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July 31, 2006
It's a boy!!
"Baby boy duly arrived in the world about half an hour ago*. He and mum appear well."
(*text received at 15:54, so that's an arrival time or 15:30 or so - Simon)
(update: Born at 15:25, weighing 7lb 9oz)
Posted by SimonT at 04:01 PM | Comments (3)
the miracles of modern technology
i am typing this on arubbery keyboard that comes as part of vickys bedside tv service.
vicky, meanwhile, has just started having anothr contraction, so i should be doing other things.
mkre news soon
Posted by Tom Dolan at 01:56 PM | Comments (1)
Here We Go (Again)
"At 2:30am today (Monday) Vicky started having contractions. She kindly let me sleep until 5:30am. Since then they've been on and off, but now they are most definitely 'on'. Here we go...."
(posted by Simon, here helping out again)
Posted by SimonT at 01:00 PM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2006
Due Date
...looks like it will pass without incident.
(Does deliberately tempting fate count?)
Posted by Tom Dolan at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2006
A big pile of joys
Today, I am off work, on holiday. With Vicky.
It is only 20 degrees C.
There are chores that could be done, but I'm choosing not to do them.
Vicky's sitting next to me, pressed close, and I can feel my arm being gently nudged by someone small's knees. Or elbows. Or something similarly knobbly.
And I'm going for lunch at a lovely place.
Happiness.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 10:03 AM | Comments (1)
False false alarm?
So yesterday, very excitingly, Vicky started getting her first little randomly spaced contractions.
The catch with these, of course, is that you have no idea how long it's going to proceed like this for. We might still have weeks to go.
So it was doubly taunting to have them then stop again, almost as soon as I got home from work. Grrr.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 07:07 AM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2006
For 5 more days only
Don't forget for a little longer you can still listen to Tim Wright's Radio 4 play Oldton on 'Listen Again' until next Monday.
(Tim, was it you doing the answerphone messages at the beginning?)
Posted by Tom Dolan at 03:22 PM | Comments (1)
July 24, 2006
Plasticbag and Google Mojo
Gosh, because so many people have now linked to Tom Coates' article "Who's afraid of Ashley Highfield?" - a very stern, and in many places justified, critique of the BBC New Media management structure and processes, it's now 5th on the google search for Ashley.
Only the BBC, Rafat Ali's Paid Content, and Wikipedia rate higher.
I wonder if any more people will link to it?
Posted by Tom Dolan at 10:54 PM
O Lucky Man
Well, this morning was hard but so so so worthwhile.
Frustration with the NHS had reached breaking point and I decided Vicky needed some serious support for today's fight with their beauracracy. Over the weekend I spent an unhealthy amount of time raging to anyone who would listen that the hospital needed to make up its bloody mind.
If Vicky's blood pressure was a problem, then do something about it.
If it wasn't, then leave us alone.
Instead we were caught in this slighly inept half-world where people would talk about how Vicky's blood pressure wasn't a problem or a sign of pre-eclampsia, but then still want to book us in for an induction. Oh, and get her in for observation every day (wasting a morning in a boiling hot hospital) to be on the safe side. While forgetting she was on a monitor.
We turned up cruising for a fight. Well, I did. I was determined to be as light and breezy as possibly to Vicky - after all I didn't want her blood pressure to go up!
But after an hour and a half of hanging around, we were finally told that Vicky was absolutely perfect, and didn't need to be seen again until after her due date. No inductions. No interventions. Unless there are any new symptoms, or it fancies hanging around past two weeks, this baby is coming out when it feels like it.
Apologies to anyone who was expecting big dramas.
We are normal. And we like our freedom, as they say.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)
Older and Wiser
As a huge fan of cult student band The Dubious Brothers, I'm rather looking forward to my copy of their former lead singer Monty's newest release, although it sounds like old age has weathered his silly tango-toting ways.
[update - see also Monty's myspace page]
Posted by Tom Dolan at 08:34 PM
July 23, 2006
Old Habits Die Hard [6 days to go].
So tomorrow we're back into the hospital for a morning of monitoring and prodding. And more importantly battling against the mental sleight-of-hand the NHS is so good at.
Vicky's blood pressure (the second important bit) has stabilised at between 85 and 90. Which is hardly surprising given a) the heat, b) getting daisy dropped off in time to get to the hospital before the queue for being monitored means she's there all day, c) the stress of being measured and possibly kept in. Again.
At one level they are sufficiently unworried about her they're talking about her only having to come in every other day between now and showtime...if at all.
But through a miracle of mental gymnastics, they've decided she's also still at risk so want to book her in for induction (what a lovely innocent-sounding word) and say she will need to go to the doctor-led delivery ward rather than the midwife-led unit with the water pools and freedom to move around.
So tomorrow we want them to find out if she's actually ill or not. And act consistently according to that.
Grrr.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 06:07 PM | Comments (0)
July 21, 2006
Self-denial
What would you put in your Shockolate Vault Jar?
Would 'the internet' fit?
Posted by Tom Dolan at 12:12 PM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2006
Bless...
Doktor Avalanche, the drum machine (or rather series of artificial rhythm sections) in Sisters of Mercy, has his own Wikipedia entry, the
Posted by Tom Dolan at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2006
welcome back armando
I think this is probably my favourite of the 4 new Time Trumpet pseudo-news clips.
Hurrah for Messrs Ianucci and Tandy.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2006
So here I am once more...
(the lesson being, of course, never to use Marillion lyrics in blog titles, even in jest. There's no knowing where it will lead...)
We've got less than two weeks now before our due date. By this stage last time round, Vix was locked up in hospital and I was wrapping my life around seeing her, running both the Emmerdale and MTV Mash sites, and keeping this blog updated.
And so it was with a certain amount of bitter resignation that we today received the news that Vicky's blood pressure was up and so she needed to go back to hospital for monitoring and checking. Last time round this involved hanging around in waiting rooms all day waiting to have bits prodded and checked, only to finally get hooked up to a monitoring machine and be forgotten two hours. After which someone would decide 'for the best' that Vicky should come back tomorrow...or worse stay in overnight.
But we're wiser than that now.
We can spot the traps, the points where once you get in you can't get out.
Today Vicky talked her way back out of being induced. And is back home. Hurrah.
Posted by Tom Dolan at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)
July 16, 2006
It had it coming...
God bless you Bry84, my 90% bindweed garden shall soon lovely again!
Posted by Tom Dolan at 02:32 PM
July 12, 2006
Waiting, waiting for the prompt
So that's it. We're all done. The cot is out of the loft and up, my studio is dismantled and no longer in our big second bedroom at the back (sniff) and Daisy is. The guest bedroom's been moved into what was Daisy's tiny bedroom. After rebuilding god knows how many bookshelves and wardrobes, and carrying what felt like a ton of stuff between cellar and loft, I ache with every muscle and bone in my body.
But this morning John Lewis came with a new mattress for the cot, and Vicky washed all the newborn-sized babygros and hung them out onto the line.
The baby can turn up now.
(Although it would be rather lovely if we both got to catch up on some sleep first. 19 days to go.)
Posted by Tom Dolan at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)
July 08, 2006
One Hobby at a Time
So that was the last piano lesson for the near future.
With our impending arrival (three weeks and counting) I'm not going to have time to do much piano practice, and I'm now old enough to realise that blagging your way through piano lessons where you've not done any work since last week is embarrassing for both of you. So no lessons until the new year...at the earliest.
However, as running through Rachmaninov preludes while a tiny person is trying to teach themselves how to sleep isn't going to be so wise, this does mean that my few spare moments might actually be spent in the coming-a-close-second hobby - pissing around on the net.
So look forward to slightly more regular updates here...
(And if any kind people can help me debug my perl blackberry email parser, that'll help too)
Posted by Tom Dolan at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)
