A new life; same as the old life?

It is 12 hours into our new baby's life. She sleeps very, very well. Those who have children of their own will know that they are supposed to feed every 2-4 hours, but we have to keep waking her up to feed her, and even then she doesn't seem hungry. I have already changed my first nappy (diaper for the Americans). Steve it was easy, a piece of cake. I am home posting this and a bunch more pictures. I know everyone says so, and it is probably obvious with it being your own little girl, but she is gorgeous. Check her out in technicolour glory. Be warned though, Steve esepcially, there are some fairly graphic pictures, including one of the cord itself and one of me cutting it....so don't look if you are squeamish. Also they are not all in order, but they are all from yesterday and today.

has arrived. Born at 4:19pm Central Daylight Time. She weighed in at a whopping 8lb 7oz, and measured 19.5" She kept her mother waiting for over 30 hours, but she is very, very cute! Lorraine is exhausted and needs her sleep. Addison is asleep in the nursery, and we are settling down for the night. I will write more and post more pictures, but there are a few here for you to check out. In the meantime, here are a couple of choice quotes from the experience. "Where the he** is that doctor?", "Can't you just reach in there and pull it out" were heard loud and often..other expletives have been removed to protect the guilty.

Lorraine & Jan came into hospital on Friday 28th, around noon, for a check up and suspected waters broken. Sure enough that was the diagnosis, and around 2pm she came into her new home for the next 30 hours where she eventually delivered the baby. Contractions had been going on all afternoon, but started in earnest around 9:30pm. We went for an hour, only one centimetre dilated, when she decided that she needed the epidural for the pain. It was administered around 10:30pm last night (28th). Just about the same time the Cubs were clinching the pennant for the National League Central Division. Lorraine had a much easier night once she got used to not having any legs and we all managed to get some sleep for most of the night off and on between rotations and checks. We woke up around 6am proper and the dilation was almost complete. As I write this however we still have no further motion. So we are about to turn down the epidural, and see if that moves things along. In the meantime, her...

Please see new posts below. No that doesn't mean it's raining babies, although with a lot of our friends right now either delivering, recently delivered or being pregnant it could well mean that! I guess we are at that age. In the UK we don't do baby showers, or at least no-one I know of does. However they are all the rage here in the US. At home we still give baby gifts, but usually after the baby is born and I don't know that we would normally even register. Having said all of that, when in Rome and all....so we have registered at two places. One of them only has three or four items, the other has a huge assortment. If you would like to buy us a gift, please feel free but not obliged. Babies 'R' Us or Galt Baby

Time is marching on with only 3 weeks to go to the "official" due date. We are on weekly visits with the OB/GYNE. I have managed to miss only two or three appointments throughout the pregnancy, so I feel pretty confident that I know as much as Lorraine does about the technical side. I have been to the classes for "Preparing For Childbirth", and for "Caring For Your Newborn". Still to come are "Infant CPR" and "Boot Camp For New Dads". Of course I have no idea what is going on inside Lorraine other than what the books tell me. Every time we go to the doc we get to hear the heart rate on portable monitors, and lately on the full on fetal monitor, which prints out a chart like that to the above. The top line is the heart rate, the little notation in the middle means that the baby moved right at that moment, cos Lorraine pressed a special button, and the bottom line is the contractions, which, fortunately at this point, are non existent. Lo...

I had been to the Shedd Aquarium many years ago on my very first corporate trip to the city. It hasn't changed much! We had decided this past weekend, having spent a lot of time getting the baby stuff sorted, the house a bit more in order and the with the baby on the way, that we would take some time out on Monday to chill out together. We threw around some options, cinema, mini golf, real golf, trip to the city, etc, before finally settling on the Lincoln Park Zoo. We got a lazy start, and headed down there in the truck around 11. It was a gorgeous day, in the high 70s, sunny and clear. When we arrived down there, the traffic and parking were horrible..it seems everyone decided that the Lincoln Park Zoo would be a great idea. We drove around for a while but gave up after about half an hour and no parking becoming free, deciding instead to head to the Shedd. As you can see from the pictures, I was snap happy, lot of fish, penguins, and lizards (they have a special exhibit right now...

Well actually it is mostly receding water now. A couple of weeks ago we and many other areas of the US were hit with significant storms. The rivers rose, plains flooded, basements leaked, and some people worse off that us, lost power for days at a time. The golf course across the street from us tends to flood, as it is right on the river and has little or no bank to stop it. As you can see from these pictures, the rise was at least a good four feet, if not more. The last time it was like this was in the spring as all of the snow melted, but it wasn't this high even then. Most of the 4th fairway and all of the 4th tee, including the bench, sign and ball washer were completely under for about a week! There's a couple more pictures here .

When we first adopted Reggie, she was overweight by some 20lbs. She didn't get much exercise, lived most of life in her crate (cage), and had a reputation for being bad with children. She also seemed to be scared of men a little bit, often shying away from me. With much loving care and attention and copious walking (4 times daily) mostly with Lorraine, she had slimmed down to just over 90lbs, recovered from her general fear of men and showed no signs of any issues with children, babies, or pretty much anyone. She is not the most sociable with other dogs admittedly, despite her frequent trips to the doggie park. One of her favourite things when I get home is to stand up on her hind legs, with her front legs on my lap getting some attention and hugs, something she was not strong enough to do when we first had her. All in all she is a happy dog, her coat much improved, weight is better, fitness too, although stamina continues to be a stretch for her. We are looking forward to raising...

Some of you may know that we applied for our Green Cards this year. Our visas will run out in February 2008, and it was a choice as to renewing them, or going further to the full green card status. The green card, which, as you can see, is not green, although it does have a green stripe on the back, is not a citizenship document, it doesn't mean we will be Americans, or have to give up our UK citizenship, and in fact, I don't even think we can vote! It basically is like a super visa. It means that if at any time, my employment with my current firm ends, I don't have to get back on the first plane, which as I understand it, is the case with the visa I have. I will be able to seek employment elsewhere, come and go from the US at will, etc. It is valid for 10 years. For Lorraine, it will mean that she will at last be able to get a social security number, driving licence, basically her own US identity. Well the good news is that mine has come through already. You hear all these...

Those of you who know me, know that I have become a huge fan of the "first place" Chicago Cubs. I have been to many ball games, know a lot of their history and follow them pretty religiously, much to Lorraine's chagrin, who thought she married a non-sports fan. Still, being the fabulous wife that she is, arranged for us to take an organised tour of the hallowed stadium that is Wrigley Field. A tour I might add that many long time Cubs fans, including GI Joe have never taken. This picture is of me in the entry way to the Cubs home clubhouse, and as usual there are plenty more here . Wrigley Field was constructed in 1914, on the grounds of a disused seminary, for the Chicago Federals. The story goes that a guy by the name of Weeghman wanted to own part of a Chicago MLB franchise, however through several aborted attempts was unable to get anywhere with the Cubs or White Sox. So he and some other folks decided to create a 3rd League, the Federal League, and build a new stad...

I have been interviewed about my blog.Nothing special, but this guy interviews people I guess he finds interesting. Pay him a visit if you have a mind to. Click here to read my interview.

A short post, just to show off a couple of pictures. Lorraine and I have been meaning to post these for a while, but everything just gets on top of you! All is well with the baby, we have been working on our registry, reading like crazy and this weekend we attend our first baby class "Caring For Your Newborn" So with no further delay, here are a couple of pics of the the tummy.

I know I have been neglecting you, my readers, for a while now, as can be seen from my background still being a winter scene. I really need to get out and take some more pictures. This year started at a heck of a clip; new responsibilities at work and baby on the way, to name but two. I have been watching the Cubbies try to be more consistent, and failing! Although I still believe they can do it this year. More consistency in winning the one run and extra innings games will help, and the bullpen seems to be coming together better of late. One thing we have been focusing on recently was the need for a second vehicle. Having bought the HHR for Lorraine really, earlier this year, and with the baby on the way, we felt after two years that we probably needed a second car. For the last several weeks, I have been trying to decide if I wanted a fun, two seater , or two plus sports car or another truck. As a result, I have been across the board looking at all sorts, including the Corvette abo...

and no I don't mean the washed up star that was Jon Secada is coming to town, but in fact that we have a phenomenon here in the midwest , that apparently happens every 17 years. Ci cada (as they should be spelled) larvae laid 17 years ago hatch and start their short journey to reproduce. The climb out of their hole in the ground, and up into nearby trees. It is not all trees, only certain types, but I have been unable to find out which ones. There is precious little information about this event available on the Internet , and to be honest I was beginning to doubt it would ever happen. However, whilst at a friends house last night, we saw the evidence. Literally hundreds of shells on the ground and hanging from leaves on the tree. Evidence that in fact some number had hatched and flown away to do their thing. I have more pictures to post, but they will have to wait until I get to a decent internet connection. Here is a link to the Tribune coverage.

It's over 20 weeks now, and we have just had the scan. The baby looks like a really small person now with arms, legs, fingers, toes, nose, features, etc. We could have found out the sex if we had wanted to, but we felt like we would prefer the surprise. We have just had the MIL and SIL here for a while, and they were able to come to see the scan and hear the heartbeat, there was much teariness! You know what girls are like, although I will confess to a small lump in the throat, especially when the lady was pointing out all the little bits, fingers, toes, heart, nose, it is incredibly detailed (for those of you who have not done this yet) My friend Charlie tells me it has changed his life, and it certainly seems to have had an effect on him. I can't wait..I have been out buying toys and stuff already! Anyway, I won't bore you with any more, but I hope you like the pics, although GI Joe is a little squeamish about this sort of stuff, lord help him if he ever has to go through...

Well it's been a while since I posted any news about what is going on here with us, so I thought I would kinda pull together thoughts from the last few months. The first and most exciting news is our forthcoming new addition. Our first child is due September 25 th , for those of you who haven't read in a little while or seen the posting, click here . All is well, and we are trying to plan our year, including any trips, especially where flying is involved, before it is too late for Lorraine to fly. According to the due date we are at 15 weeks right now, and there is not much else to tell. She is not really showing yet, no kicking, etc. She was as sick as a dog on dodgy dog food for the whole first tri mester , and whilst she is much better now, she still has some issues in the evening. I mention the dodgy dog food intentionally because of an issue which is only getting worse here in the US. For months a major rebranding manufacturer (name withheld to protect from law suits :-) ...

Fans of Google and practical jokes will love this. I hope they don't mind me using their logo or publicising their sense of humour, cos I think year it is particularly funny. In the past Google have had many practical jokes for April Fools Day, you can see the old ones by clicking here . Don't leave it too long though, cos I don't know how long the links will stay active for. This year's fabulous effort is here . Make sure you click on all of the links, especially the Installation Guide, and the Press Release, but they are all worth your time, I promise.

The Enzo Ferrari, styled by Pininfarina , was launched in 2003 in a blaze of glory. Built to look like an F1 car from the front at least, it was a beautiful piece of machinery. If I remember rightly, you could only own one by invite, and only people who owned at least two other Ferraris were invited. Currently it is valued at approx $1.5m. When they were building it, they believed that they could sell 400 of the cars based on their customer database etc, so they only made 399, so that the value would always remain high. Current owners include Eric Clapton and Jay Kay. You can see all sorts of specs and tests if you click here . You may wonder why I am telling you all of this. Well, it seems that there may be one less of these beautiful vehicles, or at least, one less roadworthy example. Click here if you want to see what happens to this one being driven by Eddie Griffin . Apparently it belonged to the producer of a show called Redline , Daniel Sadek , he had loaned it to make the pr...

That's right, we have been thinking about this for a while and "working" on it for the last 8 months or so. Lorraine asked for just one thing for Christmas, she wanted to be pregnant. Well, according to the first scan I delivered on the exact right day, as the due date is currently 25th September! We tested on the weekend of 20th/21st January, and the doctor confirmed the test results on 24th. Our first scan picture, below, was taken on 27th February. The head is on the right, and the little hand is just pulling back for the back swing, I wanted to get started early with the coaching! We are, of course, very very excited, and now that we are in the second trimester, we are actually able to share this news with you all. This last scan picture was taken on the 12 week scan.

There is a very funny Scottish show, from the BBC, that has been around for a few years now. It is called Chewin' The Fat, which coloquially means havin' a chat, a chinwag, shootin' the breeze, etc. It can be hard for non Scots to understand as the accents are pretty broad and they talk very quickly with lots of slang; but when someone showed me this today, I couldn't resist posting it. It is a Star Trek "pisstake" that, for me, was hilarious. Have a watch, you might just agree, careful though, as there is a little swearword or two or should I say a wee sweery! Taysiders In Space They have a website too, with some other stuff, if you want to check it out.