Happy New...........Baby :o)

First post of 2010 and a happier post it could not be;

Joseph Revell Cornell was born at 6.52am on Tuesday 19th January weighing a hefty 9lb 2oz.

He was 13 days late in arriving so kept us hanging on, and then when he did decide to make an appearance it was done in a hurry...!

Quick Birth Summary; Jen's contractions started at around 8pm on Monday 18th and the contractions were on average 8min 13.7 seconds apart!! Yep it was another chance for my inner geek to try and prove it's usefulness with an application for my iPhone called Labor Mate (American Spelling)

I was told to go to bed around midnight as there was apparently no point in us both staying awake when they were that far apart! I was woken by my mobile ringing not long after 3am, and it was Jen calling from downstairs (!) to inform me they were now approximately every 4 minutes. ('Approximately' - cha, have I not taught this girl anything?!). Anyway, by the time we'd woke my parents up and my Mam came round to stay with Abigail, it was 4.50am when we arrived at the Wansbeck General Hospital maternity ward.

I'll miss the graphic detail out of the next few hours, but if you're keen to hear them Jen is only to pleased to explain them all first hand.!

So two hours after arriving at the Hospital, Joseph was born. Jen's birth record actually mentions that the second stage labour was less than 15 minutes!

The speed of the birth caused a bit of shock for Joseph and he swalled some Meconium on the way out. As a result he spent a day in the Special Care Unit whilst they flushed any remnants of the stuff from his lungs, and gave him an anti-biotic to fight any possible infection. I did a Charity Bike Ride with Abigail in August last year (pics here), in aid of the Wansbeck Special Care Baby Unit and as much as it felt like a good cause at the time, it's only when your child is in there and you see the amazing work they do there that you can really appreciate it.

Jospeh was back with Jen on the Ward for their second night in hospital, and after being given a clean bill of health I brought them home on Friday 22nd January.

Everyone's first question is always "What's Abigail like with him'.....

She didn't really grasp the whole baby thing when he was in Hospital, as it was more of a bigger deal for her to be going to visit Mammy.

She was kind of curious on his first day at home, in that she would smile and point wouldn't really go too close to him.

The next day although she appeared to be taking it in her stride, Abigail was getting a bit upset whenever Joseph cried.

By his 3rd day at home though, she became the perfect little Sister; full of cuddles, saying his name, giving him toys and stroking his head whenever he made the slightest little whimper.

It was all really interesting to see, and impossible not to get a little teary as she has bonded with him more and more. It was also difficult not to laugh when the first time Abgail decided she wanted to hold Joseph on her knee, that he then promptly broke wind :o) .....

Joseph is simply what I would describe as 'chilled out'. He lets us know immediately when he wants his food, makes it obvious when he still has wind to bring up, and sleeps completely soundly. He has a feed around 11-12pm, another around 3-4am and then the morning one is from 6.30 - 7.30am, all of which means we certainly can't complain about the amount of sleep we have been managing to get right from day one.

Although I always suspected that things may be easier the second time around for us as parents of a new born in that we'd have more of an idea of what to expect, I actually underestimated how much of a difference the experience from Abigail would make. Jen and I are both so much more relaxed and able to enjoy this precious family time without that slight niggle at the back of your mind about whether you're doing everything right.

For anyone reading this who has been round to visit with a gift, or sent a card/gift in the mail - can I just say a big THANK YOU. You are all extremely generous. (Jen's badgering me to sort out Thank You cards which I will get too eventually!). The boxes and boxes of neatly folded Pink baby clothes from when Abigail was born turned out to be of no use, but Joseph already has a full blue wardrobe from all of the gifts he's received.

Even when I cannot find the time to update this blog, I will continue to post regular pictures of both Abigail and Joseph on our Flickr page so please check there regularly. And of course Jen will post a selection now and again on Facebook.

Joseph's Flickr set here. Thanks for reading.

A picture paints a thousand words..

...so it saves me having to type long blog posts....!

Eventually got round to uploading pictures from the past 4 months onto Flickr last week;

In August it was Peter and Joanne's wedding, and I was his Best Man.

I stayed at the Village Hotel with Peter and the two Ushers the night before the wedding. The reception was at North Shields Registry Office and then everyone headed back for a Garden Party at Joanne and Peter's house, where yes I had to make a speech!
The evening doo was then at Seaton Sluice club.

O'Brien Flickr Set and Slide Show.


Also took Abigail to SevenStories for the first time in August, and she loved it.
It was early on a Sunday morning and she basically had the run of the place.

Definitely somewhere we'll take her too more often and it's probably also somewhere relaxing to go when we've two children in tow...!

SevenStories Flickr Set and Slideshow.



In September it was Andrew (Maddy) and Sara's wedding, and I was an Usher.

The whole day was at Doxford Hall, which I have to say is one stunning place.

Maddison Wedding Flickr Set and Slideshow.


Then finally just to explain the last of the Flickr photos, I attended a charity day at The Races where I got to meet Alan Shearer and current Newcastle Goal Keeper Steve Harper.

On the subject of photographs, I recently came to the conclusion that it's time I moved on from Compact Digital Cameras to the real deal Digital SLR Camera format.
Sold my old one on good old eBay and the new one is due to arrive any day now, so expect a shed load more pics starting to appear on Flickr....! Could have waited for possible bargains in the sales but I need to make sure I'm familiar on how the thing works before baby no.2 arrives, and as you can see from the count down at the top of this page that's really not long at all now.
Jen is doing really, really well and she literally NEVER moans or complains during pregnancy. Don't get me wrong I know she's getting towards her limit now and is about ready to pop, but it has to be said that she's an amazing mother.
It's also a bit worrying that people are forever commenting that she suits being pregnant....!!!!

Another member to join the Cornell household

As most people will now know, and as briefly mentioned in an earlier post, Jen is pregnant again :o)
Our latest addition, still code named Button2 at the time of writing, is due around the 4th of January 2010. I say 'around' the 4th because we've had 2 scans (1 private and 1 NHS) and the predicated dates vary between the 4th and 6th of Jan. Also when we had the private scan they had the facility to do 4D images as well as the usual 2D. They're not that clear at this stage of the pregnancy but still interesting to see and extremely clever when you take into account how small baba is at this stage.

Jen's doing really well and touch wood no morning sickness this time either so far. Obviously there are days when she's absolutely shattered from running after Abigail etc but she never complains about it. Feel really sorry for her at the minute though because she's been suffering really bad with her hayfever. Normally a tablet tends to calm it down, but she doesn't have that option with being pregnant.

Timing wise Jen should start her maternity leave when she finishes work for Christmas so that works out quite nicely. And let's just say the usual question of "What we going to do for New Year", won't be getting asked in our house this year!!

There'll be 2 and a half years between Abigail and Button2 which is about what we'd always hoped for. Certainly different to the 8 years between me and my Brother! Abigail is fascinated with "Babas" and I can't wait to see her with a new baby in the house....

"Our survey says..."

As you may have spotted I've had a 'mini-poll' running in the side-bar of our blog to guess the sex of button.

Well the votes are counted and the results are in....

Button is now Abigail Lily and interestingly most people got the result wrong.

Obviously there will be loads more Abigail postings and photos to come once Mother and Daughter come home from hospital and things settle down a bit....if ever!!

N.B. Now that the poll is gone the annoying blooming pop-ups should now stop...!!

D-Day + 10

By D-Day plus 10 in the famous 'Operation Overlord' D-Day operations, Eisenhower had managed to land 18 divisions of men on the beaches of Normandy.

Whereas in modern times we're at D-Day plus 10 and there's still no sign of Button's arrival just off the beaches of Blyth....!!

Still all quiet

Well the countdown might say this is the due day, but there's still no signs at all of Button making an appearance.

Never being one for letting Jen have all the attention it was me that ended up going to the hospital this morning with an infected eye! Yep it was the same hospital where Jen's meant to be giving birth. Typical eh, - went to the hospital as planned on the due date but for the wrong reason!!

Loose Ends

If I had a pound for everytime someone's tried to lecture me about how much my life is about to change with the arrival of the baby, blah, blah, blah, I'd be a seriously rich man by now.

I can't help but think though, that a few other things going on elsewhere in my life also seem to be drawing to a close in preparation, - it's bizarre...!

- Football. The end of the season, including cup finals couldn't have been timed better.

- TV Shows. The main TV we watch is American downloads (as we're too impatient to wait for the UK releases!). This week, E.R, 24, Lost and Heroes have ALL had their double bill season finales! Managed to catch all of them.

- Work. Even at work there have been a number of large projects recently that have just finished, and others about to start in a few weeks time. Obviously this one won't have gone to plan like the others if Button decides to delay his/her arrival!!

- Smoking Ban. July the 1st sounds nearly ideal for a smoking ban to start in England for a baby being born into the World about now.

I guess the main thing that never comes to a natural stop in my book is alcohol....As they say, "There's never a good time to stop drinking"!!.

Not long now

Well I've no idea where the last 9 months went, but Button's arrival could literally be any time now.

Jen's still doing fine - apart from a massive dose of hayfever kicking in at the worst possible time of year for her! It was her Birthday on Tuesday and it was certainly a strange one. What do you buy a 40 week pregnant woman?!?!!!
We managed to make it as much of an event as possible anyway, and went out for a meal etc.

We're all ready now and it's just a case of playing the waiting game.....

EDIT: I've just noticed that the rabbit at the top of the page is running out of ground..!

Red, 'Amber'......GO!!! *

After a hugely eventful year, it's a massive CONGRATULATIONS again to Ross and Pinar this time on the birth of their daughter Amber Charlotte.
They had a stressful couple of days leading up to the birth, but Amber's here now so that'll all soon be forgotten about. Keep an eye on their blog for more updates, pics, videos......

*Sorry - I know that's a terrible headline, but it's Ross that's the journo!

Star Wars Academy

Jen mentioned some posters around her work for a Star Wars event at a local high school where "the man who plays Darth Vader will be there". As any Star Wars fan worth their salts knows - David Prowse was also the 'Green Cross Code Man'.
I didn't have much fancy to go because I thought it would just be some plain clothed bloke signing stuff surrounded by annoying teenagers. (How old do I sound!). However one my mate's girlfriend lives at the school (Dad's the caretaker - still following this?!), and he rang to say there were load's of Stormtroopers there. Well that was enough for me to jump in the car complete with camera and Jen in Tow...!
I don't think the event had been advertised very well as there weren't many people there, - either that or the school decided it was too 'un-cool' or summit, but it worked out better for us! Photo opportunities galore!!
The costumed crew were all from UK Garrison, which judging from the website is of huge importance to it's members. They were certainly very accurate and imaculate costumes, and the way they acted combined with their digitally sythesized voices all made for a great effect.
Another of my mates turned up later with his 1 year old son, and the local press loved the photo's they got with the pair of them and the Stormtroopers. They'll be in our local rag next week.
I totally didn't agree with the way they were charging for David Prowse's autograph, but I wasn't too bothered as it's not what I went along for.

EDIT: It is worth pointing out that Jen is seriously not happy with being pictured in the same top in 2 consecutive blog entries!! (If only I was better with Photoshop!).

Where did the last 7 months go?!

Time is really flying now and all of a sudden there's only 7 weeks to go.

People have said that the last few weeks seem to take an age, but I'm starting to wonder!

Jen only has 9 days left at work (at the time of writing), and her hours are being reduced each week. - There's a lot to be said for working in the public sector I tell ya!

4D, - The Garlic Bread of scanning

We went to BabyView in Barnsley last Friday to have a 4D scan. Yeah ok, you could argue there are other things we could have done with the money but what the hell, money came from the sale of an old TV anyway!

I wasn't too sure what to expect because there are some less than impressive examples of this technique on the internet. It also depends which way the baby is lying. i.e. if it's back is facing forward (if you see what I mean), there isn't anything to see. As is happens, Button was facing forward and awake so we got some quite impressive results. We got a DVD film of the scan and also a cd with 30 odd photos on it, - the best of which I've flickr'd. The images are all rotated through 180 degrees, i.e. baby is acually upside down - as it should be during the pregnancy. Yes it is possible to again find out 100% what the sex is during the process, but we chose not to. (The person carrying out the process had actually identified 5 cases in the last year where the sex he determined was different to that given by doctors in the earlier 2D scan!). To clarify the difference, - the pictures are classed as 3D and the DVD film is classed as 4D.

After the scan we carried on down to London for the weekend and attended the Baby Show at the ExCeL, London on the Saturday. Got there quite early before the crowds started around lunchtime. Was quite an interesting day, - obviously there were freebies galore as you'd expect at these things, but there were also some good stage talks; There was one from St John's Ambulance about Baby first aid, then another from Annabel Karmel about Baby nutrition. Flickr'd some pics of the event.

Then seeing as the Saturday was also my Birthday we did a bit of London exploring! We decided to head to Hamley's via Piccadilly Circus for some photo's on the way. Quite a busy day really and Jen did amazingly well considering the miles we put in and the how far on she is!
I was surprised at how on every Tube journey there was always someone courteuos enough to offer Jen their seat! Not what I would have expected in London.
One of the most bizarre things we came across was a London transport employee who's job seemed to be to warn people about the dangers of standing under a ledge full of pigeons on one of the platforms....which was covered in their mess!

Went out for a meal with my family on the evening before heading home on Sunday to relax!

Blooming

Jen's now 25 weeks gone, and not everyone see's her regularly so thought it was about time we posted a pic of her bump.

Photo was taken at 24 weeks, and she's getting bigger by the day!

We're busy sorting the nursery now,- of course that involves decorating just about the whole of the upstairs of the house!

Also been getting rid of a shed load (literally) of furniture; Bookcase, DVD rack, Dining Table and chairs have all gone. Just a TV unit and a Sunbed to go now.....and takers??. I'll give them a week and then they're getting skipped!!

Last of the scheduled scans

Had the 20week scan last week, which is actually the last of the scheduled scans.
The baby is of such a size at this point that it doesn't all fit on the screen in one go!
During every scan we've had, the baby has been jumping all over the place! - Legs a kicking and arms a waving. It's certainly entertaining to watch and you never fail to get a view from all angles!
No, before you ask - we didn't ask to find out the sex which is offered as part of the scan.

Button's Latest Scan

Been a very stressful couple of weeks for us with Button as most of you will know. (Won't be going into that here).

We're back on track now, and the timing couldn't have been better. The best Christmas present we could have asked for :o)

This scan was taken after 15 weeks and 5 days but we've kept it to ourselves until now.

Button Flickr'd

I've created a new photo set on Flickr of Button's progress so far.....:o)

"Button" Scan pic

Here's a pic from Jen's recent scan at 12 weeks and 4 days into the pregnancy. It's probably worth mentioning at this point that the baby has been code named 'Button' from Day 1!!