Good news travels fast

Yesterday we flew in to Minneapolis airport and as soon as Char, Erin's mum, turned up we were whisked away to see Erin's grandparents.

As usual Grandma Jane had some supper ready for us and was all ears at our foreign adventure stories. When Erin said she wanted to show her some photos she didn't really know what to do with some black and white and not very clear seeming polaroids.  She looked at them, then again, then turned them upside down, looked at them again the right way up and with a little help from Erin's smile realised what they were.  She turned round and automatically gave Erin a huge hug as she asked: 'Are you pregnant?' She knew the answer.

Two minutes later Erin's cousin, Cory, turned up with his wife as did one of her aunts.  It's fair to say that most of Erin's family, and there's a lot of them, will now know, 24 hours later.

Over the pond

We're off to the States for a few weeks.  This will be a time of telling Erin's extended family about our news - only her folks, brothers, sister and their spouses know.

I'm sure there will be lots to report.

It'll be a lot of whooping, hurrahs and people saying...Finally, as Erin's grandparents have 12 great-grandchildren already.    

Life and death - a tribute to eight o clock

On Wednesday and Thursday night we called, sent emails and texts to people to let them know our news.

We talked about the scan, how it's been very difficult to keep the secret, when the due date is, where we're going to live in the future, if the baby will be English and the death of Eight O Clock and her chicken friends.

I'll explain.

Our friends Johnny and Jo and their two adorable children live in Cardiff in a beautiful cottage with everyone's dream garden.  In it is a tree house, adventure climbing frame, a never ending shed, and a chicken coup which houses four hens and three ducks.

Our conversation went something like:

Me: Hi Jo, it's Jason.

Jo: Oh hi Jase how are you?

Me: Very well thanks, you?

Jo: Er, not so great really.

Me: Why not?

Jo: Well, it's a bit superficial really, I'm all right I suppose.

Me:  No, go on. What's wrong?

Jo:  Well, a fox has killed all our animals.

Me:  What?

Jo: Yeah, it must have been last night and our garden just looks like a greek tragedy now.

Silence

Jo: So, no more Eight O Clock.

To explain, You couldn't have made up Eight O Clock.  He was the runt of the litter. A weird looking, bedraggled duck which strangely bossed all the animals around while simultaneously making humans fall in love with him. Nobody even thought, let alone mentioned orange sauce around him. 

Me: How have the kids taken it?

Jo:  Well, the eldest (who's 7) seems to be taking it in his stride and I'm sure will want to talk about it more in the next few days while the youngest(who's 3) keeps walking around shouting duck dead. Chicken dead. Duck dead, without any idea of what she's saying at all.  

She giggled then asked how I was.  I said something like, well from death to er, life.  Erin's expecting and she shrieked with Joy. 

Is this life going full circle? 

  

 

Bellyache

Today, Erin experienced what many pregnant women have uttered either on blogs or in person happen. She had her belly patted.  Some friends of ours saw this happening and seemed stunned, reacting: 'Is he allowed to do that?'

I wasn't sure and neither was Erin but three different people did it independently - admittedly, all are pretty close friends. It was a bit of a surprise as neither Erin nor I have been this excited while seeing other pregnant friends or family.

While chatting, after we left the party, Erin said she generally doesn't feel like she looks pregnant and that she has just put a little weight on and when her belly is touched she gets quite self-conscious. She's not showing too much and nobody seems to notice that she's pregnant unless we or others in the group talk about it. But when people see her for the first time since they've found out they get very excited.  I guess that's how people want to show their affection, instead of a usual hug.

Erin's also become conscious that people are talking to her as if she's now a pregnancy expert and other topics of conversations are difficult to get into even though she's the same intelligent, arty, politically minded, interesting person as before.

On another note, apparently pregnancy can lead not only to a loss of teeth but loss of brain cells.  Is this for the father too?  Erin hasn't demonstrated too much difference in her thinking and levels of concentration but I seem to be losing it for two.  

I've forgotten my Oyster Card twice this week.  The second time was after making sure Erin had hers.  I went back for mine, got it, then dropped it as it was supposed to go in my pocket, I carried on to the bus stop where Erin was waiting and then had to trace my steps right back home to eventually find it.  

If I can't look after a little card how am I suppose to bring up a child?  At the party people were telling me I'll be a great dad.  I really do hope so.

Text your name

I got a text on Thursday from Fred saying: 'Another name for you to consider. Paul.  Think about it.'

I don't think so.

Later on that evening Chris sent one saying: 'Off The Waller? or Berlin Waller?'

Random but brought a smile.  And nice to know that conversations can continue long after they started.

I don't think there are any more puns on my name.  And Fred seems to think Off The Waller was mentioned last Saturday. If there are any more we don't mind hearing them if you don't mind not being taken very seriously.

Elevating hearts - the first scan

We set off to the hospital for the 12 week scan with around 3/4 hour to spare. We decided to go by bus rather than bike as it was threatening to rain. Two buses came which weren't ours, then the 77 arrived but looked very full. We squeezed on and then the bus squeezed it's way through the traffic to St Thomas' Hospital, very slowly.

Surprisingly we made it with a few minutes to spare. All we had to do was to get to the North Wing and to floor 8. It wasn't difficult to find, and neither were the elevators where we waited for one to come.

But this was a bit of a rigmarole.

There were 7 elevators but they were either going the wrong way, full, or had flashing signs saying Emergency Use Only, Out of Order, or - unnervingly - Crash Test to Follow. After 10 minutes, a few curses of the NHS, and a shove here and there we managed to get one. All we then had to do was manually shove the doors closed - in the 21st century? - and off we were, stopping at every floor before we got to the 8th.

I had suggested the stairs, twice, but Erin played the pregnancy card and claimed she was suddenly tired.

I guess waiting rooms are named this for a reason. We went to reception, were told to sit down and, along with a three other couples, and two women on their own, we sat down and, er, waited.

Eventually we were called and the fun began.

I was really nervous that there would be something wrong with the baby, something wrong with Erin, or all we would see on the scan would be Erin's breakfast. But apart from a constant niggle in the back of my mind about the Nuchal Fold test these worries soon went away.

The nurse put us both at ease and spoke to us as if we'd known her for a while. She covered Erin's belly in gel and told us look at the screen. At first it was a slimy blur but then something appeared which was truly amazing. The first thing that struck me was seeing the outline of a head shape. He* appeared to turn to us and look straight at us. It was unbelievable. There was also something which was bouncing in the middle of the screen. Of course it was the heart, but it didn't sink in for ages because of the speed and apparent out of body experience it seemed to, literally, be having.

The nurse showed us several different angles of him - from the top of the head, the back, the front, the spine, so the legs were the focus, and the arms - luckily two of each - but in every frame there was always this bouncing 158 beat per second ball of a heart fluttering away. Erin and I both said we could have watched it all day.

The baby was great. He performed as any parent would wish, crossing legs, stretching, turning around, turning his head towards us, touching his face, seemingly preening himself and generally having a jolly good show off. Good for him.

We have three scanned photos but they really don't do our baby justice.

The nurse told us the results of the Nuchal Fold test were very low risk and added that we currently have a very healthy baby.

I couldn't stop smiling all day.

When Erin and I left the hospital and crossed the road, she told me that I shouldn't rush her as she is now crossing for two. She then linked my arm and said that now she really feels pregnant.

Me too.

* I simply couldn't call him or her and with all the humanity s/he was showing I chose he as it was easier to write - only two letters.

Scan

We're off to the hospital for the 12 week scan.  Exciting. And Scary.