (not very respectful of the location but she didn't seem to care!).

After a few slices of apple we continued the fun by searching the 'caves' for Pooh Bear and his honey and running, sliding, crawling and scootching up and down the hill beside the Abbey. It was a fun day but lacked a nap so this evening has been a little long! But now Beth is tucked up in bed and I'm sure dreaming of climbing with Pooh. :)

Around The Village

Sorry for the lapse in updates, just don't seem to have much news. Today I saw the midwife and everything is still fine, no baby just yet.

I thought I'd post a few pictures from around the village where we're living. Unfortunately I don't have the energy to skip around taking photos at the mo so they have been borrowed from the various websites (thanks to those photographers and apologies for illegal usages!).

As you will be able to see, the village is not at a loss for pubs. I believe there are five within two-miles of each other and with a population of around 4,000 (1,000 of those under drinking age) it makes for a good night out! Not much use to me at the moment . . . Having said that, we did go out to eat at one of them (the Old Farmhouse Inn) yesterday and it was very nice. It had good old fashioned pub grub, (steak pies, fish & chips and scampi - over here it's breaded rather than in butter) and I totally over indulged. Beth seemed to enjoy her meal though she was rather more interested in the two open fires and scared the crap out of us a couple of times by running full speed at them only plonking down at the last minute in front of them, pronouncing them to be 'hot, hot.'

I suppose many of the buildings could be described as quaint though there are loads of new housing estates around the village - at the rate they're going they'll have to build a couple of new pubs soon to accommodate everyone. ;) There is a children's playground about 10 minutes walk from the house and the best thing is a bike path/bridleway that runs behind the village. We can get on to it just across the road from the house. If you walk one way you go through a couple of gates (very exciting to a 2-year-old), a tunnel and past a field with some horses. The other way takes you by a yard full of hens, alongside a hill perfect for running up and down, past the park and eventually to a nature reserve. So far we've made use of the path most days, it's fantastic though I wish people didn't let their dogs be quite so free with their toilet habits - Beth is very good at recognising it but does on occasion like to poke it with sticks (very ladylike!).

The village does have a general store that doubles as the post office but it doesn't really have enough stuff to do proper shopping. Thankfully the nearest supermarket is only a couple of minutes drive down the road so it's not a problem. We're still looking at daycare for Beth as it would be nice for her to get used to being around other children (and away from me) for a day or so a week. We have been going to playgroups a couple of times a week so she does get chance to play at those. They are quite good fun as I also get to meet people and they always stop halfway through and serve cups of tea (with saucers!) and biscuits to us and juice and biscuits to the kids - very civilised. Most of them are held at churches and are run by grandmothers (or great grandmothers) but the one we go to in the village is held at the village hall.

Big Girl Bed

It's a very exciting day in the Makepeace household as Beth got her first big girl bed this morning. She watched daddy put it up though I don't think she really knew what it was. When it did materialise as a bed, she was very excited and spent the next half an hour playing on it.

It's nap time at the moment and I'm waiting for the door to her room to open and a little face to peak out. So far (30 minutes in) this hasn't happened. I'm pleasantly surprised but not holding my breath. It would be something of a miracle for her not to want to explore instead of sleep. We might be lucky and get a really easy transition with no wandering - keep your fingers crossed for us!

Three Weeks To Go & Hail

We went to see the consultant at the hospital last week and were given a date for the c-section. It is March 25. It would have been earlier but they won't schedule anything over Easter! So, three weeks today we should have a new member of the family. That is unless he/she decides to make an early appearance - I'd prefer for that not to happen since we aren't very organised yet. We've been living without a washing machine, tumble dryer and fridge/freezer since moving in but they should arrive in the next few days so I can begin to sort baby clothes and stock up on food.

The cat is also due to arrive this weekend, she's been staying at my sisters house then at my parents since she landed. Not sure if she'll be pleased to see us or not since the last time she saw us we were loading her on to a plane for an 11 hour flight! Also not sure what she'll think of the weather. This afternoon we got hail - very pretty but rather on the cold and wet side.

Train to Darlington

This morning we walked to the train station (about ten minutes away in the village) and caught the train into Darlington - the nearest 'big town'. It was really windy but Beth didn't seem to mind too much. The train station near us is rather bleak and there are isn't a waiting room or anything, it's just the two platforms depending which way you're traveling (the photo below is of the station at Darlington). The journey is just five minutes then it takes perhaps just under ten minutes to walk into the centre of town.

As we had all woken up early, we decided to treat ourselves to a full English breakfast, Beth included. She did pretty well with the baked beans, tomato, toast, bacon and mushroom but wasn't so keen on the sausage and egg. Seems very different from the pancake breakfast we use to have - I suppose this matches the climate as we needed something 'hearty' to warm us up! After a good mooch round the shops we headed back to the train station to catch our train back home.