It’s a waiting man’s (or woman’s) game

So, we’re another day down - more names come off the sweepstake list at work but more importantly, we’re still waiting for this baby to even start showing signs of wanting to come out of there.

Claire’s not really feeling any different from yesterday, no more pains, twinges, or anything like that.

My apologies for the short blog-post this evening, but today has been fairly slow. But on the positive side, I've managed to watch 8x episodes of Series 4 of Lost, trying to catch up as Series 5 has already started on Sky One!

Interview with the mum-to-be

Quick update: We’re now nine days overdue - yes, nine whole days and still no signs of the baby coming out. The midwife has been over to the house again, though, for another check-up as normal. She’s done the once-over on Claire for the week and deemed her fit to carry on, which is good.

Well, I’ve done something a little different today and interviewed my wife. Yes, I am a little sad. And this is my first ever interview for blogging purposes! Enjoy.

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Interview with Mrs Rigby at 20:00 on the 30th January 2009.

BR: So, wife. How’s your belly feeling?

CR: Hard – my belly is currently rock solid to touch, and is a little tender in places.

BR: Did you imagine going 9 days overdue?

CR: No – I think I always thought that because my belly was so big, I was going to be nearer the due date (21st January), or even before that. But instead, I’ve had five and half weeks of my maternity leave at home when I would have rather been at work!

BR: How late do you think that you could have stayed at work?

CR: Don’t know. I couldn’t be there full time, as I’m too big. And, the people I work with couldn’t wait to get rid of me!!

BR: I know you’ve been back to visit work whilst you’ve been away – have they changed anything since you’ve been gone?

CR: YES! They’ve rearranged things and made it ‘better’ - that’ll give me something to do when I get back!

BR: When are you planning on going back?

CR: October.

BR: Full-time? Part-time?

CR: I’m planning to do two days a week until Christmas.

BR: What’s your favourite moment of the pregnancy so far?

CR: You feeling the baby kick inside my belly, because he’s our baby and that was the first time that it felt to me that it was real to you, rather than just an photo from a scan, even though you didn’t seem to really realise that you’re having a baby until about December!

BR: Well, it’s a bit different for men! It’s a bit hard to get excited about you throwing up in the mornings and getting up in the night to wee all the time! Anyway... what are your thoughts about the pending birth?

CR: Pain. It’s going to hurt! They’ve told us that Jack is a 9lb baby or thereabouts, but even if he was tiny, it’s got to hurt. Excitement and apprehension too, I suppose.

BR: Have we got everything that we think we’re going to need for the first week or two after the baby is born?

CR: Don’t know - Have we, Brett?

BR: Yes – I think we, namely you, have done a marvellous job in spending large quantities of money! I’m just worried you might be getting a little too used to it!! Ok.. moving swiftly on. What’s the worst bit being pregnant?

CR: The worst thing about being at home waiting to give birth, is not being able to plan ahead. I want to be able to organise myself and say that next week I wanted to do so and so, I can’t. Before, we’d ask friends over, or go to theirs, for a takeaway or go to a restaurant, but not knowing if I’m going give birth at any moment makes it a little different!

BR: Anything else?

CR: Not being able to lie on my tummy at night to go to sleep! It’s so awkward having a big baby strapped to the front of you, especially doing things you take for granted, like rolling over in the night!

BR: Really? Hadn’t noticed...

CR: Hmm.

BR: All bags packed and ready to go at a given moment’s notice?

CR: I’m ready.

BR: Shall we take bets on the time of day that it’ll come out of there?

CR: Well, I think we’ve proved that we can’t even pin down a day, let alone a time!

BR: Ok, good point. We’ll leave that one.

CR: Stretch-marks – that’s another bad thing about being pregnant! I got all the way to my 36th week before getting my first stretch mark! Now I’ve got 40 million of them on the underside of my belly!

BR: Do you think that’s a slight exaggeration?

CR: Well, more than I wanted! I think I ought to have shares in Bio Oil, as I’ve spent a small fortune on it!

BR: Isn’t that supposed to stop you getting stretch marks?

CR: Or you put it on stretch marks and it’s supposed to fade them. It’s just supposed to keep your skin supple really. I’ve been putting it on every night too, and it’s done well really.

BR: Well thank you very much for your thoughts so far. I’d like to say that you’re doing a sterling job of growing our baby. I would say ‘keep it up’, but if you could just squeeze him out now, that would be great.

CR: Ok, I’ll try!

Interview over 21:00!!!

“Why write a blog??”

Yeah, why do I write a blog? I’ve been asked this a couple of times, initially by my wife who soon gave in and just let me get on with it. Simple answer: because I wanted to.

I’ve never kept a diary as a child, or anything like that, so I really don’t know why I felt compelled to start writing something, let alone a public-facing weblog and why I’ve decided to share a few personal moments with you, the reader (all with Claire’s full permission, of course).

Blogging is quite enjoyable though - somehow relaxing almost, allowing you, the writer/author, the time to focus on particular areas of the day/week that you feel you want to write about.

It’s also quite difficult, as there is absolutely no feedback loop – I carry on writing these blog posts but have no (or little) idea as to the reader’s response or reaction to it. The comments on each post are one way, but it is by no means brilliant. But my point is, there’s no real way of me finding out how many people are actually reading the blog as a whole.

I have come to hear of friends and family members who have mentioned that they’ve been following the blog, for which I am a mix of being pleased, surprised and sometimes a little embarrassed too!

Some people have asked about how they go about getting a blog started and what I’d suggest they blog about...! I’m not saying that I am, by any means, a form of authority in the world of blogging, as I’d be the first to admit that I’m still learning about all this too, as writing the posts can be difficult sometimes, especially if you’re short of material! But having something like the pending birth of our first child is my ‘focused topic’ that I’m learning about on the job and something that I thought I’d like to cut my blogging-teeth on. Two birds, one stone, and all that.

But I am pleased that people take the time to read it. Some read it on their computers as and when they can, maybe catching up on a few posts at a time; some, including my mum, have my blog address entered into Outlook 2007 and get notified within minutes of me posting the article; some even get updates sent to their iPhones and Windows Mobile devices (which I tend to do for other blogs I follow).

I’ve been asked if I would write a bit of a techie-post about how this blog system works and where I’ve got this all from. But I’ll hold off on that until I can get a few screen-shots or something to make it interesting as well as informative. And maybe after the baby is born!!

Progress Update

Well, again, I’d like to say that things have started happening and the baby is here, but unfortunately, Jack still hasn’t arrived. He's now 8 days overdue the due-date of the 21st January.

If it were a parcel being delivered, then you can get a tracking number or an estimated delivery date. Even worse, a confirmation that the sender had sent it! But these babies don’t seem to come with any in-built tracking device, or sender confirmation; I suppose we do actually know which ‘depot’ it’s at, and that it’s actually there, as it’s been there a while now, but it’s not clear as to when it’s allowed to be collected.

Maybe he’s in quarantine?

Maybe he has to pass stringent in-bound rules or he's liable to import duty?

Or, maybe, its all just taking a little bit longer than the date that we were told by the doctors and midwives. (This is much more likely the truth and we’re simply guilty of being part of today’s 'I-want-it-now' culture, where patience was forgotten about.)

Either way, he ain’t here!

Claire is getting on ok though – she’s quite bored at home by herself, which I can understand. She’s been off work now for over a month, since 24th December, and getting bigger steadily, whilst the ability and desire to actually do 'stuff' is almost directly in-proportional! Besides... daytime TV is rubbish, as there’s only the like of ‘Quincy’ and ‘Diagnosis Murder’ to keep you occupied, which is great as student-TV, but to have to watch it day in, day out, not knowing when you’re able to stop!!

Needless to say, once baby Jack does make his grand debut into the world, I'll post news and a photo or two on here.

Friends and Family

I wanted to write a post on here about our friends and family, before the nipper arrives.

Claire and I have been a bit overwhelmed recently with friends and family members calling, texting and emailing us to find out if there’s any news to be told about the birth.

Unfortunately, so far, we’ve had a pretty standard reply of ‘no, not yet’, but it’s been nice that people have been thinking about us and wanting to find out the score so far.

Each of the past couple of times I’ve seen my folks (particularly my mum) have muttered words like ‘maybe next we’ll see you, Jack will have been born...’ etc, but I still keep seeing them and still no baby for them to coo over, which is a shame, but it makes me laugh each time they say it.

Anyway, he's now 6 days late, which might have the up-side in proving that he's a Rigby, but also the down-side in that we're getting a bit fed up waiting for him! Not least Claire..!

Fun and Games

Well. It’s been one of those days. You know, one of those ‘random’ days when you’re told that your wife is going to have a caesarean the following day, and then half an hour later, you’re told that she’s not.

Claire originally had an appointment this morning with the midwife for her weekly check-up on the unborn sprog and the midwife has had another rummage around on Claire’s belly and determined that his head is ‘no longer engaged at all’... which is a bit of a disappointment, as last week she said that the head was ‘partially’ engaged. She’s suggested an appointment for Claire at Hinchingbrooke hospital with a consultant to make sure, and if needed, then they can arrange for a caesarean for tomorrow or Wednesday. (Which would have been good for one of the sweepstakers in the office!!)

So, Claire’s gone with her mum, Pat, to the hospital to see the consultant, who’s instantly felt the baby’s head and determined that it is indeed engaged, and felt what the midwife thought was the head and said this was in fact, his shoulder. He’s then scanned her and seen the head in the pelvic cavity and all that. So, all is good.

Because the head is in the right place, they’ve decided that Claire doesn’t need caesarean and that she will probably be ok to give birth as normal. They have booked in an induction appointment for a week today, which is Monday 2nd Feb (Mr. Finn’s day!) but they said that they doubt that she’d make it that far and that she’d probably have given birth by then...!

The midwife then gave Claire a sweep – if you know what that is, great. If you don’t, have a look on your favourite internet search engine yourself.

So, we’re back to waiting again. This isn’t bad, as we at least know that things are good inside there with young Rigby, but it’s the not knowing when he’s going to come out that makes for the interesting part.

Just an observation...

More and more recently, people have been saying that I should get as much sleep as I can, as very soon, I won’t be sleeping much due to a crying poo-machine sharing the bedroom with Claire and myself. Most probably, this is all very sound advice, but I’m yet to learn this first-hand.

I am a really light sleeper – in that, I mean that I wake at the slightest noise or disturbance, so there’s not much chance of me sleeping through a baby’s wailing during the night, nor me trying to pretend to Claire that I didn’t hear it either!

But I’m actually quite shattered now and the baby's not even here yet!

I think that this is possibly because Claire has to get up in the night to use the toilet at random intervals..! No, of course, it’s not Claire’s fault; nor is she doing it intentionally. But I do wake up even if she tries to sneak out of bed, or even if she rolls over in the night. Come to think about it, I used to do this even when she wasn’t pregnant, so it’s definitely a problem with me and my sleeping.

Anyway, what I am trying to say or point-out (badly) is that a pregnant woman does need to use the loo during the night. Therefore, if you happen to be a light-sleeper, like myself, then you’ll probably notice this too.

The more annoying part, is that Claire is NOT but any means a light sleeper, and so when I wake up in the morning and do my best SAS/cat-burglar/‘sneaking-around-the-room-not-trying-to-wake-Claire’ impression, it’s wasted, as she’d sleep through anyway! I even use the dim backlight on my mobile phone to pick a pair of socks out of the draw when she’s still in bed...!

Progress Update

Last time Claire saw the midwife, she said that Jack’s head was no longer engaged – A baby's head becomes engaged when it moves down into the pelvic cavity usually a few weeks before birth with first babies.

Apparently, it wasn’t really a problem then, but the midwife wanted to come out again to check after 4 or 5 days just to check again. If the baby’s head wasn’t engaged when Claire’s waters break, we were instructed to make sure that the midwife at Hinchingbrooke hospital sees Claire, as the cord could come first which is dangerous.

After a bit of a cock-up (on her behalf!), the midwife eventually came over to the house the other day to check Claire’s belly out again.

Claire said she wiggled, jiggled and bounced around her belly a bit and she thinks now that Jack’s head is ‘slightly engaged’ now, which is a good thing.

This doesn’t mean that the baby is ready to come out yet. (Much to everyone’s dismay at work so far of course, as they’re dropping off the sweepstake list as each day goes by!)

Help with the washing up

The other week, Claire was washing up after lunch and was struggling with the big belly in front of her. The problem was that the belly was sticking out so much, that she was actually standing further away from the sink, meaning she was reaching over.

I happened to walk into the kitchen to see she was struggling with this, complaining that she couldn’t do the washing up properly. She explained about the hindering baby-bump against the worktop in front of the sink, and that’s when I knew what I had to do.

Introducing the answer to the problem… the Yellow Pages! Not in the sense of using it to buy a dishwasher, or calling someone up to get them in or anything like that. No. For her to stand on, of course!

The extra couple of inches in height gave Claire the ability to simply stand just that little taller, meaning that she could rest her bump on the edge of the sink. This, in turn, means that she can stand closer to the sink, continuing the job at hand!

And before you start thinking that I make my heavily pregnant wife do the dishes, I don’t. In fact, trying to stop her doing it is the tricky bit!

In Limbo-land?

As the birth-date is getting closer and closer, I am technically in the paternity time that I have booked at work! I had to book a 2 week window of paternity time in the annual leave diary, but my employers are very flexible in that I actually start my time off when we rush off to hospital, it seems.

Having said that, I am having to assume that, each evening as I leave, that I may not be back in tomorrow morning, and I have to make sure that my work is available to others in the office and that it’s in a fit state that it won’t break the build! (It’s a geeky term, if you’re that curious, I’ll explain later!)

Claire has said that she’s been working to this expectant out-of-office time for six months or so, as she’s been having to book locum pharmacists 6 months or so in advance. So, I guess she’s had a bit more time to get used to it, whereas I’ve only had it for a few days now..!

But it is quite strange in that I'm expected to not appear at work one day soon... It's a strange feeling.

Tired of Waiting

Today is the 18th January, and the baby is *due* on the 21st.

It’s a bit of weird thing really, as the 21st is only really a midwife’s or a doctor’s estimate, which is based on the baby’s size at the 12 week scan. And as we’re not expecting the baby in the next few days, we’re not entirely sure as to when we can expect to meet the nipper.

Even though that sounds like a daft and possibly blindingly-obvious thing to say, it doesn’t help Claire really, as now that she’s finished work (on Christmas Eve) she’s had a few weeks of doing not-that-much at home, which means that time seems to go by much slower. As Claire’s been getting bigger and bigger over the last several months, doing general ‘stuff’ is a bit more difficult. Don’t get me wrong, she’s hardly loafing-out in front-of the TV all day, but still, I’ll bet the days are a drag.

For me too, it seems like we’ve made it all this way and although I’m of the opinion that a few more days is neither here nor there over 39/40 weeks or so, but I do admit that I’d rather the big day was tomorrow than next week. Bit like being a kid waiting for Christmas to arrive..!

Baby Centre

Since Claire fell pregnant, she has had a her head and internet browser constantly buried in the Baby Centre website (www.babycentre.co.uk), which not only provides loads of information related to babies, (focusing mainly around a forum), but the website sends out weekly emails too.

The weekly emails are bite-sized ‘teasers’ of what’s going on with your baby at each stage of the process, which are interesting enough for new dads too, but without being bombarded with too much information. The email comes through as a single paragraph of text, plus a sketched cross-section image of the mum’s belly with a baby inside. The email is very well worded, as it helps to relate to what's going on in there, either by comparing the baby's size to something you can picture (like a small fruit), or by describing how he or she is moving around, or what they should be feeling about now, etc.

Also on the email is a whole load of follow-on hyperlinks to more pages, but I tended to ignore those.

'Birth-clubs' are another part of the Baby Centre website, whereby a new mum (or dad for that point!) can register into the month of the expected birth and speak to other expectant mums, posting questions and comments about their pregnancy, problems, funny moments, etc.

I don’t think Claire’s ever felt the burning desire to contribute to the any of the forums, but she’s certainly had a good time reading it all!

Midwife appointment

As Claire’s getting nearer and nearer to the due date, she’s now on weekly appointments with the midwife and today was another appointment.

At last week’s appointment, the midwife said that the baby’s head was no longer engaged, as it previously was. Apparently, this does happen and sometimes the head can be become re-engaged. But not this week, as the head is still out of the ‘socket’ that is the hips.

I wasn’t there, but Claire said that the midwife had a good ol’ juggle around with the baby’s head, feeling it all round and probably giving young Jack a taste of his upcoming hangovers, when he’s 18+ of course!

The midwife has booked another appointment for Claire for next week to check again if the head is engaged, if not then an appointment with a consultant will be made to find out about the possibility of having the baby induced. Now this might sound ok, as the baby is nearly due and it’s a controlled induction, but I get the feeling that this doesn’t sit too well with Claire.

But, we’ll see and we’ll keep you posted.

Quidco Rocks!

Although this isn’t directly related to babies, poo or the like, it is do with money (something that I’m learning each day that this baby is going to consume by the bucket load!)

Someone at work told me about Quidco.co.uk, which is a money-back co-operative website, which means that you get back a percentage of the money that you spend with a particular online retailer. Quidco is one of a handful of sites, which are becoming increasingly popular, and all do this by allowing you to sign up and use their site as a portal to click-through to another online shopping website. Once the sale is complete, then you get a proportion of your spending back every time you shop, normally between 4-10%, depending upon the retailer’s arrangement with Quidco.

Online advertising has changed in the last several years and now many online shopping sites pay a percentage of the sale to the website that originally referred the customer to them in the first place, rather than to pay for online advertising in the first place. Quidco.co.uk is one of a handful of websites that allow the public to sign up and use this method as a means of getting cash-back from their online purchases.

Once signed up and logged in, simply search for the name of the online retailer, e.g. Kiddicare, and Quidco tells you up-front what the cash-back rate is from Kiddicare (normally expressed as a percentage) and provides a link to their site.

Kiddicare, at the time of writing this, pay 4% cashback on orders placed via Quidco, providing that you use the link Quidco give you and you do not close the web-browser before completing the transaction.

The list of other online shopping websites that are available through Quidco is amazing. As this blog has a baby-orientated outlook, Mothercare are currently paying 5% and Early Learning Centre are currently paying 4%. But don’t think that Quidco is limited to baby sites, as lots more big name companies are on there, such as Orange, ebay, HMV and so on. Although 4 or 5% doesn’t seem much on a £20 online order, but it all adds up and the larger orders can be swayed from different websites/suppliers offering differing amounts on Quidco!

Since March 2008 (when we first started using Quidco) until now, Claire and I will have received £402.61 back from purchases that we were going to place anyway! Whether this was buying cds or dvds online, ordering a new mobile phone contract or even a new cot for the baby, if we could use Quidco, we did.

What’s the catch? Well, Quidco doesn’t really have any bad catches to watch out for. They do charge an annual administration fee of £5, yes five whole British pounds, but they take this as the first £5 that you earn each year. i.e. If you start in January 2009 and get £50 cash back from your online purchases, then Quidco keep the first £5, meaning that there’s £45 left to transfer to your bank account. If you then accumulate another £30, say, then you’ll get the whole £30 back, as you’ve already paid the fee for this year. Then, come January 2010, they’ll take the first £5 of next year’s money. Simple.

The time that you can expect to receive your money back from the online website that you buy from can vary, so don’t expect it instantly. Also, Quidco only pay the money owed to you once a month. But then it's money that you're technically getting that you wouldn't have had before, so it shouldn't make a big difference if you get it a month or two later.

The Pending Birth

Today is the 13th January 2009 and the baby is due on the 21st, according to those in the know. Although, having said that, Claire has said all along that she thought the doctors had it wrong, and the baby is actually due on the 26th… We’ll see, I suppose.

Either way, we’re down to a matter of days until the baby is born. Days. Until our baby is born. A baby that will be absolutely, 100% reliant on us for everything, from eating, poo-ing and sleeping. Sounds like a daft thing to say, but it’s becoming more and more real for me particularly. Of the very few baby books I’ve read a few pages of, I do remember reading somewhere that dad’s don’t feel like it’s all real until nearer the end, with the big smack-in-the-face with the birth. Well, that sounds right so far..!

It was easy beforehand to make a joke of the fact that the baby was months away when people asked. Whether it was a means of getting around the subject or just a little light humour for the moment, I’d say something like, “nah, it’s months away” or even, “it’s next year!”, especially when people would say things like “oooh, it’s not long now” or “enjoy yourself while you can, as soon you’ll never be the same again…”.

Distractions
At work, it was suggested that I start a sweep-stake, based on the day of the birth. It started out being 10 days before through to 10 days after the expected birth, which was a good start, as this gave us 21 days to gamble upon, or a potential 21 people for each day available. But the dads in the office suggested that this was extended a few more days, as there’s always a chance that the baby could be late. So, it was pushed from 11th January through until the 4th February, which makes the pot a healthy £25 rich when all sold. Amazingly, the due date of the 21st January was the last ticket to be drawn from the hat!

With all 25 days sold to 18 happy punters, the days are being crossed off one at a time, not just for them, but for Claire and me too. It’s easy to concentrate on the sweepstake and think of it as any given chance for a small flutter in the office, but the underlying ‘prize’ is what really matters.

In terms of the ‘baby-stuff’ that one needs, it seems, I think it’s fair to say yes, we have it, regardless of what you ask if we have. The spare bedroom, which used to be our office upstairs, has been magically transformed into a baby’s room, with prams and high-chairs spreading into the other spare bedroom. It has to be said, that Claire has done a fantastic job of being chief-in-charge of purchasing. She hasn’t just bought the first thing that she’s seen and wasted loads of money on things that we don’t need, as she has put lots of thought into what has been bought, as well as where it came from etc., and everything that’s here is great. Admittedly, it was a little overwhelming each day I got back from work to find more and more cardboard boxes from the recent delivery piling up in the hallway upstairs and downstairs too, AND with more parcels at the Royal Mail place in March awaiting collection because we weren’t in at the time. Days and evenings have disappeared building the wardrobes, cot, cupboards and all that. All good fun, but hopefully they’ll all get lots of use!

Antenatal Classes (NCT vs NHS)

As I have mentioned earlier, my experience with babies is almost non-existent. I have not had to look after any friends or families' children that are less than talking age and so having a baby is going to be a big shock, I'm sure.

During the first midwife appointment that Claire had, which I went along too, one of the things that she mentioned was about the National Health Service (NHS) baby classes available to us. The classes are designed for new parents, to explain to them the things you should and should not do, best practises, etc. Great.

Not long after this, one of Claire's friends suggested that we look into the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) classes, as she had attended the classes nearer her and thought they were far more informative than the NHS classes.

• NHS Classes

The NHS classes are free to attend and were being taken from 1500 to 1700 once a week for three weeks, held in the small room to the rear of Chatteris Church, only 2 miles away from us.

The first lesson, I was unable to attend due to work, but Claire had gone by herself. There, along with one other couple and a midwife, they sat in a circle and discussed baby-stuff and tried to stay warm. Claire came home with lots of reading material.

The second session, I was able to attend, as I had a day off work. Again, the same other couple was there, a different midwife but no other couples turned up, despite several more couples being on the paperwork to attend. (By this point, we had already attended 2 or 3 NCT classes.) We sat around, cold, in a circle in the middle of the room, being thrusted hand-outs, leaflets, etc to go away and read. Some of the hand-outs were based on important topics such as breastfeeding and were talked about briefly before being moved onto another topic.

Just over half way through the session, the midwife had already covered everything, due to speaking at break-neck speed and called it an evening. She also thought that we'd had enough information (on paper) to cancel the final session.

• NCT Classes

The NCT classes are a paid service and there's a waiting list to attend. Our nearest classes were based either in Huntingdon or Ely, to which we chose Ely, for one reason or another. The sessions were held in the comfort of the home of an experienced NCT Teacher, where we and four other couples sat in the front-room on sofas and had the meetings. The meetings were 2000 to 2200, twice a week for four weeks and cost £20 a session, paid in advance.

During the eight sessions, we were encouraged to ask questions and speak to the other couples, as there was an emphasis from the outset to encourage us to become friends, starting with the fact that we all had something in common - all of our firstborn children would be born within weeks of each other.

Some of the games and challenges we were set may seem childish if I were to try and explain what we did, but there was always something that made us sit back and realise that we were going to have a baby, and understand that our daily routines will never the be the same again. Something that we all knew, but didn't actually appreciate nor realise; this new baby that everyone was dreaming about will turn our worlds upside down.

Important topics, like breastfeeding, pain relief during pregnancy, trying to calm a baby down, and so on, were exercised through games or discussions and we have even seen DVD videos of women giving birth in different scenarios - home birth, water births and in hospital. Not particularly pleasant in some cases, but if we hadn't had attended the classes, we certainly wouldn't expected half of what happened if we had simply turned up to hospital expecting to have the baby!

The lessons came and went and December (2008) flew by. Literally. Soon, the course was over and the NCT was still encouraging us getting together and meeting up in March (2009) after all the children were born, which I am sure will be great and that'll be upon us in no time. Five new mums looking after five new babies whilst five new dads talk rubbish in the corner.

The two sets of classes (NHS and NCT) could not be further apart from each other. In my opinion, the NHS classes were appalling. Topics were whizzed over and supplemented with a hand out. Whereas the NCT classes, I actually felt like we now stand a fighting chance in doing a decent job looking after our son when he arrives.

I really would encourage more parents-to-be to at least investigate the NCT classes and, if possible, to also attend both the NCT and NHS classes too, as we did, as it seems like we've had as much information as can get in preparation for looking after a small baby.

To be honest, I think I have had more lessons learning to drive a car that we've had in total with regards to baby classes; imagine if someone was let loose with a drivers licence after 2 short lessons of driving! (Somehow, I think the 'test' is going to be different this time around...!)

My badly-put point is, had we have only attended the NHS classes, ignorance would certainly have been bliss. I'm not saying that we will not make mistakes simply because we have attended the NCT classes, we will. But at least we have an idea as to what to expect, thanks to the NCT classes.

"Things to take into Hospital"

One of the sheets of information given to us by the hospital, was that of what to bring to the hospital. But then during a recent tour of the hospital, the midwives showing us around did try to encourage us to only bring one bag...!

Here's the list of what they suggest an expectant mother brings for their stay...

For You (mum)

• Wash bag and toiletries
• Bath towels x2
• Sanitary pads (maternity size!) x2 packets
• Breast pads (even if you are bottle feeding)
• Knickers (disposable if you prefer and high-waisted if having caesarean section) x2 packets
• Dressing gown
• Slippers
• Nightshirt / T-Shirt x3
• Maternity bras x3
• Normal clothes (loose clothing as the ward can be hot & stuffy)
• Small change for payphone, newspapers, sweet trolley etc)
• Books / magazines
• Drink / squash… champagne if you like!!

Extra Things You Need For Labour

• Comfortable T-shirt or something similar (we provide hospital gowns if you prefer to use this)
• Sponge / flannels
• Music / relaxation tape (we have cassette players)
• Snacks (for yourself and your partner, e.g. crisps, sandwiches, chocolate bars, glucose sweets) NB All main meals are provided for you only
• Camera
• Telephone numbers (for whomever you wish to contact following the birth)
• TENS machine if you have hired one (we do have some on labour ward that you can use)
• Partners please wear cool, comfortable clothing
• All delivery rooms have a wall mounted fan
• Bean bag (if you wish to use one – we do have a small supply of these)
• Massage oil (we do have some on labour ward)

For Baby

• Cotton wool
• Disposable nappies (plenty)
• Scratch mitts
• Hat
• Cardigan
• Babygros, vests / gowns x4
• (Bath towels for baby will be provided)

Don’t forget to organize a car seat!

Blimey! Only one bag!?!

Project Codename: "Juniper"

If you're a computer geek like me, you may know that when big companies like Microsoft develop computer software, they give them codenames.

If you're not, then basically, project codenames are the names by which the project is referred to by all concerned, until the the 'final release name' is announced shortly before the product appear on the shelves.

Such as..?
An example is that of Microsoft Windows XP - it's codename during it's development was 'Whistler', which was named after Whistler, British Columbia, where design retreats were held. So, when 'Whistler' was very nearly finished and ready for release to the world, it was announced that it would be called 'Windows XP'. (More here)

So, as I'm a software developer, and technically speaking this baby is a project of ours (albeit a life-long project!), I thought it would be a good idea to give the project a name. Hence, Juniper appeared.

Why Juniper?
Good question. Sadly, it's not named after a ski resort in British Columbia; It's actually one of the ingredients in the Carex foam soap wash in our bathroom, and it didn't sound gender specific, as at the time, we didn't know if the baby was a boy or a girl. T'is true. Daft, but true.

It turns out that, according to Wikipedia, Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the mountains of Central America. (More here)

However, this codenaming of the 'project' needed a little explanation to those outside geeky-developer-world, as some people actually thought it was the name that we had chosen for the sprog, including family as well as friends. It probably didn't help that Claire and I didn't think twice about referring to the baby as 'Juniper' during mid-conversation, even up until very recently.

Claire and I have been thinking about a 'release name' for project Juniper for months and months, and have decided that we're going to call him Jack William Rigby.

4D Scan (at 27 Weeks)

As Claire has signed up for as many free baby things as humanly-possible, it seems that we've had lots more baby-related post arrive. Amongst it all, was a leaflet from a company called Baby-Bond offering a 4D scan on unborn babies.

We had read the flyer and looked at the website and it all looked really interesting. (Having said that, at the time of seeing the website, I looked back at Claire and she was balling her eyes out!)

What's a 4D Scan?
Basically, a 4D scan is like a 3D image but in 'real-time'. This means that you can watch your baby moving around inside the belly, picking his nose, etc as if he's just a few feet away from you, sitting upright on the chair or something. This is nothing like the black and white cross-section scans done when you go for a scan on the NHS. I mention that, as this is not a service that the NHS provide, as apparently, the 4D scans can not provide any data or information with regards to measurements on the baby.

There are different packages, but the marketing is done such that you can't help but want the top-whack package. Bit like Sky TV really.

For our top-whack package, we had the 20-30 minutes of video footage recorded on a DVD, as well as some smaller and shorter video clips and photos on CD, print-outs large and small, etc.

The next package down has just the DVD video with no stills; the next package down again has the CD based stuff but no DVD, etc, so you can see what I mean about the wanting to have the best option, especially as you can ever go back and do it again. So, we were suckered in? Mostly certainly.

As the scan can be done in lots of place across the country, it's basically a case of picking the doctor's surgery near you. So, Claire booked the scan for a bit later in the pregnancy (for more interesting viewing more than anything) and picked a date so the baby was about 27 weeks old and chose a surgery in Peterborough, as it was easier for me to get to as I work there. I even managed it within a lunch-hour!

The scan was very much like having a normal ultra-sound scan, but the only difference being that the TV/monitor at the foot of the bed also had a DVD-recorder and desk-jet printer linked to it.

The scanner tool was held against Claire's belly and the usual black and white cross-section image appeared as we've seen several times before at this point, but at the click of a button, the image instantly changed to a 4D scan of young Rigby, with an orange haze to it. (There must be a technical reason for this, as I'm guessing it's dark inside there!)

As 'little Rigby' was about 27 weeks at this point, he was too big to get all of him in a picture at once, so the footage was mainly of his upper torso, head and arms. But, true to form, there, on the screen, was our unborn child waving his hands around and playing with the umbilical cord like it's a toy or something. Claire did have to get up and jump around a little bit to start with, as the cord was looped in front of his face and in our line of view, so to speak. The lady then carried on scanning, changing positions every few minutes to get a different angle, zoom depth, etc. All of this was being recorded to DVD as we were going along, and during this time, she was also pressing a button to get snapshot still images too, which she printed out later for us.

To be honest, the clarity of the video was amazing considering that this is a non-invasive scan and these video images are coming from sound waves going through Claire's stomach muscles, skin, etc., but it really weird, as it was just like watching a baby in front of us, watching as he moved his head, lips, hands and fingers. He even found the ol' Rigby charm by sticking a fore-finger up his nose, just when the lady clicked the button to take a photo! (Guess which one I chose to have blown up to A4 size...?)

The recording went on for quite a while, which was good as it really felt like you was getting your money's worth, but soon our time was up and the lady proceeded to finalise the video on the DVD whilst printing images and burning the other files (short video clip and photos) to the CD in the laptop. The photos are good, but they don't really portray the same as what we saw on the screen.

All in all, the session was good and we enjoyed it. We'll be able to look back in years and years to come and see what was waiting for us. It maybe doesn't have the same appeal to others, but to us, it was good and special and all that.

Claire's belly vs. Plaster of Paris (ModRoc)

Ages ago, whilst shopping in what felt like the world's biggest Mothercare shop, I went wandering off and found one of these kits for 'moulding a bump' - basically, a Plaster of Paris set to take a mould of the belly... fantastic.

Amazingly, Claire didn't whisk it out of the shopping basket and so we bought it for £16 or so, and since then it's sat in the back of a wardrobe, as her 'bump' wasn't that impressive. With the recent comments of the midwife that the sprog can appear at any time, Claire mentioned the kit and this morning, we used it.

The box didn't have any instructions, but found this set of instructions to taking a real-life cast on the internet literally 5 minutes before, which sort-of saved the day, as it certainly wasn't how I was thinking that I was going to do it..!

Anyway, I was hoping to get a few mid-action photos, but Claire wasn't really that impressed with the idea of me taking a photo of her standing very-nearly-naked in the bathroom wearing a plaster of paris cover on her belly, especially as she knew I wanted to put them on here!

Actually, it was a good job that no-one saw us, as I particularly looked a bit dodgy sporting the surgical gloves that come in the pack and with bandages, towels and water everywhere except where it needed to be.

All good fun, but it took at about an hour to do in total and the cast is still drying as I write this now.

It does look a bit weird, but the result is great. I just need to find a way of hanging it on the wall or something, as it's quite fragile.

What's the story so far?

So, my wife, Claire, is 38 at weeks at the moment, and we are expecting a baby boy anytime now (according to the midwife), as she is technically 'full-term'.

We went for a scan on New Year's Eve 2008, whereby we was told that young Junior is estimated at being about 8lbs now and could be 9-9.5lbs at birth, if born on the 40th week. These calculations have all been done by measurements of the circumference of the head and abdomen, as well as thigh-bone length. All measurements are recorded on-screen during the scan and held on an NHS computer somewhere. The results are plotted on graph print-outs each time by the midwife and given to the parents, as this forms an on-going record that they can grab at any time and run off to the hospital when needed.

They also told us that the baby has a slightly larger than normal head circumference, for the 'average' babies at this age, which is highlighted on the graphs, as his head-size is outside the projected lines of min and max. But they also said not to worry, as this is nothing abnormal, and that babies born like that balance out over time.

Of course, the first thing that Claire's realised, is that this baby is going to be a fair size to give birth to! Possibly 9lb baby, with a huge head too... I can't see the problem myself - good job that women don't get Man-Flu. Where would we be then?

Hello and welcome to my blog!

Hello and thanks for reading the start of my very first blog!

The purpose of setting up this blogging area was for me to take note on joys of becoming a father for the first time. Blogs are designed for reader participation also and so you are welcome to comment on anything I've written here if you wish, particularly if you disagree with anything I've said, as I am certainly no expert!