Summer days out in the summer sun

We finally made it out yesterday to enjoy the sunshine in Lythm St Annes. ( Katie... we can just imagine you as a teenager walking up and down the high Street) Apart from bringing the average age down to 65, we had a great time lying on the green having a picnic and walking the long promenade. It was also a good chance to try out the baby bjorn, she seems to like it, what a cool way to carry a baby!
She continues to be great, her rash seems to have cleared up. Today the trauma is the BCG, we will fill you all in on how that goes but we are not looking forward to it! Let's hope that she is a lot more chilled out than her parents on this one!

A tiring weekend for Emily ( but lots of fun)

Sleeping alfresco... what a tiring day!
Meeting Lucy

To dummy or not to dummy? that is the question

Emily has found her hand! Not only does she like to look at it a lot, but she has realised that it tastes good. She is now regularly seen with most of her hand stuffed into her mouth and plenty of drool dripping off her chin. If she is feeling less peckish she can manage just her thumb. So here is the question. To dummy or not to dummy? Any ideas? Answers on a postcard please.

We had a great weekend. It was a real honour and pleasure to share Mark and Tomoko's wedding day. It was a truly amazing day with a great mix of traditions spanning across the world. Emily especially liked the farm noises whilst we preferred the heartfelt and entertaining speeches and traditional music from Japan. It was asloe really nice to meet up with friends from near and far and introduce our god-daughter to our daughter. It was a fabulous day, and yet another first for Emily.

We then visited the NYI Youth holiday yesterday. It was quite strange as we haven't been on a youth holiday since we got married. ( 6 years ago) ... We slept on Oswestry floor for one night the year after we got married but I don't think that counts! We were chatting about that and Jamie hadn't missed a holiday until then, having been to 12 consecutive holidays since being 12 years old! It was also quite strange because a girl tapped him on the shoulder and said, "did you do the music at holidays before? I came to Bearwood with a lady called Rosemary Arnold." That really was a blast from the past as the Bearwood holidays were 1994, 95 and 96! We started dating on the 1995 holiday... 11 years ago today in fact! That is enough nostalgia, but it must be said that NYI holidys were the highlight of our summers, they were (and maybe still are) a great way to meet new people, attend great services and to feel recharged in faith.

It was a great but busy weekend, Emily slept from 11 pm through to 5.30 ( Sat night) and 4.30 (Sun). I think she found it quite a tiring time for her... well she really can sleep anywhere! (Photo to follow)

Why can you only upload a max of 3 photos per blog?

Dunham's friendly residents

Emily doing her exercises (complete with rash) on her gym mat

One of the nicest places in Earth ( that I have been to!)

Dunham Massey. Jamie and I have spent some of our best and worst days here, we have had pleasant and not so pleasant conversations, make good and bad decisions, had sun, wind, rain and even snow and it is a place that we just love to visit.

It is only fitting that we would introduce Emily to the National Trust property and see if she likes it as much as us. As she spent most of the time sleeping with her usual 'Hallelujah' style pose we assume that she agrees with her parents.

We also bumped into some Dunham residents who weren't feeling camera shy.
Emily has also been developing her voice and making sounds, as well as her arms and legs flailing around when she is on her gym mat.

It truly is amazing how quickly she is changing and growing. We are both so aware of the blessing of Jamie's long holidays - it has been great to be learning together and sharing the responsibilities in this way. On the sleeping front she is doing well but she really is an early wake up call between 6 - 7.30 am EVERY day!

Sadly for Emily she has developed a red rash on her face, neck and chest, we have been told it may be exczema? (spelling?) but it is too early to diagnose. It looks so red and sore, if we are honset it is so hard not to be neurotic, it looks bad to us but we are sure it will clear up soon. next week she gets her BCG, THEN we will be neurotic!
That's all from us today, a visit to Tesco, a Youth Team meeting, a trip to the 'walk in clinic' to check out the rash, grandmum popping in to reassure us about the rash, and england looking like they will win a friendly against Greece ( it's 4 nil at the mo!)

Just a few shots sorry if you are bored!

Another First and a busy week!

Yes.... we left Emily last night with some keen babysitters ( Grandparents) whilst we went to the cinema to see Pirates of the Carribean. We were gone for 4 hours and really enjoyed the film. It was great to spend some time, just the two of us. We love being parents and being with Emily is just the best, but it was nice to be out without the nappy bag! She had a great time with her grandparents, a walk, a visit to neighbours, a bath, lots of food and a nap! What a lot of activity in 4 hours! We are so blessed to have family so near by.
On the routine front, Emily is catching on quite well. We are not sticking religiously to it, but she is going to sleep between 7-8pm and sleeping until 10 -11 then feeding and sleeping until 3 or 4 then up between 6 and 7! We are hoping that this will continue and that we may even have a full night sleep in the next few months! The feeding is getting better too, she has finally learnt how to drink from a bottle, the drool and sogginess is reducing but it is still pretty bad. About hair... she is still losing it. Every morning there is so much on the sheets, I never knew it would just 'rub' off!
Bathing.. Emily has now found her feet and legs and has begun to kick in the bath. We dread to think how messy this may become.
This week we hope to attend baby massage, baby clinic, Jamie's school on GCSE results day and at the weekend we are so excited about our friends Mark and Tomoko's wedding. Another busy week just gone by with lots of exciting and new things, we look forward to the joys this new week will bring.

Balding!

And it's not Jamie!
Yes the dreaded time is here, Emily has been losing her hair for a few days and now sports a crew-cut most soldiers would be proud of!

Private McCulloch reporting for duty!

We have also tried Gina Ford's routine over the past few days, it is so hard to know what to do to do the right thing, but last night she slept from 7.30 pm till 10pm then 10.30 until 2 am, then 2.30 until 6.30am. The biggest advantage to that was that J and I had evening time. Cleaning, ironing, putting stuff away, having tea etc. Nothing exciting or glamourous!
So we are following the gospel according to Gina, sometimes it works sometimes Emily tells us she doesn't like auntie Gina and rebels! We will see how this goes. We have just over 3 weeks before J goes back to work, we would like an established routine if Emily allows us! I tried giving her her first piano lesson, she seems to like the piano, - she heard a lot of it whilst growing inside!

* It must be said, Emily is a great baby and is doing brilliantly. For all the weightwatchers out there, she was weighed on Tuesday (5 weeks old) and now weighs a healthy and bouncy 9lb 9oz. She has also begun to smile (especially at J) and continues to bring much joy to all who meet her!*

DIARY DATE:

Dedication Service and Celebration ~ Saturday 21st October @ 3pm here in Manchester.

Anniversaries!

Well, yesterday we celebrated 6 years of marriage together. I have to say it was a funny experience because we had both been unable to buy each other a gift or even a card! Such has been the change to our lives with the arrival of Emily that certain other responsibilities have been put on the backburner! We of course will try to make sure we get out together and leave Emily with some willing baby sitters!

Of course we also need to congratulate the Hendricks on their 6 years of marriage together. As they married the day after us it will always be easy for us to remember their special day!! We also need to add a happy birthday to Sara who celebrated this in the middle of moving house! Hope you found some time to get out for an A&W's Rootbeer float or something!

This week... Happy Anniversary to Lucy and David and Esther and Eifion. Enjoy your special days. Anniversaries are special occassions and should be celebrated.

Here are a few shots from the last week or so:

Emily modelling Uncle Dave and Aunty Nic's choice of clothing (good choice!)
New found pleasure in a bubbly bath (bubbles introduced this week!)
Cuddles and smiles with Grandmum and Great-Nana
Fun and amazement in Uncle David and Aunty Jude's funky pressie

Home

We're home!
we had a fabulous visit and got to spend some great family time together with Nana, Judith and David, Emma, Paul and Ellie-May and Delwyn. It was fun to have the car too, to zoom around and visit a few touristy places. Emily is now asleep in her own crib again probably oblivious to her first trip to her granny and grandad's but we and they won't forget it!
All is well after our first trip with a 2 week old baby.(We won't be doing a ten hour journey again for quite a while!)

experimenting

4 weeks today...would you Adam and Eve it?!

Just waking up today realising that Emily has made it to 4 weeks - ALREADY! Where has the time gone? I'm sure only yesterday I was trying to make sure Julie-Ann's pregnant body was getting enough rest. But, instead yesterday we spent at the seaside with our new little daughter!
All nine of us toddled off to Newcastle for the day expecting to enjoy the sun, sea and ice-cream that British seaside resorts offer. We only managed 2 out of 3 and I bet you can imagine which one we missed out on!

A lovely picnic interupted only by wasps, wind and rain!

After a frantic picnic we took a stroll along the promenade (be careful how you pronounce that Gregster!) only to get blown away and rained on yet again (Emma and Paul had just spent £35 on a rain cover for their pram - it was well used today!). We had to make a quick escape in order to find some cover, which we did - an arcade!

After wasting our money trying to win cuddly toys using those grappling machines and shoving endless amounts of 2 pences into a pointless sliding game, we moved on my favourite place ...the ice-cream parlour! (Picture to follow in next blog!)

After enjoying a variety of sweet things we knew we had to get back as the raining was shrinking our options of what to do at the seaside! All money spent we got back into our cars and came home for a BBQ - done on the kitchen grill of course!

So, a quick summary of Emily's first month:

• visited Manchester city centre
• been to Primary and Secondary School
• been to Scotland and Norther Ireland
• been on a ferry
• met her Great-nana and other various extended family members
• watched her first 11-a-side football match
• slept through 4 sermons
• joined the library
• been up Cave Hill (in Belfast)
• suffered through a heat wave
• endured rain (now in Belfast!)
• had a 6-and-a-half hour sleep at night - hallelujah!
• endures Dad's silly songs
• brought lots of smiles and joys

We look forward to the next month - hope it goes a bit slower than this past one!

The Power Lead is back!!

Just a short post to say that things are going pretty well here in Belfast. Emily has had a couple of dodgy nights where we have been experiencing new types of behaviour from our daughter. They have led to less sleep on occassions and the odd paranoid state of - 'is everything alright?!?!' You'll be glad to know that everything is alright, we are justing getting to know Emily more day by day (and night by night!)
Here are a few shots from the days past: (and the lead is back!)

Emily visits Belfast Castle on a cold and wet evening. JA and I took our friends for a walk around here the day after we got married (6 years ago this Saturday)

The Castle

Sleeping beauties

We planned to have a picnic today but unfortunately the weather got the better of us. As we ate indoors the 2 girls decided they would sleep through it! It was nice for Emily to be with all her Northern Irish Aunts and Uncles. Emma wishes that Ellie-May would sleep as much at night as she does during the day!

Emily again looks on bewildered as mum shoves the camera in her face.

And there's more!

Emily likes it when people get down to her level!

Emily enjoys reading 'Fluffy Chick' for the 16th time in her short, yet wonderful, life!

Emily just loves posing!

Solution Found!

We managed to get Dad Patterson's computer working upstairs and were able to download some pictures so here we go!

Cousins go shopping together in their matching outfits!

Mother and daughter enjoy the sunshine in Bangor

Emily sleeps peacefully through her night time bath ... for once!

Emily poses for her portfolio shoot. Gid, what do you reckon?

Posting Problems

Well folks, it has been a little while since we have blogged but we have a reason for this. We brought our laptop here with us to Belfast in order to keep the blog updated with pictures and comments from our stay. However, on Sunday night, whilst packing, mum and dad Patterson mistakenly took our power lead with them to Romania!
As a result we have a computer with not very much charge so we are trying to save its use. We will not receive the charger until we are back in Manchester on the 4th August so must make 1 hours charge time last 10 days!!
We are going to try using our other family members computers but may have problems downloading pictures, which I believe is the most popular part of this site!
Anyway, we have had a great time visiting parts of Belfast, the seaside, hosting in our parent's home and being invited to other people's houses.
Emily is doing well and even managed to slepp for SIX hours on the trot the other night! Her parents were especially grateful. So, be prepared to wait a while for news but we will battle on through these tough times in order to satisfy you readers out there.

Emily's First Road Trip

Well, Friday saw Emily's first big journey on road and sea. She actually managed to make it to 3 countries in 1 day! We set off from Manchester at 3pm and managed a 1 and a half hour journey, took a break and then a 3 hour journey to our destination. Emily did us proud by sleeping throughout the whole thing. She really is a miracle child (not like her mum who cried for the first 18 months of her life)!
The boat set off at 10:30 and once again Emily set herself down and slept through it all.

After a quick boat ride (2 hours), a short drive (so nice to have our own car in NI for a change!) we were ringing the door bell at 1am.

Saturday gave the family a chance to meet - especially the first opportunity for cousins to see each other and the new Aunts and Uncles. An amazing experience, especially for the proud grandparents!

The afternoon provided another special moment. Emily went to visit her Great Grandmother at the hospital, but unfortunately Nana was unable to hold or touch her as she has an infection. It was a sad yet amazing visit as Nana is not so well but it was wonderful having 4 generations of the family together.

The evening ended with a surge of visitors in the Patterson house celebrating 2 births and 2 birthdays and a new house. They don't do things in singles at the Patterson house!

A tiring day but so nice to introduce Emily to so many expected family and friends, including 3 Uncles, an Aunt, a cousin, Great Grandmother and so many other Greataunts,uncles and cousins.

Lost blog

Oh I have just noticed the blog I thought I had lost has arrived/returned/been found today so you got the story of Emily growing twice!
Sorry about that!

Still growing

I know babies are supposed to grow and grow quickly, but not this fast. Emily was discharged yesterday from the midwifery team, a healthy and portly 8 lbs 4 oz! She is feeding well and sleeping well. We still have only one get up in the night ( we know we are blessed!) We are starting to know what she wants, it is usually food, so all is going well.
We are taking her on her first holiday and road trip tomorrow. Jamie's nana is in hospital in N. Ireland and my parents are returning to Romania for the rest of the summer on Sunday so we are shooting off to see them before they go and intorduce Emily to her great grandmother, what a cool thing to be able to do!. We are also excited about meeting our niece. Ellie-May is doing really well, she too was discharged from the midwifery team at a slightly slimmer 7lbs 8 oz! It is Emma's birthday tomorrow, my dad's on Saturday, Judith and David have just moved house and nearly finished the DIY and we have two healthy babies in the family. All in all the Pattersons have a lot to celebrate and give thanks for.
The heat is lovely to enjoy and get out and enjoy being outside, but as Emily isn't so keen on wearing just her nappy she is pretty grouchy and sweaty- especially in the evenings ( we have to keep her in her vest!). We have invested in a fan, but we are draining the national grid, not a cheap or environmentally friendly thing to do! It is a relief when she nods off as she is so uncomfortable.
For all of you out there who are struggling to sleep in this heat, take a leaf out of Emily's book and 'sleep like a baby!'

15 days old on a very hot day!

Yes today is Emily's 15th day in the world and she is not particularly enjoying the hot weather. She doesn't seem to like being naked so it is a bit of a problem when we take her clothes off to cool her down!
Today she was discharged from the midwife at a mighty 8 lbs 4 oz in weight. The midwife assures me that it is encouraging that she is thriving and putting so much on so quickly. I am not so sure but I have to trust her!
My niece was also discharged today at a healthy 7lbs 8 oz so all is well there too.
We are taking Emily on her first road trip and holiday the weekend. We are going to Northern Ireland to visit with my parents before the got to Romania on Monday and also to visit our Nana who is in hospital. We are looking forward to introducing Emily to her great grandmother, cousins, uncles, aunts and extended family. We are excited about the visit but are also aware that the drive is pretty long with a 2 1/2 week old baby and with Jamie working this week, tying up loose ends at school and looking after us in the middle of the night, I know he is pretty shattered. We will flop after the weekend and chill out in the beautiful countryside and scenery of N.Ireland.

Back to school for daddy

Today was Jamie's first day back at work since Emily arrived. We have been spoiled having him around constantly for the past 2 weeks. I think Emily has missed his voice today, ( his silly songs, sounds and story times) I have tried my best but I just can replicate him.
We have had a lovely day. I think she has been zonked because of the heat and has slept for most of the day, but when awake she has been to visit Betty from church. She is an 86 year old lady who is awaitng heart surgery. Betty informed me today that she gave birth to both her children in her front room - in the house that she still lives in today! ( Her children are over 60!) What a lady!

We also enjoyed a picnic lunch with Auntie Dee, Emily slept through it all, but we adults enjoyed our sandwiches!
For all of you bath watchers out there, she is making progress. Last night we had to wake her up to have her bath and nightfeed. Either she pretended to be asleep to get over the upheaval and ordeal or she is just soothed by the whole experience! No more extreme baths! Look at that cute face!

She has grown so much she now can sit in her auntie Judith and Uncle David's bouncy chair complete with jungle and water music accompaiment! It is crazy how much she has grown. She gets weighed tomorrow, I am bracing myself to be told that she needs to go on a diet!

Emily was also pleased to see her grandad back from the southern hemisphere. After a delayed flight he arrived home from Brazil, with pressies and gifts from Cococabana beach! A little puppy called Russ! Again a busy couple of days!

Lazy Saturday afternoons in the sun

We have had such a busy week doing the rounds so we thought we would try the whole 'stay at home and chill thing!' We like it! Emily enjoyed her first sleep outside in her Moses basket from her great aunt and uncle and great cousins (thanks again) whilst we got to eat al fresco.

It is so great to have outside space to enjoy- especially in the weather we are currently having. We even had to go to borrow Grandmum and Grandad's parasol. ( thankfully it was easier to use than the pram one!)

A lovely day yet again, with her sleeping through her bathtime, ( not so extreme now granda!) and going down to sleep at 10 pm sleeping through until 3 am awake for 30 mins and back down until 6.20 am. I think the chilled out day really helped for a chilled out night!